Commander Preston no longer in Command-0

I admit, I am no genius when it comes to potty training my kids. Perhaps my underlying weakness is that I hate to fight. Anyway, Preston doesn't seem to mind fighting and had successfully insisted that he didn't want to use the potty until about the end of September, at which time he was 3 1/2. By that point, I had been praying to find a way to help him past that mindset. An idea came to mind to bring down a little floor desk and set it by his potty. Then, I told him I would give him a surprise if he sat on the potty. From the first time he was intrigued. Where promises of freezies and candy, etc. had failed, a surprise activity to do with mom while sitting on the potty worked. For at least 2 weeks I played matching games, did puzzles, played yahtzee jr., the hungry hippo, did card games, and played with playdoh while Preston did his business on the potty. After a couple of weeks he started sitting on it himself. I was kind when he had accidents, but washed him off in increasingly cold water, and left him shivering while I went to find clean clothes in the laundry room or srubbed up his mess. When one day, he finally pooped in the potty, he realized it was much more pleasant than being hauled off the bathtub to get wiped up, rinsed in cold water, then bathed. He only pooped one more time in his pants, and since then always on the potty.

I let the supply of pullups run out but he absolutely refused to wear underwear--even though we had Diego, Thomas the Train, Transformer and Bob The Builder underwear. So for about a month he was going around commando--just pants up against a bare butt! Two days ago, Rob found a bribe that worked. A Kindersurprise egg, which Rob bought, showed Preston and let him have after he put on underwear! Preston came out doing the hahaha-nanananana-i-got-a-chocolate-egg dance. Anyway, he has been wearing underwear--and I'm pleased to say, we have even changed them--for two days! Now, they may be on upside down, inside out and backwards, but he is still wearing them and that's a breakthrough!

The last frontier...Preston still refuses to try "the big potty" and will only do his business in the training potty which we have to take with us everywhere we go. Wish me luck overcoming that one!