Potty Training 101 - Neatly Wrapped

I know that I had mentioned in the previous post that I would refrain from any sort of potty talk until later down the blog road. Well, I lied. I have been engulfed in toilet training techniques for months. I think that it has earned it's shot at 15 minutes of fame.

My son, Cameron (3) is currently enrolled in Potty Training 101 (via home school). I am almost certain that we've finally made some real progress ... enough progress to consider him trained-ish. I added the "ish" so that you would not be alarmed  if my next post involves midnight sheet changes or taking a wizz down the candy aisle at 7-11. It's been a long and tedious journey.

Bad Luck? Could this be why it all went wrong?

My early attempts at toilet training were unsuccessful. First, we introduced him to his very own potty seat. It was one of the cool ones that had a removable squishy seat - for his comfort, of course. I thought it was the Cadillac of miniature toilets ... Cameron didn't see it that way. He used the removable seat as a hat, a necklace, a lion's mane or any other form of headgear that he could think of. As for the potty itself ... that was his "washer machine". After he tinkled in his firetruck undies, he would take them off, shove them inside, close the lid, imitate a swishing sound and finish off the ritual with a swift roll of the hips. After that display, he would remove the wet undies and consider them "all clean". The Cadillac potty chair now resides in the back of the storage closet.

Our next attempt included a seat that fits right onto the toilet. To make a long story short ... it's in the back of the closet with the Cadillac.

By this point, operation pee in the potty was a complete failure. However, operation pee in a big yellow Tonka dump truck was a huge success. Go figure. He liked to call this dump truck his "potty truck".  I couldn't be too upset with him, he was peeing into something other than his underoos.

Later attempts involved lots of pee-pee dances, sticker prizes, M&M rewards and even the "you're in charge of your own pee/poo and cleanup" tactic. None of those things worked. We continued this mother - son power struggle for weeks. I was convinced that he was going to be wearing his Huggies indefinitely. Dramatic? Nah ... boys are harder to train than girls. I learned this first hand. My daughter was fully trained within a day ... I'd like to call that false advertising.

After a near mommy breakdown, a fellow stay at home mommy (and my lovely cousin, Kimberly) gave me an idea. Not just any idea ... the BEST idea of them all. Beautifully wrapped, yet untouchable, presents were neatly placed in a basket and strategically positioned within an arms reach of the toilet. You could only get one of these beauties if your #2's went into the you know where. It was kind of like Hanukkah ... only not really like that at all.

Downside - He's learned how to manipulate the system. He delivers the goods several times a day ... in small deposits. This means he gets between 3 and 5 gifts daily. Don't get me wrong, these gifts range from Matchbox cars to bubbles ... most of which came from the local $1 store ... but, my wallet is feeling the burn. And I thought that diapers are expensive ... pfffft!!

Upside - All of the number 1's and 2's have hit the water for the past few days. Bribery is a beautiful thing. I recommend this technique.

So there you have it .... Potty Training 101 - Neatly Wrapped. Or something like it.