Potty Training Ethan

I think I am going to go crazy. And you'd think that with my third child I'd have this whole potty business down to a science... but each child got harder I swear. Alexandra was the easiest. At 2 years and 3 months she just handed me her diaper one day and said, "I'm a big girl... I don't need this anymore." Well, I thought smuggly, that was easy. Why does everyone make such a huge deal out of potty training? Then came Hudson..... Hudson was a challenge. He was supposed to start preschool in September, a month and a half before his 3rd birthday. I told him that only big kids went to school, and that babies who wore diapers had to stay at home. Well, we ended up pulling him from the program 2 weeks before it started. He just wasn't interested. But then Alex's first day of kindergarten came. I watched with such pride as she marched onto the school bus, without so much as a glance back at Mom or Dad. She was so mature (and not quite 5 yet!) and sure of herself. Then I looked at her little brother Hudson. He had jelly smeared all over his face, he was wearing a dirty diaper, and he could have cared less. Ok, I said...this is it! You WILL be potty trained! That very day I put him on the potty every 15 minutes until finally he peed. I cheered and jumped around the room and really whooped it up. (The next time he sat down on the potty he said, "Don't yell." I guess my happy cheers were too much for him.) And it was like a lightbulb went off in his head...OH- so this is what Mom and Dad have been trying to get me to do. I get it. And he pretty much did. From then on he did pretty well on the potty. Whenever he had a successful bathroom visit he would say "You're so proud of me."

And now it's Ethan's turn. He will be 3 next week, and although he has peed on the potty several times (usually before bath) he really doesn't want to have much to do with it. We are trying the cold turkey approach of no more diapers. This is day 1: We've had one peeing in the pants right down to the sneakers incident, one sitting on the potty but spraying Mommy as she waits sitting on the floor incident, and one pooping in underpants incident. Ethan is taking a nap right now, and I know I must be absolutely CRAZY becasue I put him to bed naked.