What's missing from this picture?

The only thing that is missing is Max

So a while ago I left you hanging. We were all ready for potty training and had a super successful first day.  On the first day Max ran around sans-pants and had only one accident all day (including a successful #2 in the big boy potty).   I'll admit, I was a little smug as I wrote that post, thinking "yeah, this potty training stuff is not nearly as hard as I thought it would be...Max really GETS IT."

I should remind myself when I get that puffed-up, proud-of-myself feeling that no one really likes a smug mama.  Of course Karma kicked in, or maybe it was just reality, and potty training started going downhill quickly.  I thought I'd share some of the things we learned about how to do the potty training thing wrong.

What not to do when you are potty training:

• Do not start potty training the week before returning to work from materninty leave (really...what were we thinking?  There is no time to follow through on potty training when 100% of our efforts are on getting people fed and out of the door)
• Do not spend every waking minute of three days in a row talking about the big boy potty.  On day 1 it was fun but on day 2 Max started getting bored with the concept.  By day 3 nothing we could say could convince him to sit on that potty.  "No Buh-bye potty!!" he'd cry and run the other direction.  I guess the potty just stopped being fun
• Do NOT take your kid to home depot on day 2 and forget about auto-flush toilets.  Nuf-said
• Do not underestimate how important it is to have your daycare providers on the same page with you and your potty training strategy.  We had to really fight with our center to get them to continue the training during the day because "he's not in the potty training class yet."  I cannot tell you how much I wanted to yank Max out of that place when I heard that line and put him someplace with a more compatible potty approach.  However potty training is only one aspect of growing a wonderful kid and Max's daycare is GREAT at so many other things (like their great infant program for Hana).
• Stickers are great, chocolate chips are great too, even plastic He-man figures are fun.  But none of them will make your kid potty train before he is ready.

So, mama is learning to be humble and Max is still running around in his diapers and is very happy about that.  We have decided to de-prioritize the potty training for now and pick it up when Max seems to have more of an interest.  For now we are using our precious weekend moments for fun family time.