There’s nothing like a ridiculous play on words. Comparing Will’s adventures in potty-training to The Beauty And The Beast for some reason makes me chuckle.

We had a major breakthrough on Sunday. For months we have been trying to convince Will to use the bathroom instead of his drawers. We have tried the periodic putting him on the potty hoping he had to go. Once we even had a success with that, but he didn’t really get it. It didn’t sink in exactly what we wanted him to do.

We’ve even tried putting him in underwear. He immediately knows when he’s urinated on himself and is less comfortable in the situation than he would be in a super-absorbent diaper. He wasn’t happy about it, but he still didn’t “get it”.

Sunday he “got it”. After lengthy tribulations on Saturday, repeated trips to the potty, and going through a half-dozen pair of underpants, he seemed to understand. On Sunday, he went to the bathroom all by himself three times, and he didn’t make a mess on himself at all. It was a fabulous evening: a sneak-peak at a time when we don’t have to buy diapers anymore. One secret ingredient to the success – one from which it will be difficult to wean him – is incentivizing the whole process. He gets to choose between a jelly bean or an M&M whenever he goes in the potty. And he never gets one otherwise. So he never gets to casually eat jelly beans or M&Ms as dessert or occasional candy. They are reserved for using the potty.

He has yet to go #2 in the potty, but we are still making progress. Hopefully his learning will occur quickly. He demonstrated an ability on Sunday to either hold his urge or to recognize it far enough in advance to not have to hold it. He has to demonstrate this ability consistently, and he still has to learn how to really hold it in situations where he cannot go to a potty. And eventually he’ll have to learn how to use a real potty instead of the plastic toddler-potty.

For all of you who are not parents, sorry for the grody post.. or am I? Hahahahaha. May your night be sleepless with nightmares of public evacuation. Just kidding :)

Hopefully, everyone else out there has a pee-in-pants-free-week!