Mission Potty Training: Complete.

I officially have one potty trained child in the house. Can I get a happy dance, hallelujah, amen, jump for joy...???

I'm scared to potty train Collyn now, because honestly, Alden's potty training experience was a breeze to say the least. It wasn't that hard at all. I think my one secret,.... I wasn't too worried about him potty training, so I didn't push the issue.

In November, I introduced Alden to potty training. We bought the potty seat, bought the underwear and away we went. The first 2 weeks were pretty successful. The poo part was an issue. He wasn't too confident about going on the potty. Then, we headed to Idaho for Thanksgiving and potty training was thrown out the window for a week. We occasionally made our way to the bathroom while we were on our trip, but nothing too big.

The day after we got home from Idaho, we jumped right back in. I would ask every hour if he needed to go, yes or no. If it had been a couple hours we would go in "just to try". He started getting the hang out it.

This last week he has been dry at night and at nap time. He knows after any "sleeping time" he has to go in and try to go. He is still in pull-ups at night, just in case. But, he does wear underwear during nap time.

Tips for Potty Training:

1. Don't push the issue. Your child will not be in Kindergarten with a diaper on. I promise. They will eventually get the idea of the potty.

2. Make it fun. Thank goodness for technology today, I would give Alden our Kindle with a little educational game or a TV show on Netflix. It helped to learn going Number Two because he wasn't concentrated on the potty itself.

3. Most of the time, candy and sticker rewards don't work. Not saying they do on occasion. I don't think kids understand the concept at such a young age. I tried the M&M trick. Alden would sit on the potty and then ask for his candy without doing anything. We threw that trick out the window after day 2.

4. Buy lots and lots and lots of pairs of underwear.... and let them pick them out. I think I literally have 20 pairs of little boy underwear. And, you will go through them. I did a load of laundry each day with a few pairs in there for the first few weeks of laundry. When you know you have lots of backups, you worry less. :)