Finally ... success!

Well, we are proud to report that, as of December, Ian is officially, fully potty trained! Whew! We didn't realize that it was going to be a 1.5 year journey! Ha!

Right when he turned 2, Ian got the hang of peeing in the potty. He rarely had accidents during the day but we would let him wear Pull-ups at nap time and nighttime since he'd have a hard time waking up dry otherwise. As it turned out, this *may* have not been the best choice on our part ... he would also wait to poop until he had a Pull-up on. What control ... and what stubbornness!

We seemed to try everything ... reasoning, bargaining, encouraging, bribing, ignoring.... to get him to poop on the potty. Nothing seemed to work. We started praying that the Lord would give us wisdom to get our kiddo fully potty trained before he started preschool.

Thankfully, He answered our prayer. When we traveled over Thanksgiving break, Ian's schedule got a little bit off, and when we arrived back home that Monday after Thanksgiving break, he (accidentally!) just couldn't wait until nap time to do his business! Momma rushed him to the potty, where he surprised himself by pooping there! Our ongoing bribe was that we'd go to Chuck E. Cheese's if he pooped in the potty. So, Momma, Ian, and Ryan went immediately to Chuck E. Cheese's for lunch and games. Ian had a remarkable time!

He rushed around from ride to ride excitedly!

Skee ball turned out to be one of Ian's favorites, though he had to go clear up to the glass to be able to get the ball into the holes. Thankfully, the restaurant wasn't busy at all in the middle of the day on a Monday.

He used all of his tickets to buy a slinky!

As expected, it took another couple of weeks to get everything fully figured out for Ian. We put all of his Pull-ups away, letting him know that he was now big enough to go to the bathroom in the potty. After a few days of not pooping at all, a few accidents, lots of patience/encouragements/reminders, two sticker charts (a 3-day one for some new flashlights, and a 5-day one for seeing his first movie at a theater), we were set! Since then, he hasn't looked back! We're so proud of our little man!