Potty Training Woes

Potty training Collin has been a roller coaster ride. We've had our ups and our downs. I have found myself becoming very frustrated with those around me going through the same thing. I've heard so much, "the first day was easy, the second day was alright, but it just clicked on the third day" or "we did Potty Boot Camp and she didn't need more than a day and a half and she was going all by herself." No one likes to talk about the unsuccessful or more difficult times. You just want to brag about how fantastic your kid is to everyone else. I am beginning to wonder if it's me. Am I the one that doesn't "get" the whole potty training thing? Just when i start to think, "he's getting it!" we'll have a day that I'd swear we had never ha a conversation about a potty before. We recently took him out for the first time to lunch and to run some errands in underwear, not a pull up. He did good. He didn't tell us he had to go, but Devin took him into Kohl's (with the kid friendly height potty) after we had lunch and he went. We shopped, went to Target, shopped some more then went home where he went again. So it not that he doesn't know how. Because he does. But we have to ask him because he either won't tell us or waits until the last possible second and yells "I GO POTTY!" and we have to drop everything to literally run to make it in time.

I say all that to take MY moment to talk highly about Collin's potty training. While he gets the idea and knows the concept he has never done it on his own. We always take his shorts and underwear off and help him put them back on. This morning was a step toward a really big deal. Again, I asked I he had to go an his response was "no" even though I was 97% sure he had to go. It was the morning. Who doesn't have to go in the morning? So I bribed him. With fruit snacks. I told him if he could go all by himself he could have fruit snacks. I talked him through the entire thing, start to finish, but he did it. (I actually took his shorts and diaper off from the night.) He moved the stool do he could get on the potty, sat down, went, got up, flushed, moved the stool back, washed his hands, turned off the light, closed the door, even went into our room and got clean underwear from the basket of clothes that needs to be taken upstairs. Then, he put the underwear and shorts on by himself too. All of this is HUGE for us. It's just one more phase in life, that I'm sure will pass and I'll be sad. I mean, he REALLY isn't a baby anymore. I don't even call him a toddler anymore either. He's just four months shy of being THREE. Now THAT is something I just might cry about.