Potty Training Graduation

So, I feel like we've had enough success to claim that our son has graduated from potty training.  He's now taking himself to the bathroom and getting it done.  Then he washes his hands too!  Having only one child in diapers is so awesome.  By the way, we're still doing some rewards for using the potty.  Not sure when we'll phase that out, but I think it will happen soon.

Potty Training 201

Hey fellow moms!  How's it going?  We are in the midst of potty training here.  Our son is doing well, although he's still not a willing party to this process.  He'd rather not be bothered with stopping to use the potty.  However, he is sometimes voluntarily going to the bathroom on his own.  Otherwise, we're using a 15 minute timer and insisting that he visit the toilet every half hour.  9 times out of 10, he needs to pee when he gets there.  When he pees in the toilet, he gets a star on his chart, and a peanut m&m.  If he wet his pants before getting to the bathroom, he doesn't get the m&m.  He's averaging about 10-12 m&m's a day!  The pooh thing is still a challenge for him.  However, he was successful two days ago, and we all made a huge deal about it.  (We even called the grandparents to tell them the good news!  Ha ha!!)  He loves the praise and the positive attention.  If he poohs in the toilet, he gets to watch a movie.  If not, no movie at all during the day.  He loves movies, that's why I chose that reward.  Apparently, it's not motivation enough as he went without a movie yesterday and today.  Last time we seriously worked on potty training-he was 2 1/2 then- the not poohing thing really bothered me.  I got very worried and pressured him too much to just go!!  This time around, I'm too busy cleaning baby M's diapers.  He'll go when he needs to.  Having a second child has changed my attitude about some things.  I'm sure you moms have found that to be true too.

I hate potty training, but it's better than changing diapers for two kids all day, every day.  No matter what happens, we've sworn to K that he is never wearing diapers again.  Having that sort of resolve it making the process better for all of us, I think.  Last summer, we got to a point where we just gave up and went back to diapers.  He's too old for that now (42 months old!!), plus he's much more capable at dressing himself and getting off and on the toilet.  I'm hopeful that this potty training business will not be long and drawn out.

We checked out a few potty training books from the library.  Even though they are ridiculous to us, our son thinks they're great, and makes the process easier for him to accept.  Anybody have a favorite "learn how to potty" book they'd like to share, or other training tips that would be helpful to us and other moms?  Please leave your comments below.  Thanks!