Dawson is potty trained!!

Dawson is potty trained!!! YAY! We started potty training him about a month or so ago and it just clicked for him right away. We had tried potty training him a few times before but never made it passed two or three days because he just wasn't ready at the time. And to be honest, I don't think I was ready at the time either. Potty training, as many of you know, takes a lot of patience! The timing was perfect this time around and me and Dawson (and Dada!) were ready to move forward.

On the first day of potty training I put Dawson in his underwear and was taking him potty every 15-20 minutes. Even if he said he didn't have to go I would ask him to try and I would remind him that he got candy if he went, after that he was more than willing to try to go. He was getting 2 M&M's every time he peed in the potty and 5 M&M's every time he pooped. The second day was pretty much the same. The third day he wasn't as willing to go, the first part of the day he didn't want anything to do with the potty but I wasn't ready to give up because he had been doing so well! By the end of the day he was happy to be using the potty again. And after a couple of days he didn't care about the M&M's any more. Around the fourth day I slowing started waiting longer periods of time before I'd ask him if he had to go. Every 30 minutes, every hour, and so on. It eventually got to the point that I wasn't have to ask him at all, he started coming to me and telling me he had to go. We still make him try to go before naptime, bedtime and if we're leaving the house, but other than that he comes to us when he has to go. It's so nice!!!

I'm nervous about leaving the house for too long because he doesn't like to use public toilets. We have a potty seat at home so he can sit on the big potty without any help from us, but when we go out we need to hold him on the potty so he doesn't fall in and he doesn't like that. He does good with holding it when we're out though. Yesterday we spent 5-6 hours out of the house at the fair and he didn't have an accident (since we started potty training he's only had about 5 accidents total, and 2 of those were when he was sleeping). He only went potty once while we were out, even though we tried to get him to go two or three times. I'm sure he'll get the hang of using public restrooms soon. We're so proud of him!! And he looks darn cute in underwear!