Potty Training Round Three

Am surfacing again after the weekend, all ready to tackle a new round of days and tasks. Ready enough anyway. Sometimes I pretend because it seems to be a pretty effective method of mind trickery...even I believe me.

The big task for this week is taking my third sojourn in The Land of Potty Training. It seems hard to believe that I am already nudging my third child out of diapers and into big boy independence. I hardly feel accomplished but I can honestly say that I have fairly painlessly taught two already so I'm not very intimidated at this point.

My basic method involves:

• A canning jar full of M&M's....and other very healthy components...heh
• Rewards for all three boys when Nib tries and when he has hits (You are your brother's keeper, yes?)
• Every 30 minute timer beep reminders for potty breaks 
• Lots of enthusiastic cheering and excitment
• Gerber brand thick cotton training pants (more absorbent than regular underpants!)

I recommend The Potty Watch, my secret weapon for remembering to set the timer + handing responsibility to the kid. I also feel slightly better about the candy quotient, silly as it sounds, when I buy the purple bag of dark chocolate M&Ms. How's that for goofy self justification?

So far the tally for today is: about 8 hits and 1 big messy miss. Not bad for a first round. I'll take it.