All aboard the potty train - the joys of potty training a boy!

Well, we are at that time of life once again.  It's time to board the potty train and we hope to stay on for the ride until the end of the line.  My son, A, just had his third birthday this past April and we are finally getting into potty training.  I know, you may think that I am pretty late in starting this with the little guy; however, we had a lot on our plate during this past year and I just felt that I needed to wait until preschool was over for my daughter before embarking on this little journey with A.  So, yes, he is three but I feel that waiting until the child is old enough to dress themselves, open the door, and hoist themselves up onto the big toilet without help are the criteria that sets Mommy and little one up for a great trip on the potty train.

With my daughter, she decided at age two (one day after my husband's departure to Iraq and one day after I arrived home from the hospital with then newborn baby A) that she wanted to start potty training.  I purchased one of those combo sets that had a potty which transformed into a step stool.  We set up shop in the kitchen and I did the whole remind-every-20-minutes thing while trying to breastfeed my newborn at the same time.  It ended up being frustrating for both myself and my daughter, C.  After about a month of this business, I finally told her that we were quitting.  I know, I probably give up too soon but my tolerance for frustration is pretty low and I tend to be impatient by nature (God is working on that one though!)   We started and stopped several times over the next few months until she hit that point of self-sufficiency that I described earlier and pretty much took the helm in training herself.  She was good to go by 2 and a half.

My son is doing well also but boys seem to be much messier to train than girls.  I am at a loss on how to prevent the over spray that happens and have pretty much resigned myself to a nightly dousing of the bathroom with bleach cleaner in order to make it presentable for the next day.  Currently, we are shooting cheerios and that is what we call going to the potty.  We say, "A, do you want to shoot the cheerios?" and that seems to work with him.  The only problem, once the cheerios are sprinkled into the bowl, he tends to spray the back of the toilet.  Other than that, he is doing great at not having accidents and I am hoping his aim will improve in the near future!  How have you potty trained your kids?  Any great tips or ideas?