Exciting News!!! (This is all about the potty...might be too much info)

I'm going to interrupt the Christmas photos with some very, very exciting news in the Morehead household!!!!
Jason and I have decided that it is time to potty train. We've gotten endless advice on when/how/why...but mostly WHEN...to do it, but stuck to our guns, and although we've given it a few tries, the time was never right, and as Hayden's mommy and daddy, we could tell that he just wasn't ready. However, the other day while we were at Target, Hayden saw some Cars underpants and got really excited. I made a deal with him: if he started going on the big boy potty, then I'd get him those big boy Car underpants. He agreed...and Jason and I decided to start the next day.
On day 1, Hayden and I spent the entire thing completely focused on going potty. I literally set a timer for 20 minutes, and took him in to at least TRY that often. We were very successful...only had 1 accident all day...and he earned 8 stickers on his "potty chart". On day 2, we had some errands that we couldn't avoid, so while we were home he wore his big boy underpants, and while we were out and about, he wore a pull-up. He did awesome...I took along a potty adapter seat, and made sure to take him in to try about every 30 minutes (and I admit, I limited his liquid intake). He managed to stay dry while we were out, although he was starting to work on a poo, and did have a bit of an accident with that...but (TOO MUCH INFO)...it wasn't much, and it was VERY obvious that he stopped himself. So, while I was super proud that he didn't go in his pants, we spent the rest of the day/night heading to the potty about every 10 minutes trying to poo. Again though, he had NO accidents...and he was the one telling me that he had to poop and that he wanted to go on the potty. I was really at a loss yesterday, and didn't have any idea how to approach this aspect of it...he was getting frustrated...as was I...and by the time Jason got home from work last night, we had both had enough.
This morning we had success again with the peeing part of it all, but he was still very uncomfortable and spent a HUGE amount of time on the potty trying to poop. I talked to some friends of mine today with kids the same age as Hayden, and they all said that it took their boys some time to understand pooping on the potty and would have accidents...but I knew that Hayden was understanding what was going on, and didn't want to poop in his pants...it was just a matter of him relaxing enough to go on the potty.
WELL...HE FINALLY DID IT THIS AFTERNOON!!! After lunch, Hayden told me he had to go again, so we went in and I gave him some privacy. When I came back in the room he was in the middle of the act and announced that he was "doing it"!!! I can't even tell you how proud of him I was!!! Phone calls were made and prizes were given!!!
One more step towards being potty trained!! GO HAYDEN!!! (literally!!!)