Potty training has to be the worst part of parenting. Give me tantrums, messes, fighting, and cooking over teaching a toddler to use the toilet any day of the week. The fact that I see hundreds of adult humans walking around every day completely potty trained is amazing in itself because for every adult walking around...someone had to potty train them.

So as Bennett entered the potty training realm, I was still worn out from the last bout with Jackson. Using the very depths of creativity to convince a child that a toilet is fun, that it will not swallow you, and that pooping in the toilet is no more painful than pooping in a diaper, is still all too fresh. And oh the messes. Poop in underwear is not an image that will readily fade.

So I kind of tried to do it the "easy" way with Bennett. Easy meaning having him use the potty when it was convenient and putting a diaper on him when it wasn't (when I'm out and about). But when your 2/3 year old doesn't have to use the potty all the time, they most definitely will just wait till they get that diaper back on.

Then my mom came in town and did a great job of getting him to hold it and wear underpants. I knew he was ready. But I'm not sure if I was.

So finally after his 3rd birthday, I decided it was time. Despite his hangups (won't sit on a potty without a potty seat, and won't poop in the toilet) I dove in. I stuck him in underpants. No pull ups or anything. In fact I knew he was capable of peeing on command and holding it, so I didn't even use treats.

And he has done incredibly. Aside from a Walgreens/Kohls incidents (thankfully both tiled stores) he has been "accident" free. He even naps without a diaper. And today we overcame the biggest hurdle of all: he used a big toilet, in a public restroom! Miracle indeed.

But I am still working on getting him to poop in the toilet. (And for those of you reading who are uncomfortable with me talking about m children's bowel movements on the internet, you must have never potty trained a child, because it seems like we talk, sing, and cheer about poop all day long.) He has been saving it for when he gets a diaper on before bed, so I started putting him to bed in underpants. But that just left me with soiled underpants. Any advice? If I can overcome this last hurdle I will be one happy momma.

Happy because I won't have to think about potty training for another 2 years. And hopefully by then there will be some kind of perfect invention that will do it for me.