hi jess

must say i have been a bit slack in tt - i tend to take the child's lead, my first dd was 21mths old when ds was born so i didn't bother trying to train her - i started when he was about 6mths old and it was a bit of a schamozzle so i stopped and waited - she was fully trained day and night by age 3 - in all it only took about 1wk

ds was 3 1/2 yrs old before he was trained and again he was trained day and night within the week (albeit the occassional accident here and there), i tried with him when he was around 2yrs old and it was just soooooo frustrating me and him - he would sit for ages and say he didn't need to go and as soon as he got of the loo he would wee - so back into nappies lol until one day out of the blue he said he wanted to wear big boys jocks so i gave it a go and i just let him guide me - turned out he wanted to wee standing up just like dad (didn't want a bar of sitting down lol) i had no trouble with the poo situation either - but then again he was alot older.

as for potties personally i don't like them at all, in my opinion you train them on the potty then you have to do it all over again and train them on the big toilet - with my first i tried the potty and she used to get frustrated with it cause it didn't feel right for her being so low to the ground and it kept slipping, i got one of those toilet seats with the steps on and it was much better, actually a girlfriend recently borrowed it and has trained her son he was trained nearly at the age of 2 1/2 yrs but it took her a long time.

sorry i haven't been much help here at all, i think i am slack in the toilet training situation but i just like to follow there lead, lani tells me when she is doing wee (or really i just can tell by the look on her face, and i ask her if she is doing wee and she holds her nappy - she tells me when she has done poo, she will look for me and coming over saying poo poo) i will try lani next summer she will be around 2yrs and 3mths or thereabouts and if she doesn't want a bar of it then i will just gently talk to her about it every so often and try again every few months.

am sure you will get some great suggestions for the others tho.