On being potty wise...

I think there is a credible book with this same title, but I'm learning that with Milo, we're a trial-and-error type of family.  He's not potty trained yet, but we're having some success, but I'd really like to tell you about how our reward system has come about.

Mike and I agreed that we just wanted this to be a positive experience for Milo, no guilt, no yelling, no frustration, just as much encouragement as we could muster.  We let him pick out his own potty, we got the stickers, he picked out his own underwear, and as people told us rewards worked for them, Milo seemed interested in M&Ms.  Perfect, I had a bunch of mini-M&Ms in the cupboard from baking.  The first couple of times, we got him to sit on his potty, but no action.  Then a success.  Then failures.  Then another success, and with it I produced the promised chocolate bits.  As I was giving them to him, Milo said he wanted to flush them down the toilet.  Uh, buddy, you can eat these, they're chocolate, you like chocolate, remember?  No, I just want to flush them down the potty.  Uh, are you sure, they're very tasty? Just want to flush them down the potty.  Okay.  And down they went, and he seemed equally pleased with himself as if he had gotten to eat them.  Only problem, then he wanted to know where they went.  Sorry kiddo, they're gone.  And since then, M&Ms weren't enticing at all.  But marshmallows, that's the way to get that kid to pee on command.