Potty Training-- Round 1 of ?

Potty Training--those two words are like fingers on a chalk board, I just shutter at the idea of doing this a third time, and knowing that there will be yet another round with #4.  I know there are those stories out there of those kids that supposedly just potty trained themselves, or once they put on underwear they never had another accident.  That parent that says, well just keep putting them the toilet every 30 minutes, or make it really fun and make it a game, be consistent and don't give up! Have you ever heard of putting cheerios or fruit loops to aim at in the toilet? Or that parent that asks me.... Just bribe him with candy!?  Seriously you don't think I've tried that?  I had a "candy bar" of all you could eat candy if you would just go ONCE! :)  So yes I would pay big money to have my child leave for a weekend and come back diaper free.

Maybe stubborn parents produce stubborn kids?  Probably.  After all Crew and Brody were 3 before they got it and when I say "got it" it wasn't overnight, it was long hard days, and we did everything we did from charts with stickers, to candy, reading potty training books,to consistency, to positive reinforcement, to potty dances you name it before they finally decided when THEY were ready.  Key word THEY.  So if one more parent tells me my kid was potty trained at two and it wasn't that big of a deal, I might scream.

So yet again I thought well I got this down, Kyler your up buddy boy, it's Monday and you WILL be potty trained by Friday.  Hahaha.  Talk about the battle of the stubborn people.  Me vs. Kyler, guess who won?  After 5 days of hard core, me and him, potty chair, treats, on the toilet every 20 minutes, lots of crying, and just wanting his diaper back on....Winner is Kyler.  So bummed because I almost feel like I wasted 5 days of my life sitting there trying to make this fun, and not lose my patience, and remain super positive.  We had spouts of sitting on the toilet for anywhere to 20-80 minutes in one sitting before he would eventually lose small battles and "go".  He NEVER once in those 5 days told me he had to go, or would go before 20 minutes of sitting there.  Keep in mind I have a 4 and 6 year old that are not wanting to sit around and WAIT for Kys to "go" either.  Although we did our darnedest to make it a group effort, we all cheered, we all celebrated together with M&M parties, and high fives, and called dad when it did happen, but I guess it just wasn't the right time, because HE wasn't quite ready to make the call and do this. 
So we called it Round 1 and left it at that...I really wanted him to be potty trained before we went on vacation again because swim diapers aren't allowed in the big pool....  We will try again maybe in a couple weeks.  One positive thing since this though is he wants to be changed RIGHT away if he goes number 2, so I know he is probably close to not wanting diapers, but we will see when HE DECIDES the time has come.  Patience, there doesn't seem to be enough to go around these days :)

For now here are some pics from Round 1:  I don't even want to add up the time we spent together sitting on the potty chair for 5 days, but none the less, call it Mama and Kys bonding time!

Taking subs for Round 2, any takers?