Potty training: a parent's equivalent to "hell week"

It looks like potty training is upon us. I hadn't planned on starting right now; I guess I didn't know when I was going to start... just not now. I think maybe it's one of those things I was hoping would go away, you know? It would be great if there were such a thing as potty training camp, where you send your child away for a week and he comes back fully trained (nights included, of course).

Here's how this all started. On Thursday, when I picked Nate up from the older kid nursery at MOPS, the worker asked, "Is he potty trained?" I answered no. She said, "That's what I thought. But when all the other kids were saying they had to go to the bathroom, Nate said he did too. So I took him, and he went." ... Wha?

Then, after his nap that day, Nate said something about going on the potty, so I took off his diaper, and he went. OK! We went the rest of the day diaperless and pantsless. It included three accidents but also three or four successes. I diapered him for bed time, and he did have a dirty diaper when I checked on him later.

The next day, Friday, he had therapy. I didn't want to keep him home because I hate having him miss therapy, so I took him. I packed a bunch of extra clothes and underwear (he didn't want to wear the plastic training pants I have) and pinned a sign on his back saying he was potty training. In the three hours of therapy that morning, he had one accident and one success. During the rest of the day, he did very well when naked and had a couple of accidents with underwear on. Another dirty diaper after bed time.

This morning, when he was playing on the computer and not wearing any pants, he looked at me and said, "Uh oh!" I asked if he had to go, and he said yes, so I rushed him to the bathroom, where he had his first (excuse all the toilet talk) BM. He was soooo proud.

So that's where we are. We'll see how the rest of the weekend goes. We have Lucy's little b-day party at the park today, where there is no bathroom, so I'll probably bring our little plastic toilet and see if Nate will use it.