No more diapers!!

Benjamin is diaper free!! Hip - hip hooray!! It all started a few weeks ago when I was getting him ready for the day and I pulled out a diaper. He proceeded to say, "no more diapers Mommy, I want underwear". Oh boy. I took a deep breath and knew that I had to take advantage of the moment - also knowing what my day was going to look like (scratch everything that was on the to-do list...it was all about Benjamin and the potty!). We put on his buzz lightyear underwear and never looked back. I'm a firm believer that the pull-ups are just another form of a diaper...so it was straight to the underwear. It was a tiring day of always thinking & asking - "Benjamin, do you need to go potty?!" His diet for that day consisted of apple juice (not diluted like I normally do!) and candy as a reward for peeing on the potty. At one point in the morning by the time he would finish eating his mike n ike he would sit on the pot and squeak out a drop of pee to get another piece of candy! But, I rolled with it the first day because I knew I had to take advantage of him wanting to potty train. The first day he had a couple accidents, but all in all a success!! Fast forward a week - he was getting better at initiating when he had to go potty which was a welcome relief! It was nice to know that he would start using the potty on his own without his Mommy prompting him to use it!! However, going #2 was a whole different issue! Ahhhh! Not sure what the problem was - but the kid did not want to poop in the toilet and would rather run upstairs to his room, shut the door and hide behind his curtains to do his deed. Seriously?! You obviously know that you need to go poop - so why aren't you making it an easier clean up for your poor Mommy?? I have to admit, one afternoon I made him wait awhile to get cleaned up so that he would NOT want to poop in his underwear again!! He hates to be dirty and I knew this would cause tears...but I had to do it! Fast forward a couple more days - on one of my errands to Target we swung by the toy section to see if we could find a toy that he really wanted....and if so, it would be his reward for going on the pot! Of course he fell in love with buzz light year and so we brought him home and sat him on the shelf! I enlisted Jaelyn's help and she made a reward/sticker chart for Benjamin. If he pooped in the toilet 4 days in a row, then we would all to to Dairy Queen for some ice cream. If he pooped 8 days in a row then he got to have his buzz light year toy!

This picture says it all - success!!

I know this picture is blurry - but so, so cute! Benjamin is acting like Andy in the movie!

The sticker chart Jaelyn made for Ben - so precious!

What a wonderful feeling it is to be done with diapers...oh wait, I have 2 1/2 months without diapers!! Still, it's great that 2 kids won't be in diapers at the same time. Another cool thing is that Ben doesn't need a pull-up for his nap - - just at night. Woo-hoo!! On a side note, I had just purchased a Costco sized box of diapers for Benjamin when he decided they were for "babies" (as he liked to say!)....so we've got 'em waiting for baby sister!