Two Kids = Two Completely Different Ways to Potty Train.

I just had the pleasure of potty training my second son. When I went into it, I thought this will be easy. My oldest was mainly potty trained in 3 days and fully potty trained in a week. My youngest.......not so much! I know they are completely different kids and their differences really came to light during these multiple attempts to potty train.
I thought I'd give my ideas, tips, and tricks for both of my boys.

My Oldest Son
(age 26 months when potty trained)

When I potty trained A, I drew a bar with 10 spots on it and taped it to the wall. Each time A did anything in the potty, he got a sticker. The first day, 10 spots were too much, so I sneakily erased two boxes so he would be successful. I did this for 3 days, with 3 big prizes at the end of each day (2 Chuggington train, Mickey Mouse Play-doh tools). Then I wised up and gave him a cup with a small handful of chocolate covered raisins and that was way better than any toy. He got the raisins for the 4 remaining days of the week.

Process: We stayed home for 3 days (but did a small errand for days 2 and 3). 
1st day, I set the timer every 15 minutes and put him on the potty. I also let him have lots of sweet liquids that he never gets so he was super hydrated! 
2nd day, I set the timer for 45 minutes. 
3rd day, I let him tell me when he needed to go.
We went to the post office on day 2 and he peed himself and was so upset he really didn't do it again. (Remember he was an easy potty trainer). He also never wore pull-ups and didn't wet at night. 

My Youngest Son 
(age 32 months when potty trained)

I think we can actually say that B is mainly potty trained. Yay!!! I tried the sticker chart that I did with A, and....complete failure. So I tried a chocolate covered raisin after every potty use.... it semi worked, but he really didn't care. I was pulling my hair out! My pediatric Nurse Practitioner friend came over and told me to lay off of potty training for a while because I had lost control. I wanted to hug her because I was on the brink of tears. So we stopped!

Fast forward 2 months......... I had our Elf on the Shelf "Potch" help with potty training. Potch brought B a potty chair, and reward system. AND IT WORKED!! The reward system: I got animal counters from Amazon and dumped them in a bowl. Then I drew 3 lines on the jar (which the animal counters came in). I taped a picture of a prize to each line. The prizes were 3 pieces of train track, a little train from the Dollar Tree, and the main prize was the Minion Movie! Each time B went pee pee on the potty, he got 1 animal. When he went poo, he got 2 animals. The animals worked really well for him. He got really excited putting one into the jar.
1st day, I again set the timer for every 15 minutes and I kept him very hydrated.
2nd day, I set the timer for every 30 minutes.
3rd day, every 30 minutes.
4th-6th day: Every 45 minutes. This kid is stubborn!! Refused to tell me when he needed to pee. He still will hold it until we put him on the pot. The good news is if we go out, he will hold his pee until we get home. He won't pee anywhere else but on his potty chair.
Finally on day 6, he got the Minion Movie! 
Now we are working on pooing on the potty. Who knew it would be crazy hard for this kid. He gets a popsicle every time he poos. That bribe seems to be working. Luckily they make mini popsicles. 
Picture
I discovered that the underwear you buy for toddlers (2T-3T) can mainly be HUGE and scratchy (if you have kids with teeny tiny butts like mine). I found that H&M sells 18 month undies that are super soft. But recently..... I just found Burts Bees Boxer Briefs for 12, 18, 24 months. They are organic, soft, and have great elastic bands around the legs and waist. Best of all, they are super super cheap (6 undies for $8). These are cheaper than the scratchy undies at Wal-mart of Target. I found them at Amazon (link at the bottom).
When your child gets bigger, I found the undies at Gymboree and Gap are soft too. I usually wait until they are on sale and buy a TON!
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Here's B in his big boy H&M undies. This is also the first attempt at potty training with the bar and stickers.
Second attempt at potty training B. Here's the reward bucket when he was ALMOST to the Minion Movie.