Come On Ride the Train...

What was I thinking?!?!? Why again did I get out the little potty?

I suppose somewhere in my subconscious I was deluded into thinking that maybe the only thing stopping Scott from flawlessly potty training himself with no effort on my part was the absence of an appropriate receptacle. I got the little potty out and I've been letting him occasionally sit on it. Very non-committal on my part, really. I figured I was just getting him "comfortable" with the whole idea. I mean, I don't ACTUALLY want to potty train him yet. I'd prefer to wait until he's about 5 1/2 and then just before he needs to enter Kindergarten, we will simply inform him one day that it's time to stop pooping in his pants, and that will be it. Actually, in reality I'd rather wait until we don't even have to tell him that and he just decides on his own, but those pesky Kindergarten teachers can be so unreasonable about changing poopy diapers.

Now you're probably wondering about Claire. I admit it. I did a pretty close approximation of the whole "Potty Train in a Day" gimmick (and it worked pretty well) and we did it when she was a little over 27 months old. If we do the same thing with Scott we should be starting about NOW. Yah right! You see, with Claire I was motivated. Motivated and naive. Motivated because Scott was already born and I thought I should try to only have one child in diapers at a time. Naive because I thought how much easier my life would be once Claire was potty trained. HA! It's two years later and Claire is finally accident free, unless we have house guests. And then she wets her bed EVERY night and has at least one, if not three, accidents during the day. But anyway, that's a whole different issue...

Scott has started wanting to get on the potty all the time. And not only that, but he's actually doing more than just sitting there. Apparently the candy rewards have sunk in. I mean, I couldn't NOT give him a reward when he actually starting using the potty. But seriously, that wasn't actually supposed to work! He does have his quirks though. He will only "perform" if we give him some privacy. My favorite part is that when he's done he likes to empty his little potty into the big potty, then he rips off a square of toilet paper and throws it in for good measure. That's what the toilet bowl looks like after Mommy or Claire finishes, right? Then he flushes it all down.

Sure, it's great progress, but I don't want to potty train him yet. I mean, it's really so easy the way things are right now. Scott doesn't even poop every day like Claire did. Fresh diaper when we get dressed in the morning. Fresh diaper if he happens to make a solid deposit during the day. Fresh diaper when we put on PJ's at night. That's it. (Go ahead and fill the comments berating me for not changing diapers more often if you must. But neither Scott nor his nether regions seem to mind and the diapers don't leak. As long as his shorts can hold the bulging diaper, we're good. If you change toddler diapers more often than that, all I can say is, "Sucker!")

Tonight after Scott got his reward for peeing in the potty, I teased him (for the sake of M who was listening), "Are you trying to potty train on me?"

Scott's eyes lit up and he asked me, "Potty TRAIN??? Choo-choo?!?!"

DANG! I gotta stop inadvertently motivating him...