Done With Diapers!!

The road to a diaper-free life has not been a smooth one. I had always heard that it is more difficult to potty train boys. They sure weren't kidding! Liam was 3 1/2 when he finally said goodbye to diapers and pullups. We tried sticker charts, rewards and even M&Ms as a bribe to do his business in the toilet. Finally, the motivation that did it was the promise of Preschool. He couldn't wait to go to school and make a whole mess of friends. Getting him out of pullups and into "big boy underwear" was the act of promising him that he could pick out a pair of underwear himself when he goes a week with a dry pullup every day.

With Ben, we thought it was going to be even easier. We had the experience of potty training one boy. He even began demanding to go to the potty every time his diaper was changed when he was 2 1/2. Yeah. That's lasted for over a year now. We tried everything that we had tried with Liam. He could care less about stickers and rewards. He sure wasn't "deciding" he was "ready" all on his own. We even tried punishment. That didn't have any effect either. One day about two weeks ago I'd about had it with yet another dirty pullup. I told Kevin, "I'm about ready to just let him run around in a t-shirt and underwear and see what happens." And he
said, "Well, why don't you?" So that's what I did. I found the first set of underpants that we bought for Liam (that had been too small at the time) andexplained what it would feel like if he had an accident. I told him that if he was dry for a whole week we would go to the store and he could pick out whatever brand new underwear he wanted. A week and a half later, he's got brand new "Superman" underwear is only wearing pullups to bed "just in case."
So, we are now done with diapers! Well, at least until the next baby comes along and then we get to start all over again!