Early Potty Trainging with Cai!

Towards the end of December, Cai went and got his diaper for Hart to change him after he pooped in it. I wrote this post about that and beginning to plant the IDEA of potty training in Cai's head. Well, not even a week ago, we decided to go ahead and get a little potty for Cai to practice in. (We tried sitting him in one of those inserts on the big potty, but he really hated it and would cry. I think it was kind of high up and a little scary, or something!)

Today (and I am such a proud mommy!), he pooped and peed in his little potty at the same time!

We sing "Way to go, Micaiah! Way to go! Poop! Poop! Way to Go Micaiah! Way to Go! Pee! Pee!" when he does something in it and then we give him 1 M&M for pee and 2 for poop!

He is totally motivated by the candy! Seriously! He KNOWS he gets the candy and is getting to the point that he is like... okay...I did it... give me my candy! haha!

My Methods: 
-Honestly, I am totally feeling my way through this. I have no idea how long it is going to take him or how fast he will catch on or when he will be completely potty trained. But, my philosophy is that even though he is young, I need to TEACH him and SHOW him how this is done, getting excited and rewarding him along the way. I don't think I believe there is some magic age where a child is "ready". I honestly, think it is a learning process and I'd rather start sooner than later! Toddler's love pleasing their parents and I am taking advantage of that!
-To start, I gave him an M&M every time he tried. Now, we are transitioning to only when he does something inside the potty!
-I'm trying to keep it simple. During the day, we are going bare halfway down and I'm trying to watch him like a hawk. When or if he pees on the floor, then I try to stop him and rush him to his potty where he picks up where he left off! I haven't done this every day, but the days when we are home most of the day or part of the day, I am trying to do this. If I get tired of keeping a constant eye on him, then, I just put a diaper on it and call it a day! I believe practice will make perfect!
-When he has accidents elsewhere in the house... HE "CLEANS" up his messes. I'm giving him a rag to wipe down the spot where he peed on the floor. He's surprisingly good at this! I say "UH OH!!! We don't pee on the floor!!! We pee in the potty!" So far, he has peed on our living room rug 3 times and on my cowboy boots once!! Little booger! Most of the time, it's just a dribble before I rush him to his potty! I also didn't catch him in time and he pooped on the hardwood floors once, as well, but he has had more successes than accidents, so it's okay. I have carpet cleaner for that! Thankfully, my cowboy boots are suede, so I could just wipe those off as well! haha! I'm thinking about taking up the living room rug and then our entire house, being hard woods would be easy to clean.
-We are using the Baby Bjourn potty from Tar-jay and an M&M dispenser for treats. 

Right now, I'm not worried about making him potty if we go out somewhere... he just wears a diaper. I don't know when we will cross that bridge, but probably once he's pretty consistent on his potty at home.

16.5 months starting to potty train may be too young, but so far, I have been pleasantly surprised. I don't have super high expectations, but at the same time I think it would be awesome if he were potty trained before 2 years. Maybe you more experience mamas will laugh at me for starting so young, but I have read quite a lot of things online where parents have 9 - 12 months old potty trained! And my awesome niece, Naomi, is already going consistently in her potty daily at 17 months!!! Go, Naomi! Go!!!