Out of the clear blue sky on Sunday, both kids came home from a grocery store outing with daddy and demanded to sit on the potty.

I bought two potties back in May when Rebecca first started telling me when she was going to poop.  The kids loved them. They were nuts about them. Just wanted to remove every stitch of clothing and sit on them while watching an entire episode of Sesame Street.  Of course, not a drop or speck of anything but dust ever accumulated.  And they would get up and trade potties. And fight over the (identical) potties.  I decided that I wasn’t ready, and we put the potties away.  Every now and then the kids remembered they were there, but I think they just decided it was a nice place to sit while watching TV in the buff.  Great.

And then there was Sunday. Unprompted demand.  And of all the damn things… there was production! Holy moly, I hardly even knew how to react.  Much clapping and fussing and all of that.

And then it happened again.  A number of times, as a matter of fact, over the course of the last few days, still completely unprompted by me.  One or both of them will announce that they want to poop (or pee) on the potty, down they’ll plop, and frequently there will actually be some pee (not as much on the poop front, but it’s an attempt).

So here’s the question: do I suck it up and go for it? I know this kind of potty interest can wax and wane in toddlers, do I take advantage of an interested period?

I read the 3-Day Potty Training Method, and the rip-off-the-band-aid approach that it advocates (among other smart tips) resonates pretty strongly with me. While I know it’s not nearly so simple as “three days and you’re all done,” I do like the idea of just going all out.  I’ve been thinking about it for a couple of months, and have decided I’d really like to do this before they turn 3. But as I have no interest in potty training over the winter (cold = more clothing = indoors = no thank you), my thought was that I’d either have to jump on this soon, or wait until the spring.

I hesitate mostly for my own convenience, truth be told. Because I know that not only will those initial days (in particular) be challenging and frustrating, but that my life and our outings will get significantly more complicated for at least some period of time. Slower to get moving, more care to be taken during long outings, and more crap to haul around (extra clothes, maybe a spare potty in the car, etc.) when I had gotten used to just throwing a diaper or two into my purse.

But, then, I get the sense that there are more challenging times ahead (2.5, anyone?), and that it’s not necessarily that much easier to train an older child.  And in the end, I’d rather have this done sooner than later.  But does that mean “now”? Yipes!  Well, I suppose we have no classes or activities next week… am I ready??

And thanks for the comments on my bath time post, good to know I’m not alone. Rebecca is doing great, Daniel is having a rough time. Finally got his second sticker last night, on night five. Alas.