a potty story

i know what you're thinking, go back to your baby crazy hormonal lady! well the jokes on you because i wrote this before porter was born. i'd really like your input/ideas on potty training. so far i'd say landon is about 70% potty trained- really, he's doing pretty fantastic. i'm incredibly proud of him! my secret- i had incredible low expectations [and still do]. about a few months before his second birthday i bought him a potty seat- mainly just to see what he would do and get him interested in it. i had to bride him with oreo's to initially get him to sit on it and i read him about a bazillion books. this started putting a bug in his ear. i also got a lot of books about using the potty from the library and would ask him about once a day if he wanted to pee- if he wanted to or not, didn't matter. but he knew he'd get a treat if he went pee. slowly he started getting really comfortable on the potty and would go poop pretty often in the toilet. flash forward seven months and he's wearing big boy underwear everyday. i bought the underwear when it went on clearance at target- just a few in the small size to see what he would do. first he was deathly afraid of them then slowly after asking him everyday, he eventually decided they were cool.

now our routine is i'll put him in underwear about an hour or so after he wakes up [because i'm basically a zombie until that point] and i'll ask him if he wants to go potty about every 30 minutes or so. he'll usually tell me too if he needs to go [but not always- he doesn't always feel when he needs to go pee as he usually does know when he needs to poo]. when we leave the house to run to the store i'll put a diaper on him under his underwear and tell him if he keeps his underwear dry he gets a special treat [fruit snacks typically]. he does really well with this. i do the same thing with his naps. he's of course had some accidents and then i'll put a diaper on him- and he'll still keep it dry and ask to use the potty. this sunday he even kept his underwear dry at church! i've pinned a ton of articles on pinterest about potty training in 3 days or whatnot but i feel like this method has worked really well with us. i know boys are harder to potty train and especially with the boys in my family, i expect to be doing this for a few more months more. still proud of him!

i never got him any pull-ups- i've heard they are just like diapers, don't hold anything and are more expensive then diapers. i did buy some normal cute character underwear from target [they hold nothing] because that's what got him first interested. i also got some gerber reinforced underwear but i'm pretty disappointed in them- they're not cute at all. my friend ashton ordered me some cute reinforced underwear with tractors/race cars/diggers/etc on the bottoms. pretty cute- i thought landon wouldn't like them as much as the character but he doesn't discriminate. i read somewhere that the ideal age to potty train is 18 months - 2 1/2 years old because they're still too young to be obstinate but really, i think you just have to wait until the kid is interested in it. forcing them is just frustrating for everyone and leaves a sour taste in every one's mouth. i'm also a huge fan of treats- landon get's 2 m&ms per pee and a cookie per poo but not he's gotten the point where he forgets about the m&ms [but not the cookies]. i've also created a potty chart he can see in his bathroom. he only gets to put a sticker on it if he's wearing underwear and uses the potty. when he reaches a 25 sticker milestone he gets a matchbox car; when he reaches 100 he gets a slurpee [which has been proven to really derail his potty usage].

what has worked for you guys? i'd love to hear how things went down for you guys!