Help Wanted: Tricks of the Toilet Trade

So Andrew is closing in on turning 3 in early January and it’s freaking me out. I’m totally psyched that he’s getting older because to me this is such a cute age. But there’s one part of it that I’m getting a total brain fart over and you would think I never had any children before him. I have completely lost my mind over how to toilet train him.

Me: “Would Andrew like to use the potty?”
Andrew: “No!”

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Me: “Look, Andrew, see how CJ goes to the potty? Would you like to try that?”
Andrew, running away in terror: “No! No! No!”

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Me: “Andrew, don’t you want to go potty like a big kid?”
Andrew, laughing AT me: “No, diaper!”

As I mentioned, he’s gone poopy once on the potty, and it was almost by an accident that I capitalized on. I hadn’t explained further that he happened to be in between diaper changes and was running around feeling the breeze for a bit until he said, “Poopy! Gotta go poopy!” I chucked the towel I was drying dishes with and ran over to him and carried him right over to the potty. We all clapped and cheered and I started a reward system that I hadn’t had to use with CJ, and that is M&Ms. So he got an M&M everytime he went, and he went pee-pee a few times more that day, and he got the hang of the pee-pee-means-m&ms trick pretty quickly. So I’m thinking, ‘ah, who was I kidding that I can’t toilet train this kid?’

And then as soon as it started, it ended that abruptly.

Me: “Andrew let’s go without a diaper for a bit, and then you tell mommy when you have to go pee-pee. OK?”
Andrew, screaming: “NO! DIAPER!”

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Me: “Andrew, let’s try the potty again like you did the other day. Wasn’t it fun to go potty just like a big kid?”
Andrew, laughing maniacally: “Not!”

While I try not to compare the two, I think every parent compares the milestones between kids. I do know that by this age, CJ was already using the potty pretty frequently and already in pull-ups. He was totally toilet trained before he was 3 ½. How the hell did I do that? And I thought that was late! Here Andrew is almost 3 and he’s running in fear of the potty.

So with Andrew closing in on 3 years old, pre-school registration starting in a couple months, I’m like, ‘OK kid, I mean business.’

But I’ve totally forgotten all the tricks. Can anyone please remind me of the toilet training tactics they are using or have used, so that Andrew isn’t wearing diapers to kindergarten?

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