It's Potty Time

After spending $40 on a box of diapers and a box of training pants, I decided last night that I'm ready for some serious potty training, even if my 3-year-old son is not.

Originally, I'd hoped to get him started in preschool when he turned 3, but he wasn't potty trained or anywhere close by the time his birthday rolled around. Now, he's halfway to 4 years old and we're still fighting with him on a daily basis about sitting on the potty.

We hoped that once the other children at daycare started potty training, he'd want to do it too. After all, when the other kids lie down for naps or sit nicely around the table for lunch, so does he. Unfortunately, when it comes to potty time, he's a rebel.

Then, when we were at Target last night and I was looking for the diapers in his size, he pointed at one of the boxes and said, "That's what babies wear." I responded, "Well, you must be a baby then, right? Since you wear diapers, right?" No answer. So, today, we're staying home all day and he's wearing underwear.

Normally, he gets two M&Ms when he pees on the potty and four when he poops. He also gets a little toy or book if he poops. I don't think he's had four M&Ms yet in the three or four months since we instituted the M&M policy.

This isn't the first time we've tested out the underwear, but I'm hoping it will be the first successful event. So, for today's special deal, since we're sitting on the potty in regular intervals to prevent him peeing on the couch, he gets two M&Ms just for sitting on the toilet. He'll get four M&Ms when he pees and four M&Ms plus a toy when he poops. So far, I've managed to not eat any of the M&Ms, but we'll see how long that lasts.

Usually, he wears the diaper training pants all day and a diaper at night. However, he sits on toilet every morning when he wakes up, every night before he gets in the bathtub and whenever else we can coax him on the potty. Maybe with the underwear on today and memories of the other times we've tried underwear and he's peed on himself, he'll start asking us to sit on the potty when he needs to go and I won't have to keep asking him if he's ready. Fingers crossed.