potty trained

I've been putting it off for a while now... the much dreaded potty training.  I've had all sorts of good reasons and excuses.... I was too sick in the early part of pregnancy, we've had a few little vacations planned that required a lot of driving and I didn't want to make them miserable for all of us with a newly potty trained toddler, Zion broke his finger and refused to use his hand while the splint was on so he wouldn't be able to pull down his pants.... see good excuses.  Ok, really I know that none of them are all the great, and really it just came down to me being lazy and liking how convenient diapers are when we are out and about so much.  I finally decided it was time when I realized that we were down to less than 3 months until the baby was here, and as much as I've heard people say that it is an absolute no-no to potty train right before a new baby is born because the child tends to regress once the baby comes, but I didn't really have any other option if I want him to be able to start preschool in August.  I read a bunch of different tutorials on different techniques to potty train and then took bits and pieces from each and put together my own game plan.  We ended up doing the straight to underwear method with the exception of a pull up at night time, and it worked amazingly.  The first day he had 4 accidents, the second day he had 2, and the third day he only had 1 accident.  He woke up dry every single morning so we decided to switch him to underwear the 4th night and get rid of the pull-ups all together.  Thankfully going #2 was just as easy for him as #1.  It's been over 3 weeks now and he is doing awesome.  He hasn't wet the bed yet, and since the third day I think he has only had 1 accident.  The first 2 weeks, we were just taking him to the bathroom every couple hours and he wasn't really communicating when he needed to go, but this past week he has been telling us every time he needs to use the potty.  Here are a couple phone pics of how excited he was when he peed on the potty for the first time.  He got a mini race car as a reward and he was thrilled about it.

Since we started on a Monday, and he pretty much had it down by Saturday, we spent Saturday celebrating his success and doing some of his favorite things to reward him for his big accomplishment. Plus it gave us the opportunity to brave public restrooms, which he handled like a champ.  Our day of celebrating included Kneader's for breakfast, an afternoon at the park, Five Guy's for a late lunch, a trip to the Disney Store, and Cold Stone ice cream in place of dinner.  Not a healthy day by any means, but they are all of Zion's favorite places, and this day was about rewarding him.  I'm so proud of how well he has done, and aside from the first few chaotic days where I literally did not leave his side or do anything besides potty training, it really wasn't that bad.  Good job little buddy!  You are such a big boy and mommy couldn't be more proud of you!