"I go potty in the toilet, I go potty in the toilet" - Leo Holma

This weekend we started in on the potty training again. While we were home we would let Leo run around with underpants on. They had to be Cars or Buzz Lightyear, occassionaly spiderman and Wall*e were acceptable. We had success here and there but he wasn't totally into it or committed. To give incentives or not to give incentives: that is the question. We tried incentives (read: bribes) of toys. We told him that if he went potty on the toilet he could have a toy (we keep a stash of toys for such occassions). Over the past two months or so he has earned about three toys. We also told him that if he went poo on the toilet he could have a *BIG* toy-one that required a trip to the toy store. The *BIG* toy really didn't do much for him. He wasn't going potty on the toilet and he especially wasn't going poo.

Early on in the process, he really only went once per day on the toilet. So he got one toy. Over the weekend though he went two or three times on the toilet. Of course, he expected two or three toys! We told him he had to go potty twice in one day to get a toy. He was actually quite upset that he wasn't getting multiple toys and didn't really understand the concept of going potty two times in one day. So we changed the incentive scheme on Monday: one toy, and 5 m & m's for going potty the other times and a poo in the toilet was still worth a *BIG* toy. m & m's could be earned morning or night. On Tuesday morning Jason, Aidan and Leo were downstairs playing and Leo said he had to go potty (did I mention he has his own little potty?) and Jason replied "great. you know where the potty is". Leo ran upstair and went potty and guess what? He poo'd! He came running downstairs to tell Jason and Aidan, "I went poo in the potty, I went poo in the potty!" He said he heard it drop in the toilet! and he asked "I get toy?" He was so, so proud. It is great to see him so proud of himself. He wanted to go to Toys R Us immediately so they did. He got a Star Wars Mugg. So the rest of the week he has pretty much been going in the toilet. He is wearing pull-ups and regular underpants. Last night I forgot to take his underpants off of him before he went to bed and no accident! Today was his first day of going on the potty all day (poo x 3). Not in the diaper, not in the pull-up. When they went to the pool today and they finished and were showering, drying off and trying to get dressed, he told Jason he had to potty. Jason told him to wait just for a minute because they were trying to dry off and get dressed and he held it and then went a lot in the big potty. He is doing GREAT!

He called me and left me a message on my phone at work, "I go poo in potty mom! I get toy?" How can you say no to that sweet voice? You can't!

We are on the up swing of this potty thing. Let's see how the rest of the week and the weekend go. We need to cut off the incentives but to be honest I'm afraid to. Let's see how he reacts.