And He's Potty Trained.

J, not C. I mean, of course C is potty trained, but I am talking about J. At just shy of 3 years and 1 month old, he is 100% potty trained. It's amazing. I feel like we're wasting pullups at night because he's been dry every night for the last 4 nights (and more than 4 naptimes), but they are too flimsy to reuse. He has occasional accidents, but he can ride in the car for 2 hours and not pee in his pants. It's amazing. Really, it was not as hard as I expected. I thought potty training would last for months and months, which it sort of did, but not once we began in earnest. I knew J was ready. He could hold it, and he'd tell us that he needed to pee, but then if we said we were taking him to the potty, he'd say "No, I'm just going to pee in my diaper." Frustrating? Yes. I even requested a book from inter-library loan on finding the right method for potty training your child. We haven't gotten the book yet. I may still read it, but I'm not thinking it's going to tell me much since we're pretty much done. Our tricks?

1. We waited, probably longer than we had to, before giving J the diaper ultimatum. We told him on Friday January 21 that we were packing up his diapers and there would be no more (however, that weekend we had a lot of parties and things to go to, so he did wear a diaper a couple times that weekend) other than at bedtime. We let him pick out some special underwear (he picked Yo Gabba Gabba, because there are monsters and a robot, though he's never seen the show). By Monday he was mostly diaper free. On my birthday (Saturday 1/29) he was 100% accident free. He did have some power struggles with Daddy on Friday, and he ran around "with his butt hangin out" (i.e. sans pants and underpants). Sunday there were a few accidents, but we were at his cousin's house and there was a lot of chaos, so we ended up setting a timer for every 40 minutes to make sure he went pee in the potty. No more accidents after that. He had one incident at daycare on Monday where he pooped in his pants, but that was it. No accidents since then.
2. Skittles. Apparently they make great potty treats. 1 for peeing, 2 for pooping, a bonus treat for washing his hands.
3. Upping the ante. Let him pee on the big potty (standing up). Still refusing? Offer him a target. We use a square of toilet paper, but I have torn it into creative shapes (ok, a heart, or a circle) as added incentive.
4. Give him things to do while he's pooping. J gets bored in the bathroom, so he actually has gotten so that he brings his frog potty out to the living room, sits by Daddy (while C is on the computer) and hangs out while pooping. I figure we'll work on getting him to stay in the bathroom at some point, but for now, it's all good. If anyone has ideas (he's vetoed reading books) I'd love to see them!