The Potty Train!

We've been potty training for almost a month now.  After attempting last summer and quickly learning Cooper wasn't ready, we were cautious not to rush into it again.  This time around, things are clicking much better. That said, this is still no cake walk!

Here are some things that worked well for us:

1. The week before we started talking about the potty and counting down the days.  We picked up some new Thomas the Train underwear from Target.  (Side note: Cooper originally picked out Dora underwear. It was bright pink and clearly marketed for girls, like all Dora stuff...which makes no sense since the show is fairly unisex.  Anyway, I was going to let him get it but practicality won over when I realized the set included just 1 pair of underwear and a tank top.  As another side note, I later googled "Is Dora appropriate for boys?" - there's a lot of good discussion about this on the internet!)

2. We went on lock-down for about a week.  Didn't leave the house except to play outside.  I don't know how Lara did it for 5 days (Mon. - Fri.) because I was going out of my mind after the 2-day weekend!

3. We went straight to underwear (no pull-ups except for naptime) and set the timer at 20 minute intervals.  I knew Cooper would start to get annoyed with the frequency, so I tried to come up with something to make it fun, which turned out to be...

4. Food coloring!  We put a few drops of food coloring in the toilet.  This was a big hit.  I let Cooper help with the process.  It was a little messy but the goal was to keep his interest while establishing the habit - and it did.

5. M&Ms after every successful potty trip.  Candy is definitely a motivator for Cooper.  Sticker charts don't usually work for him because he just wants to pull the stickers off.  I had a basket of reward toys ready to go, but he wasn't very interested.  M&Ms were it for us.

6. We pulled out the iPad or laptop a few times to keep him on the potty longer than 3 seconds.

Now for the things not working so well...we've still got a lot of work to do in the poop department - he simply doesn't want to do it in the potty!  That leads to a whole other set of fun issues. We're also still doing a diaper for nighttime and naps. 


Overall, we're really proud of Coop's progress and and happy to have this milestone underway.

P.S. Can I tell you how NOT fun potty training is when a porta-potty is your only option? Or when you are spending the afternoon at King's Dominion?  We have done both and lived to tell about it.