Bye Bye Pull-ups!!

It all started Halloween night. We had plenty of Candy on hand, and Gabe was taking an interest in this new little white and blue plastic potty in our bathroom. I thought it was a sure shot. He went pee pee and even number two, as soon as I bribed him with one of his Halloween candies.
Little did I know! Man, this was the hardest thing ever! I know, some have had it worse, but I am a baby I guess. We exhausted our candy stash (not an easy feat!) and Gabe decided he was over it. NOOOO!!! I had gotten rid of diapers and had a load of pull-ups on hand! What do I do?! I just could not let him give up, not after all of OUR effort. I would ask him, "Do you have to go potty?" and he would say, "Just go in my pants", and I would say, "Why?" and his response... "Just want to!" Ok ok, so I went back and forth, coming SOOO near to putting him back in diapers. But I thought no, no matter how hard this is on me (and our budget! Yeah, we really supported the pull-up people for a while!) we were going to stick to it. I was going to be nice about it, encouraging if he did not make it there in time. I am telling you I tried anything and everything people told me.
It is now January. And guess what worked~!? #1- Gabe DECIDED he wanted to do it. #2 I put him in underwear instead of pull-ups, but this was not the first attemt at this, just finally the right time to do it( he picked out the pair he wanted to put on) and He FINALLY expirienced an entire day of clean underwear and realized how much better he felt not having "stuff" in his pants. #3 The few times he faught me after that and I made him stay in the bathroom and go and then we would wave bye bye and tell "it" to go to it's home! HA! It was funny, but it just came out of my mouth once because he seemed kind of attached to it, so I thought maybe we could wave bye to it! He liked that and now is pretty good at even going in other's toilets! #4 I had JUST bought a TON of pullups at costco, doesn't that always seem to be the case?
But, IT IS OFFICIAL! He is potty trained! In underwear now for 5 days, no accidents, goes when he has to with no encouragement from me! He just tells me he has to go, we go in there and take care of business. Can I tell you how sick I am of asking, "Do you have to go potty?" Thank goodness I am going to be useing that phrase at a normal rate again!
AND the best part? Not what I thought it would be, the savings of funds ;) Not the feeling of accomplishment. It IS, not having to change two kids everyday!! I did not even realize how much that sucked! Sorry, but it did. I never even noticed it because it was just what I had to do. I really have so much more free time now! My back is not as sore from throwing around a 2 year old and fighting him to get him changed. Funny huh?! That other stuff is cool too !~

My official census: EVERY kid is different, we just have to "keep on swimming" after we decide to potty train! If you are in it right now, don't give up! You can do it! (Us Mom's need some encouragement sometimes too I think!) This potty training is just as hard (or even harder) for us as Mommies, as it is for our little munchkins.