Potty Assault, Day 15

Don't worry, this is the last potty assault update, because it's getting a little old. I just wanted to do one final shameless plug for the $40 piece of Fisher Price genius that changed our lives. True, it's overpriced. True, it's hideously ugly. True, the "I'm so big, look at me, I can use my own potty" song rings endlessly in my head. But I owe a big one to the Fisher Price gods because some combination of these things worked for Owen. Finally.

Now if I could only figure out what to do with all of these 4T Pull-Ups....

Potty Assault, Day 12

It's happening. It's really, truly happening.

We've gone from having a 4-year-old in diapers to having a 4-year-old so obsessed with his potty that he now uses it a dozen times a day, talks about it pretty frequently and even wanted to hold it in his lap in the car last week. (we didn't let him do that.)

For months now people have been saying that one day everything will just "click" and I didn't believe them. But in the past two weeks I've almost heard the noise as everything, piece by piece, has just started falling into place for Owen.

True, he still has a ways to go. We've had to toss a good number of Spiderman underpants after unfortunate, shall we say, Code Browns in public. But who cares. We haven't used a pull-up (during the day) in almost two weeks and I've never been prouder of my son.

Potty Assault, Day 5

I have had a lot of happy moments in my life, but none were quite as spectacular as the other day when Owen walked over to his potty, pulled down his pants, sat down and peed.

After months of not quite trying hard enough, Dave and I finally drew a line in the sand last week, marked a day on the calendar and began what can only be described as a full-on Potty Assault.

Owen hasn't worn a pull-up during the day since Friday (five days ago for those who are counting). Now, anyone who hasn't potty trained a child has my opinion to stop reading because this is going to get boring, but anyone who HAS accomplished this feat I yearn for has to understand how exciting that is! In truth I've never done so much laundry and had to throw out a pee-stained pair of shoes yesterday... but who cares??

I told a friend on Monday that we had spent the weekend inside, sitting poor Owen down on the potty every 30 minutes. Well accustomed to my potty training tales of woe, she gave me a big hug of encouragement and said she was proud of us. The trick, she said, is commitment. Once the parents are fully committed to making this happen, the kids catch on.

Well, we've never been so committed. Owen turned 4 in June and enough is enough. So keep your fingers crossed, dear readers. We've got sticker charts, a jar of M&Ms and a potty that sings when he pees. What more incentive could a little boy need?