The purchase of our new car prompted me to remember all the other things on my “to do before the twins are born” list.

I would absolutely love to have Ben potty trained before they arrive. Three kids in diapers sounds unbearable, doesn’t it?

I didn’t manage to potty train Jack until he was 3 and 1/2 years old. Reflecting back, I’m not sure if it took him that long to be ready or if it took me that long to figure it out.

Ben is a whole year younger. He won’t turn 3 until July.

I remember reading a lot of books about it, then ignoring the advice. I’m pretty sure I was angry and impatient. In the end, it was three days of mess before Jack seemed to have made the transition. Because it was so close to him going to school, I went cold turkey for three full days. I also had the weather on my side. We spent hours on the back porch with no diaper on, fertilizing the vines.

I checked my calender for the week and noticed that it’s pretty clear, so Monday morning I decided to take the plunge once again with Ben.

At first there was a lot of crying, but finally he understood that peeing and pooping in the potty means getting peanut M & Ms. Two for a pee, four for a poop.

Once he got it, he really got it. About 20 minutes into the process we were gleefully running to the potty every fifteen minutes and peeing. Who knew such a little body could hold so much pee? He even managed his mid-day poop on there. I think we went through about 30 M & Ms in 2 hours. Okay, I ate some too.

By lunch time it was impossible to contain him upstairs on the wood floors. Almost all the toys are downstairs. We went into the basement and after one accident, diapered up again.

I did this for three days, morning potty training only. We had many accidents. So did Jack when he first started. But we had many successes. The mid day poop ended up in the potty every day.

I’m starting to believe the only way to potty train is to just do it for three or four days full on until the transition in complete. Doing it half days is just confusing. And I truly believe that, even though Ben is younger he is ready. But unfortunately I’m not. By midday I’ve reach my limit and give up.

Now I feel like I’m stuck. Kind of like when you start painting a wall and get half way through and just want to quit. I realize now that if I only paint half of the left over blank wall every day – like I’m doing now, it will never be fully painted.