Potty...learning...

I had a lot of sweet titles for this blog post today.  "Diaper Doodie"  "When Sh*t Doesn't Happen" and my favorite, "Just sit on that darn seat and take a crap, kid, seriously, we all do it, and so can you!".  But, I decided to keep it classy, because, you know, I'm all about that.

Anyway, we're deep in the trenches of getting our 2.75 year old son comfortable with using the toilet.  Or potty, or the potty shaped like a frog with the oddly upturned eyes that looks like it's saying, "Oh, boy, don't worry, I won't tell anyone what you're doing...", or, "Is that all I am to you?  A place to urinate?"  I'm really working it now because we're planning on starting R in preschool in the fall.  And, those Montessori folks don't want to change diapers, I guess... so, alas, here we are.  Showing him how to help himself.  I have to say, completely naked, R's good to go.  He calmly uses the potty, then BRINGS me the removable blue bowl to show me and gets really thrilled.  The first time he pooped in the potty, it was an unbidden by me event.  Miss I was napping, I was drying my hair or applying make up in a desperate attempt to look like I'm still in my twenties, or something, and up he comes carrying the potty, little turd sloshing about.

R: "Look Mommy!  I DID it!  I DID it!"

(Trying not to praise too much or make a HUGE deal out of it) Me: My!  Uh, aren't you proud of yourself?!  Now flush it! (in my head I'm imagining the trip up the stairs this little poo carried by a two year old made and how much of it remained on the steps...)

He happily flushes it away, quite proud of his achievement and the flushing is apparently quite exciting.

We've tried a variety of undergarments and my current favorites are these sort of thick pants.  They're easy to pull up and down, much easier than a pull up.  And they are cheap, so I got a bunch.  Basically, my approach is, put one of these on, let him run around without other pants on while at home.  

Today was a good day.  But he was pretty dehydrated considering he'd been throwing up all last night.  Yeah, that was fun, and a nice mommy might have deferred the potty learning for a couple days, but not me! We've got until August 23 to get this child doing his business the way most people do.  I'm pretty sure staying in diapers is doing no one any favors, least of all him, so, there you have it.  I'm gently, but insistently, encouraging him to take control of his own body.  I know he can do it and I just need to give him credit.  

So, anyone have any genius success stories, or "How to get your child using the toilet like the rest of the civilized world in three days or less?".  Anyone?!