Lots of changes for Hunter in the last few weeks.....(warning: potty talk..literally)

Hunter has been growing up into a big boy these last few weeks. We started potty training him hardcore mid November. He was reluctant at first, wanting to use his diapers, saying "I'm the baby", and the like. But after a couple weeks of forced time on the potty as often as every darn hour, he started to give in. We then allowed him to go every couple of hours, but remain in his "big, boy underwear". It started to work, day after day, dry underwear. Unfortunately, he did not agree with the fact that you had to do #2 in the toilet. So I think in all, I cut......yes, cut off at least 10 pairs of underwear and threw them away when he had his accidents. How frustrating it was to have him on the potty every hour or two, and then 10 minutes later, he would poop in his underwear. But we persevered!, and introduced a treasure chest filled with little toys that he would be interested in having. One toy at the end of the day if he remained dry all day. Two toys if he went poop on the potty. I started putting toys in there that he could not resist- Lightning Mcqueen, and Thomas the train to be exact! Apparently that was all it took, and last Friday night was his last accident in his pants. It has been 9 days now without an accident, no diapers, and with many trips in town, and we have made it! He is so cute, he will come running out to us, "I gotta go pee-pee's", or "I gotta go poopies", and he then runs to the bathroom. We now have phased out the toy giving for peeing on the toilet, and early this week, will be the end of toys for pooping on the potty. Ahhh, the diaper days are done. I thought about it the other day, and we have spent just about 8 years with one of the kids in diapers. Glad it's over!

On the other front with Hunter, we are trying to get him to sleep in his "big, boy bed" as well. We got Justin a full size bed, with a twin trundle underneath in November, and our plan was to have Hunter and Justin be roommates. But we needed Hunter to finally get out of the crib and stay in his bed! What a hassle, he would come out of the room as quickly as you left the room. He would want to sleep in our room, or would request the crib. So we instituted the treasure chest again, and on the nights that I was home, I would lay in his bed with him until he would fall asleep. And when he gets up in the morning, he could come into our room if he wanted too. So we did this last week, and it worked great. I had my reservations on how it would be Friday night when I went back to work for a 3 night weekend. So in preparation, Friday we all went to Kmart. I let Hunter pick out a toy that he could get Saturday morning if he slept in his bed all night. After a 15 minute hunt in the toy department, he settled on a ......you guessed it, ....Lightning Mcqueen car and gas pump toy. So I made a big deal of it, Justin did as well, and the toy sat on the counter in the kitchen for all to see. I went to work, thinking about how it was all going to work out. Lots of changes for Hunter so quick. Potty training and bed training all at the same time. I for sure thought he would not take to one of them. But the little guy proved me wrong! I got home from work on Saturday, to find the toy gone from the counter, and Hunter running through the house playing with it. I eagerly asked....."How did he sleep?", and Justin told me he had no problem with him sleeping in his bed. At 9:30, lights were out, he jumped in his bed, layed down, and went to sleep! Stayed in bed the whole night! So Hunter was running through the house proudly stating the fact that he slept in his big boy bed, and he got a new toy! And even Saturday night, as I left for work, he was telling everyone how he was going to sleep in his bed tonight too! Then he turned and looked to me, and said, " Can you bring me home a toy for sleeping in my bed?" well, who could turn that down? sure!