what kind of world do you want?: potty TRAINED!!

I cannot explain how ridiculously proud I am of Ace. I mean, sure, I'm his mommy and will always be proud of the boy, but potty training brought my pride to a whole new level. One of the pediatricians in our group suggested we give potty training a shot over the summer since he was able and willing to go, and could tell us when he needed to go. MckMama once mentioned that she put her kiddos on the potty before bath time to get them comfortable with the toilet ahead of potty training. Well, I think the first time I gave that a shot was when Ace was around 7 months old. I thought he'd be terrified and would take a long time to warm up...this was before he really started showing his no-fear, adventurous personality unabashedly. The second time he sat on the potty, he peed and I think at least by the fourth time, he pooped. So he was pretty darn familiar with the porcelain throne when we decided to give it a go in May.

I bought him a "Cars" potty, pull ups, "Cars" undies, and rubber pants and we took the "do you need to go pee-pee?" every 10 minutes approach. I was paranoid, and Ace didn't really care if he wet his undies, so we stuck with pull-ups until September, when I decided that I just would just bite the bullet and wouldn't buy anymore daytime pull-ups. He had done really great all summer with pull-ups, but was still having accidents at least every other day, but typically at least once a day. And I'd tried letting him have below-the-waist nudie time, which he did phenomenally with. He had struggled with that in the beginning, so we ditched that approach until August or so. He was much more aware and self-conscious of his need to go when he was nudie by the end of the summer(which, in case you were wondering, doesn't really happen in Georgia until a couple weeks into October - knock on wood!). I seriously LOVE hearing "I need pee-pees! I need pee-pees!" We still try to leave the bathrooms ready for him - light on, stool at the potty, and seat up - but he's even gone multiple times on his own when it wasn't ready for him! We usually don't have to remind him to go potties before we go places and he is getting so good at holding it. Most naps, he wakes up dry...it is so nice. We are still watching him closely around poop time, because unless he's around his little potty, he has a hard time getting up on the potty and occasionally just, well, drops it in his undies. Everyone told us not to go for it before 3 years old, but I'm so glad we gave it a go and am SO excited about only having one in diapers(totally not a goal of mine)!