Ben is pretty much 100% potty-trained at home now. Of course, he also rarely wears pants at home right now. :)
I'm kind of not sure of the next steps. He uses his potty chair 100% of the time when he's not wearing a diaper or pull-up (running around the house) and he tries to use his potty-chair even when he is wearing them, but he hasn't learned how to take them off. Maybe 60% of the time he will tell me he needs to use his potty-chair and I will help him take off his pull-up or whatever. But otherwise I will come in the room to find him sitting on his potty-chair with his diaper still on. He's never been the type to undress himself, so maybe we just need to practice doing that.
My doctor recommended cloth training pants instead of pull-ups, and that's what I would prefer, too, but they're a little expensive, and then there's also the school of thought that says you should just go straight to underwear and that training pants just confuse the issue. I honestly think the pull-ups are really hard to get off and on and I don't wonder that he can't do it by himself. I'm wondering if the next step should just be him practicing removing cloth training pants or underwear.
I suspect he's ready for underwear, but I just don't want to start the underwear and then have to revert to diapers. I sort of think there should be no going back once you've taken that step.
So far, we have not used a public toilet. When we're out I've still put a diaper on him, but he will typically hold it until we get home. I've asked him if he needs to go but he will tell me he wants to wait. I kind of can't blame him for that, but he will need to try it eventually! His diaper is usually still completely dry when we get home. Also, a few times he has woken up in the middle of the night asking to use his potty chair. So I guess I need to get him converted to a big boy bed and maybe keep the potty chair in his room overnight. I'm not ready for him to be wandering the house!
I know we'll just need to try and see what works for us. For those of you who are going through this or have already, what worked best for you at this stage?
He actually really likes using the potty chair and I've never had to promise any rewards or anything. He loves the praise when he uses it and occasionally we call his grandparents or something to tell them how great he did. I'm hoping he doesn't lose interest, because I don't want to be trapped having to give him a treat every time or something.
Also, how do you buy exciting character underwear for a kid whose favorite things are words, clocks and the number 11 (note which one he's clutching in the picture)?
