"Mommy, I hit the Blue One!!"

Potty training has been a bit of a challenge in the Mullins household for...oh about the past YEAR!! But, I say with under-my-breath excitement that we are finally rounding the corner on this seemingly easy task. I have struggled with the right way to potty train Tyler. I have always heard that you should not discipline your children when teaching them to use the potty, but when you have a strong willed child who has the know-how and the ability and yet still chooses to crap(excuse the terminology but give me a break here) in his pants, one begins to think differently. I started putting Tyler in time out if he did not keep his pull-up clean and dry but this just resulted in frustration for both of us. Using the potty was the one last area of Tyler's life that he had control over. So, my little warrior was hanging on to that control with all his might. I decided to put on my creative cap and as Pooh would say, "think, think, think". I came to the conclusion that I needed to make potty training fun for Tyler. Cereal...that's it we can use cereal!! I ran to the pantry to get the box of Fruit Loops and explained a new game to little T. We put a few fruit loops in the water and let them float. The rules were simple...hit as many fruit loops as possible and you WIN!! My 3 year old(yes he is 3 and still having trouble with potty training) was more eager to accomplish this task than I have seen him in a long time. "Mommy, I hit the blue one"!! It worked. I finally found a way to get the child to use the big boy potty without a fight. And I am happy to say, that we have gone 4 days no in big boy underwear, even through naptime. Can I get an AMEN sisters??

And, just FYI...Katy will start potty training when she starts walking. This whole wait until they are ready thing is for the birds. Tyler would have been walking across a stage getting his high school diploma with his momma still wiping his butt if I had waited until he was ready.