Last weekend we took the plunge and hid the rest of Luc's diapers and told him when he gets up on Saturday he has to start wearing underwear and using the potty.
I think this transition was somehow more scary for me/us than for Luc. We hear from everyone their horror stories of trying and the kid not being ready, how frustrating it is, how long it takes, how messy it gets. I was expecting the first few days to be painful. I was trying not to have any expectations, but in the back of my head I thought this weekend was going to be discouraging.
Last week when Luc and I were alone and he was actually in a listening mood, I asked him when he is going to start using the potty. I reminded him that when he starts school he has to use the potty there. He told me when all his diapers are gone he'll use the potty. With it being May now and a busy summer ahead of us, I knew if we didn't do it this week, it would August before we know it and Luc wouldn't be able to go to school. Grandma and I had a bunch of diapers left, but decided to hide all but enough to get us through Friday night.
While talking about potty training with a neighbor, she mentioned when she trained her son at 3 years old she moved the potty into the living room where toys and the tv would distract him enough to keep him sitting on the potty long enough. Frederic and I thought that was genius. We could barely get Luc to sit and eat at the dinner table without distraction, how did we expect him to do that with sitting on a potty in a boring bathroom? So we put the potty in the living room. That way it was also super close for when he felt the urge.
Saturday morning I excitedly so told Luc it was time to wear underwear and let him choose which ones he wanted to wear. I was reading lots of tips for training boys and lots of people told me to either not have him wear any underwear at all, or just that and no pants. But Luc insisted on wearing pants too. A few times we had him sit on the little potty to try to go, but nothing happened. Since it was such a gorgeous weekend, he wanted to play outside. Frederic took the potty outside with them and put it in the garage in case he needed to go. Luc had only 3 accidents before he told us that now he knows what it feels like to have to pee and he wouldn't pee his pants again. And he didn't. He even made it to the potty to poop. Before he went to the playground we did a safety pee. Frederic wanted to get him some frozen yogurt since he was doing so well (he would run to the potty and sit thinking he was going to poop, but then only farted.-better safe than sorry) I was going to run out and get it but Luc wanted to come with me. He did a safety pee, but nothing came out and I told him he can't pee or poop when we're out. He made it the whole time.
At bedtime we put the pull ups on him and he seemed a little confused and even asked if it was ok if he peed in them. We told him it's just for the night time in case he doesn't wake up or can't make it to the bathroom in time.
Sunday, he went on and off the potty all by himself and did his business. He only had one accident and that's because we forgot to take the potty outside to the garage. When I asked Frederic to come inside to get it, he ended up talking to me for a few minutes and when he got back downstairs, Luc has just peed his pants.
Even though being almost 3 1/2 years old to potty train seems old and could be more work to convince them they don't need diapers, in lots of ways it's easier. I think it 'clicks' faster in their mind the feeling of having to pee and they can dress/undress themselves easier. Pediatricians say not to try it with a new baby in the house, but I think that also worked to our advantage. Luc was getting TONS of personal attention. Everytime he even tried we got really excited. Everytime he went, we made a big deal of it, had him help flush it, got a lollipop in the afternoon, etc. It was like the 'old' days when all our attention was on him.
...Or maybe it was just luck that Luc was really ready.
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