Potty training...

**Warning, there is pee and poop talk on here =)  If you don't want to hear about it, just skip this post.  I wanted to document this for myself**

I didn't do a lot of reading about potty training before I started with Colin.  I read a bit here and there but I didn't research it... I figured I would just wait until he was ready then it would be easy. 
Right before I had Addison, Colin was showing a LOT of interest in the potty.  He wanted to sit on it while I got ready in the mornings.  One morning he even peed in the potty.  We made a BIG deal about it, but I wasn't ready... I mean I was about to have a baby, I just didn't have time.

Here is how I did it.  Not right or wrong... just what worked for us.
I got a big (blue) poster board and wrote "Colin went potty =)" on it.  I put this next to the potty.  I got a potty seat that fits on our big toilet.  I didn't want Colin to get used to using a little potty (like the toddler ones), I wanted him to use the big one right off.  I got jelly beans and stickers as a reward for peeing in the potty.  The stickers were put on the poster board.  I also got cars as a reward for pooping in the potty. 

We started potty training at the end of August.

Day 1 - I changed a poopy diaper that morning and thought, this is it.  I'm done!
So... we went to underwear.
I took him to sit on the potty every 15 minutes for about 1.5 hours.  He never went.  And he was getting frustrated with me asking him to go sit on the potty.  So... I backed off.  I didn't want it to be a negative thing. 
Colin then asked to go outside.  Then he said, "I want to pee pee outside like Suzi!"
So I said, "fine".  I didn't think he would do it.
He did it 3 times in a row.  Peed outside in the grass.  Like Suzi.
We made a BIG BIG deal about it - 2 jelly beans per pee.  1 sticker per pee.
That's when I knew.  He can hold it.  He knows when he needs to go to the bathroom, so I just let me tell me.  And he did.  The first day he peed 9 times inside, on the potty!  No accidents!

 

Day 2 - I got excited about how well he was doing and we took a walk, in underwear.  He peed while we were out.  I didn't get mad, but I made us go home (which made him mad).  I think he just didn't want to take a break to potty, so he just went.
Then we had a poop accident.  Gross.  I didn't get mad, I just told him that now he knows how it feels and tell me when he needs to poop. 

Day 3 - Colin had another pee accident, he was helping Garet with something... and, again, I think he didn't want to take a break.  So he just went.
Garet had the idea to let him pick out a reward car, and he put it on the sink so Colin could see what he was going to get if he pooped in the potty.
Success!  He started running around and I knew he was about to poop, so I made him sit on the potty and he did it!

We haven't had any more accidents!  The first few days I would see Colin running to a corner or something, so I would make him sit on the potty to poop.  Now he just tells me. 

At the end of day 6, here is what his sticker poster board looked like:

 

You can see that they are all cars.  I had a variety of stickers: puppies, monkeys, mickey, aaaannnd cars =)

We kept him around the house in just a shirt and underwear until this past week (so about 1.5 weeks), and we put him in a diaper when we went out for about the same amount of time.  This past Thursday at preschool, I sent him in underwear and he did great. 

 

I only got one bag of jelly beans... as they were getting lower I would show Colin the bag and say, there is only 5 more left... 4 more... 3 more... then when he had the last one, that was it.  I didn't get more.  I still have the stickers, but he isn't as excited about them since there aren't anymore car ones.  So, sometimes he will want one, most of the time he just moves on after going to the bathroom.
He LOVES getting to pick a new car when he poops.  Not sure how I am going to break that one =)

 

You can see in the above picture a new matchbox car he had just gotten =)  it was a firetruck.

So, now we are in underwear!  He is still in diaper at night, but has recently been waking up dry.  I am so proud of him!