Potty Training

All who hate potty training - raise your hands!!  Did you see both of mine go up??  There aren't many things that I absolutely, 100% dread but this is one of them.  I know that the end result is good and necessary if they want to be considered normal by societal standards.  But oh the misery of getting there!  

We started in April, at over 3 1/2 years.  I kept waiting for that magic moment when they would announce with gusto that they were ready to go but it never came.  I grew impatient and a bit panicky and decided to start them anyway.  We had a potty party, read potty books, watched Elmo use the potty.  Still not interested.  I got sticker charts, made a prize bucket.  Still not interested.  I tried to reason, bargain, threaten, bribe.  Still not interested.  

Cade finally decided that peeing was ok and he wanted to give that a try.  I was elated!  I praised him over and over and gave dozens of high 5's.  Everytime he went he would get to pick a prize out of the box.  I was sure that Cole would want to hop on board the potty train when he saw Cade getting treats and prizes but my plan backfired when Cade was willing to share his earnings with Cole.  

Fast forward several months.  Cole = nothing, nada, zilch.  Cade = peeing like a champ but poop still a no go.  Until one day, after peeing, he looked underneath the toilet and asked me where it went.  Lightbulb!! In a moment of pure craziness (or pure genius), I told him that pee and poop have friends and they have parties when they get flushed down the toilet.  If he doesn't poop in the toilet, the poop is sad because he doesn't get to go to the party with his friends.  His eyes got huge - click!  And that's all it took.  One kiddo down.  One more to go.  

I tried the same tactics on Cole and while he seemed to be as excited at the prospect of helping his poop find his way to the big party, it just didn't quite work.  He is getting a little better, peeing most of the time. But he doesn't want me to take his picture doing it (the reason why his cute face is missing from this post) and he doesn't want me to bug him about it.  So, I think I am just going to ease off and let him find this right of passage in his own time.  Hopefully before kindergarten!