Potty Training...a long post, sorry!

This is actually a post I've been meaning to type for about a week now. Until just recently, Parker had only sat on the potty a handful of times (90% of the time it was with all his clothes on, and the other 10% of the time it was when he got out of his bath and was trying to stall having to have his clothes put on him...what can I say...the kid likes to be naked, lol!).

Then last Monday April 12th, after putting Parker down for bed, I could hear him up in his room resisting sleep. All of a sudden I heard him repeating something over and over again. I listened closely in the monitor and realized he was saying "want to sit on the potty! want to sit on the potty!..." At first I was planning on just ignoring his request thinking he was surely just trying to use sitting on the potty as a stall tactic so he wouldn't have to sleep, but then I realized that if he's actually willing to sit on it, instead of just SAYING he wants to sit on it, I had better let him. Anyway, so I went up to his room and told him that if he was REALLY going to go to the bathroom, pull down his pants, take off his diaper, AND actually sit on the potty that he could go do that, but that we weren't just going to get up out of bed for no reason. He assured me he would do all of those things, so to the bathroom we went. Sure enough, he willingly and happily sat on the potty, diaper off and all!

The following night, April 13th, I was sitting in his room next to his bed right before I was about to leave for him to go to sleep and he said "my diaper a little bit wet mommy,my want it changed." I felt his diaper and noticed it was completely dry so I told him his diaper was dry and that it didn't need to be changed. I felt his room and went downstairs and by the time I was downstairs and had the baby monitor on, I heard him saying "want to sit on the potty". I went back upstairs and took him into the bathroom so he could sit on the potty. When I was taking his diaper off, I noticed it was a little bit wet (and was even still warm-sorry if that's TMI)! I think he really could tell that he had to go potty and that's why he told me his diaper was a little bit wet, considering just minutes later he was wet!

As a result of all that, we've been having him sit on the toilet numerous times throughout the day ever since then. We never MAKE him sit on it, we just ask...if he says he wants to sit on it, we do...if he says he doesn't want to sit on it, we don't. Tonight was the REAL clincher that we need to start being more diligent about it and get in actual training mode though! We read a book we have about potty training that we got him for his 2nd birthday before he went to bed tonight. When it got to the part in the book where it talked about the boy in the book getting underwear, I started talking to Parker about the special underwear I bought for him. I got a pair out of his dresser drawer and showed them to him. He thought they were the best thing ever! Tonight after he had called down once again saying he wanted to sit on the potty, I took him back to his room and put him back in bed. As I was leaving his room he started crying saying, "I want to wear my underwear!" At first I told him that he could wear his underwear once he starts putting his potty and poop in the toilet and talked about how even the boy in his book who used his potty chair during the day wore a diaper at night...he was NOT buying it. So, long story short, I told him he could wear a pair of underwear over his diaper to sleep in. As I was putting the underwear on, he started sobbing saying "My no want to wear my diaper! My want to wear underwear! My put my potty in toilet!" After just a little while, he was fine with it and was happy to be able to wear his Lightning McQueen underwear over his diaper. So anyway, I think starting next week we'll get into full fledged training mode over here! I'm not in any big hurry for him to potty train or anything...he's still pretty young for being a boy to potty train. I do however want to follow his cues and take advantage of this time when he seems eager to learn!

If you have a little boy who is already potty trained or is currently potty training, I'd love to hear what has/hasn't worked for you...I need all the help I can get! :)