My guy likes to potty all the time

I knew when I painted the downstairs bathroom a soothing light purple that it would come in handy someday. It just so happens I spent the entire weekend staring at the walls in that bathroom while we started the potty training process with Jack.

The color of the walls and the calming effect of the framed Asian art prints put me in the perfect zen state of mind, which is what you need to potty train your 2-year-old son. That and a pedometer to track all the steps you take to and from the bathroom every five minutes.

Saturday morning we all woke up early and we showed Jack his big-boy Nemo underpants and talked up how he was a big boy now and he wouldn't be wearing diapers anymore. The smile on his face was huge and he kept saying, "No dipes! Underpants! Pee potty!" I am pretty sure he got the idea.

We knew he was ready seeing as he's been peeing on the potty like a champ a few times a day since the beginning of January. We're just taking it to an organized level with the underpants. And none of that Pullups shit in this family either. That's just a diaper that's harder to clean in my mind. One of Josh's friends has six kids (no seriously, SIX KIDS -- my head would pop off) and he had them all potty-trained at 2 by sticking them in underwear and letting them feel being wet after peeing themselves. He says having it drip down their legs and make them cold and wet gets the concept across pretty quickly. We went straight for the underpants for exactly that reason -- we wanted him to know when he was wet.

I decided to eschew the trendy potty training method of using a doll for modeling and throwing a potty party with engraved invitations and went straight for setting a timer for every 20 minutes and having him sit on the potty. If it worked for all of our moms, it can work for me.

The first day, he went every time we asked him, twice announced on his own that he had to go, and he had two accidents. Pretty acceptable, if you ask me.

The second day, he went every time we asked him at 30-minute intervals, made three announcements on his own and had two accidents, once of which was our fault for taking him out to dinner. We took a potty seat with us, but somehow he managed to have an accident. If you were dining at Pat's Pizza on Sunday night, I bet you didn't guess that was in the backpack I put on the chair next to me did you?

Today, the third day, he went every time I asked him at 45-minute intervals and even stretched it to over an hour at one point. We ventured out on errands and to the park and he had two accidents. But today he told me four times that he had to "pee potty!" and I think that was progress.

But he's doing such a great job and thriving on all the positive reinforcement and attention. We don't even have to bribe him, he just loves us making a huge deal out of him being a big boy and clapping and saying "yay" and letting him flush the toilet.

But I called my mom today to ask her why Jack wasn't fully getting it. I mean shouldn't he be running to the potty on his own and asking for privacy and grabbing something to read in there by now?

Silly me, I thought when people talked about staying home for a week, it meant after a week your kid would come out using the toilet without any assistance from you. I would have been wrong. My mom laughed at me and told me this is more like a month-long process. The first week is just about getting the idea in their heads.

Well that sucks it. I was only changing four diapers a day. Now I am taking him in the bathroom no less than 12 times a day. I deserve a raise for this increase in responsibility. I should picket.