Potty Training Success (finally!)

One thing about Mason is that he will not do anything until he is ready.  We learned this the hard way with potty training.  He has been so easy to adjust to things (sleeping, weaning from bottle, going to big boy bed, etc) but this was different.  I am so glad that we have been past this hurdle for a few weeks now. 
I never was in a hurry to have him trained by a certain time, but once he was approaching 3 I knew that something had to be done.  So in August, we went and let him pick out stickers, m&m's and big boy undies.  I even bought him the potty watch.  He loved the watch and at home would go tee tee everytime it went off.  He would put a sticker on the chart and get an m&m.  This worked for a few weeks, but he would not poo poo until we put a diaper on him a night. And he wouldn't go to any public restroom.
Then September came along and he started school.  He would not go at school, but he was going at home consistently.  I guess you could say he was potty trained at home, but that sure didn't help us anytime we left the house!  I then went and bought him a cool Spiderman toy and put it on the fridge as a "poop prize".  One Sunday afternoon he ran off and we found him going in the potty.  He was so excited to get Spidey toy and I thought we were making huge progress.  The next few weeks he would flip out anytime we tried to take him to a public restroom.  We were in Ennis on a Friday and we went to see Granna at work and she took him and he went.  Huge deal!  He even told Granna "I'm not scared anymore!"  He continued to go in public places but would NOT go at school. 
The next thing I knew it was the middle of October and he would go everywhere but school.  His teachers were great and willing to do anything to help us out.  They put up an orange paper with his name on it and found him orange stickers that he could put on the paper anytime he went potty.  Still nothing.  So I just decided to take him in undies and bring lots of spare clothes.  The first 3 days he had 3-4 accidents a day and Ms. Jennifer said he would get so upset, but still would not go.  The next Tuesday, I again had plenty of extra clothes in his bag.  Around 11:00 that morning, I get a call from Ms. Jennifer that he had already been twice that day and NO accidents!  She was so excited and couldn't wait to tell me.  I feel so blessed that Mason is loved by his teachers and that they get excited for him.  Ever since that day (Nov. 1) he has been potty trained and never had another accident.  He could do it all along, he just was waiting until he was ready.  I would love to be inside of his little head and see what it was that made him decide to finally go at school.  Of course, he is still in pull ups at night, but I am not worrying about that right now.  This definitely makes me realize what a big boy we have!  I must say that this was my least favorite thing about parenthood so far and I am so glad we got through it!!
(Side note that I don't want to forget:  this summer when Mason was at my parent's house and was still in diapers, he would go stand in a bush in their backyard anytime he needed to go #2.  They would find him out there everyday just taking care of his business and then they would change him.  So we went back to their house the week of Thankgiving and we had been there maybe 10 minutes when my dad comes and tells me that Mason is standing in his bush.  I run out there and sure enough, he had tee teed and his jeans were soaking wet.  I take him in to change him and ask why he went (I knew he did it on purpose because he would tell us while we were traveling that he had to go so we stopped several times.  he hasn't had an accident up until this point either)  He looked at me with his sweet smile and just said "I just had to go outside one more time"  What a little stinker!  It made me laugh so hard!  From that point on he went in the potty.)