potty training survival kit

We've been prepping for potty training for a few weeks now - bought a potty, bought some underwear (Buzz Lightyear - his favorite!!), had Jack practice sitting on the potty, talking about it a lot to get Jack excited, reading lots of articles and blogs about potty training.

So when Daddy had a day home from work this week, we decided we should go for it!  But we had a few more things we needed to get before we began.  So Jack and I made a little trip to the dollar store to pick up the rest of the essentials that would comprise our "Potty Training Survival Kit."

Based on my now vast experience (2 days can sure seem vast!) here are some things you might want for your own potty training survival kit:

• a potty seat or training seat 
• underwear 
• cheap plastic table cloths to cover carpet
• juice boxes
• books, toys, movies, and/or other activities
• stickers, new toys, and/or edible treats (we used marshmallows and chocolate chips)
• paper towels, rags, or cloth diapers to clean up accidents
• something to keep you occupied, but not distracted (I grabbed a few books to read)
• PATIENCE!!!  

And thus fully armed with our "Potty Training Survival Kit" we began.

We decided to try the "bare bum" method, so we kept Jack to a fairly confined space (with carpets covered with the plastic tablecloths) to make it easier to monitor him and prevent accidents.  He stayed pretty happy with all the toys and things, and actually sat on his potty for decent stretches while reading books or watching movies.  We gave him some stickers for sitting on his potty like a big boy!

When he did start to go "pee-pee" we would put him on the potty and tell him to go there, but I think he just got confused and a little scared...

Day 2 went a bit better in that he only had 2 real accidents, but he also never actually went in the potty either.  He just held it until I put on a diaper for his nap or bed time.  So I suppose we've succeeded in teaching him not to pee on the floor, which would be great if we planned to just let him run naked all the time and didn't need him to use a toilet.

But since he just got so upset every time I put him on the potty when he started to go somewhere else, we decided to take a break from potty training today.  Maybe we'll try again tomorrow.  Maybe we'll wait a little longer.  He is still on the young side for potty training.  But in spite of this, I hold by my "potty training kit" and think the problem may be that he's just not quite sure yet what it is we want him to do on the potty.

*Update: We took a break from potty training for a little while, but came back to it a few months after this post, using the same "potty training kit" and method. And it worked! He was ready by then, and now he's about 90% there - very occasional accidents, and still wearing a diaper at night, but mostly using his big boy potty!