There are a few personality differences I have observed between my two kids.
One is that Carson is waaaaaaaay more outgoing than Mallory is. Mallory gets shy around people she’s seen a hundred times, while Carson will walk right up to anyone and say HI! (I’ve heard this is a second kid thing). And Carson will pretend he’s shy sometimes when he sees Mallory hiding behind my legs, and Mallory will pretend she is brave when she sees Carson getting attention for being outgoing. Weirdos.
Another difference between them is that Mallory has always been a pleaser and (usually) wants to do stuff that makes us happy. I don’t want to say too much about this because I don’t want to jinx it but it’s worth mentioning… Where Mallory knew how excited we were about her going potty and wanted to do it all the time because we gushed on & on, Carson could care less. Mallory wanted to go potty because of the PRINCESS UNDERPANTS she would earn after going poop on the potty. Carson has a bunch of new underpants (OMG his little briefs are SO CUTE) but he keeps telling us he wants to wear a diaper. He won’t even wear a pull-up.
He wakes up almost every morning (like I can’t remember the last time he had a wet diaper in the morning) and we quickly get him on his little potty seat. We are past having to run the water and sing songs and read books – he usually goes right away but sometimes he gets grumpy and says “I on’t WIKE going pee pee on the potty” (I don’t like going pee pee on the potty) but will still end up going…as long as it’s first thing in the morning. He gets a potty treat (pez from a football pez dispenser…) and cheers all around.
He hasn’t gone potty at school since that one time the beginning of September but he will at least let them put him on the potty (which is progress over how he used to fight it at school). And he’s gone a handful of times before bed when he has a dry diaper before his bath. If you ask him at some random time if he wants to try to go potty, he says “no!” as politely and cute as can be.
I know we have to let him take the lead but it seems like his body is more ready for him to be potty trained than his head is. I don’t want to push it but his morning potty sessions have been so easy that I don’t think we should back off and start all over.