Potty Time, Excellent!

OK, that was meant to be a spin on the old classic "party time, excellent!" but I don't know if I pulled it off...Anyways, the point is Colton and I jumped over a big hurdle a couple of weeks ago: we conquered potty training!!!  And to do it, we had ourselves a good ole potty party.
I had been reading about potty parties for awhile now.  You see Colton had shown absolutely zero interest in using his big boy party, and I kind of figured we would need something to kick start his motivation.  There is a whole book devoted to the topic of potty parties (Potty Train Your Child in Just One Day by Teri Crane if you're interested).   I read it,  but I modified some of the suggestions to meet my needs.
Colton's day started off just as any other.  I had been telling him that it was going to be "bye bye diapers" day and he was well aware, but I wanted it to be just me and him for the day and my mom couldn't get Levi until 10, so we woke up, headed to the grocery store, and came back to wait for Nene.  Once Levi was on his way, we got our party started by giving Colton a special gift.

If you can't tell, it was a brand new teddy bear outfitted in some very special undies (the book recommended cutting down a pair, but I just clothespinned it in the back so we could use them again).  Colton thought his new bear was cute and all, but honestly he wasn't that excited about him!
So we quickly moved on to the next stage...I asked Colton if he could help me teach his new friend how to use the big boy potty.  He seemed tentative, but I led him to the bathroom.  I had decorated it the night before without his knowledge (we even skipped brushing his teeth in the morning so it would be a surprise).  When we opened the door to show bear his big boy potty, Colton's eyes got huge and his jaw may have even dropped at this sight

I gave him a second to look around and then told him we needed to let bear try to go potty.  I had cleverly filled a medicine syringe with water and while bear was "sitting" on the potty, I squirted the water into the potty.  I told Colton to check and made a really big deal about the fact that bear had gone potty!!!  I showed him what to do with it (pour it in the regular toilet, flush, replace the bowl, etc) and then we gave bear a sticker for going potty!

 Colton was so excited about all the bathroom toys (new things I had bought with the intention of motivating him to be in the bathroom as I thought that may be a challenge) that he just wanted to hang out there and play with all of them.

While we were in there, I made sure that bear had an accident (by wetting his underpants while Colton wasn't watching) so that he would learn the difference between being wet and dry.  We also had bear had one more successful trip to the potty, but Colton just wasn't really into bear, so after about a half hour we moved on the next phase.
Colton opened up his second big gift of the day: brand new choo choo underpants!

And at that moment, my little boy took off his last diaper ever and put on his pair of big boy underpants...

Colton was still more interested in the bathroom toys, though, so we headed back there.  Which actually worked out fairly well.  For the next hour or so, we hung out in the bathroom.  I was pumping him full of liquids (even resorting to soda just so he would drink!) in hopes of getting him to go potty.  Every 20 minutes or so, I would have him sit on the potty and try to go.  I had wrapped small presents for him and he was so motivated to get them that he kept trying to potty.  Even though I told him he would only get a present for peeing, we did put a sticker on his chart (under sitting on the potty) each time anyway.  Finally, at about 12:15, Colton went pee pee in his potty!  I think he was more surprised than anything!

And after he was done, we made a really big deal about it!!! He got a sticker (on his "I went pee" section), we called daddy, we called Nene (and Levi), we called Gigi, we jumped up and down, we clapped.  And he got to open his first present (you can see them next to him in the above picture...they were just Dollar Store toys that I wrapped).  Oh and we went out to pick out Colton's first treat cup.  *Told you we made a big deal out of it*

For the next couple hours or so, Colton was so motivated to open the presents that he kept going to sit on the potty and try to pee. The presents were supposed to be reserved for special milestones (going poop, telling me he had to go potty, etc), but he was so excited by them that I just couldn't resist letting him open them after he went each time...even when he only dribbled a bit (clearly trying to get a present!).  

Luckily that took us up until nap time at which point I put him in a pull up.  And after his nap, we had to switch it up a bit.  I made him sit on the potty as soon as he woke up and then asked him every 20 minutes or so if he had to go.  He always said no, so I checked to make sure he was dry (which he was) and I would tell him I was proud of him for that and sometimes even give him a treat cup.  Every forty minutes or so, I would make him sit on the potty and try to pee.  When he did have success, I made sure to continue to make a really big deal about it...having him put a sticker on his chart, get a treat cup, etc.  

He did have one accident (a lovely poop/pee combo) and we handled it by going to the bathroom, sitting on the potty, cleaning it up, and reminding him that he needed to go in the potty.

Overall, though, he was really successful on day one!  And to celebrate (even more), Josh brought him home a very special cupcake when he got home from work.  We made a really big deal about how proud of him we are, how big of a boy he is, etc.  

And at the end of the day, we put a pull up on him for bed and called it a day.

The book I had read suggested Colton would be fully potty trained after that one day, but I didn't really buy it.  Turns out I was right!!! But we did get there...pretty quickly too (I think).  I'll be back tomorrow with more on the our post-party process...