Potty Training

This is Edward's nest that he built so he could "watch the toys."  In the cabinet behind him is a display of toys (cheap little tchotchkes from Target) that can be his for the price of a poo.  He spent the entire day camped out in front of his toys, never doing what he needed to do, but obviously strategizing.  He wanted those toys and he wanted them bad. 

He tried "rewarding Daddy" with a toy and then asking if he could play with it. He tried to get me to show him each of the toy's tails so he could see them up close. He tried climbing the drawer pulls and playing with the toys on the shelf when no one was looking. He even tried just declaring that they were not potty toys, but HIS toys. We often joke that Edward has a "reality distortion field," incredibly irritating for mom, but look what it did for Steve Jobs? 

He would stop at nothing to get those toys. Actually, that's a lie. He stopped at the one thing that could get him all of the toys his little heart desires. The potty. He wasn't going to to do it. 

At one point, he yelled down the stairs, "Mom, can I have some scissors?" Um, no you're 3. 

"What do you want them for?" I already know, he wants to cut the tags off of all the toys that he's not supposed to be playing with. 

"Nothing." 

"Well, you can't have the scissors because I don't want you to get hurt. Tell me what you want to cut, and I'll cut it." 

"But um, I just need to cut it by myself." 

"Well, that's not happening so you'd better tell me or no scissors." 

"Well, um"  Here's were he makes an important decision  "I just want to cut the tags off of Grandol"

I knew it. Grandol is one of the toys he's not supposed to be playing with.  He weighed the possibility that I might actually cut the tag off and let him play with the toy against the possibility that I would get mad at him and stick him in time out. He decided to go the "Mom's cool/easily manipulated with sheer exhaustion torture tactics"

Long story short, after many intense negotiations, we decided that he could play with the toys for a limited time unless he did the deed, then he got to keep them forever.  (I felt bad for showing them to him and maybe confusing him, if he was 8 this would be different, but I'm not super confident in my potty training skills). 

He held out until the very end. Just before he had to put the toys back in the cupboard, he did his big potty. And we hugged and clapped and celebrated and cried and he got to keep his precious toys. 

And now I'm exhausted ...