Desperate measures

Weston's been potty training for some time now. I try different things to get him excited and they work well but we're dealing with a short attention span here and Weston's is pretty short too :). Potty training is hard in the winter because you have to deal with extra layers. I've been putting my big socks on Weston to keep his legs warm enough to go without pants. And here is a cheer we made up to celebrate his potty power. Weston has lots of cheerleaders. Even Andrew comes running in excited and cheering when Weston does something.

We have a lightning poster on the bathroom wall that I put a track around and I added a car stamp every time he sat (in the beginning). Now he justs puts some of his stickers on Lightning, the rest go on his shirt and hands. Then he gets peanuts (he likes the honey-roasted kind) for going pee on the potty and mini M&Ms for pooping on the potty. He's proud of himself and excited for his rewards but even while writing this I had to take a break to clean up an accident and then change the baby's clothes because he found it first. Lots of kids (including a 20-month-old I babysit) means lots of cheerleaders but lots of distractions and babies to keep away from the bathroom. When I told someone I have to try keeping Weston in the bathroom while keeping the smaller boys out because Andrew plays in the toilet she said, "it's just water." No, not when you have two little people using the bathroom who have a lower standard of hygiene, and your baby wants to use the plunger as a megaphone, and your daughter doesn't know the difference between toothpaste and Monistat, and your daughter pretends she's bathing your son and squeezes an entire bottle of shampoo all over the bathtub, and your baby dives head first into the tub, and your children play "will it float" with objects in the toilet, and a simple hand washing turns into a flood of soapy water, and you go to get your contacts out of the case and it's empty and you can't find them because you can't see.... So I try not to leave my children unattended in the bathroom although they've found if you pull out the drawers by the bathroom door, mommy can't open the door.

I have a box of books by Weston's potty and crayons for coloring. This worked great for awhile and he'd sit in there coloring for the longest time but then he started breaking all the crayons and chewed up some and colored on the floor.

We had these letters off some signs from a ward party that I used to put words on the kids wall. I had just the right ones left over to write this on the bathroom wall as a joke. But maybe it will inspire some action. So, that's the sad truth about our potty training status. To be fair, some days go great and Weston will stop his fun and run for the potty and there is much rejoicing! But other days Emma announces there's poop on the playroom carpet but I can't get to it because I'm cleaning up Andrew's diaper explosion. I enjoy my little children but look forward to the day when they are all independent toilet users! Any tips or words of encouragement here would be greatly appreciated. Yes, I know my child won't be going to school in diapers but that's a long ways off.