Potty Training Boot Camp

So Ash had been doing fairly well with potty training in Novemberish.  (And by that, I mean he would still wear a diaper all day/night, but when we would make him sit on the potty right when he woke up, etc., then he would go.)  But then the holidays and company and Kennedy's birth all put that way down on the priority list.

Well, I finally hit a wall where I realized that I was being lazy and Ash was being stubborn. I declared yesterday as the day for Potty Training Boot Camp. We stayed home and changed him into big boy underwear.

I made some Crystal Light (a fun drink he usually doesn't get) and put it in a cup with one of those "silly straws."  He started drinking like crazy, and I would ask him every 5-10 minutes if he had to go potty.  Well, actually, I didn't ask him if he had to go, I just told him we were going. :)

We had a couple of accidents where he started to go in his underwear, but as soon as he did, he told me and I ran him into the bathroom.  Every time he went on the potty, he got a "gummy"--leftover Easter candy, which I kept in a glass bowl in the bathroom.

So at some point, it really just seemed to click with him!  I decided to not ask him if he had to go, but just watch him...and sure enough, he would look at me and just say with a worried look, "Mommy??"  Lots of encouragement and lots of cheering, and he was in love with his potty and big boy underwear (which he even brought with him for his naptime, since I kept him in a diaper then).  He even got to the point where he would want Rosco or Kennedy to come in and watch him. :)

Last night, when he was going to bed, he said he had to go potty again, and I told him he could go in his diaper, but he didn't want to.  I figure that was a good sign.  Then today, he was outside with Daddy (diaper on) and told him when he had to go potty...and again a little later, he told Daddy and came inside and went #2 on the potty!  We haven't had an accident since yesterday morning, which is awesome.  I'm sure we'll have setbacks along the way, but we are WAY far ahead of where we were just two days ago.  Yea Ash!!