Race to the potty?

Sam, at age 3 years, 7 months, and a handful of days (I'm too tired to count them out) is still not potty trained. I am sure there are some people (maybe including some of you, my blog readers) who think I am nuts for not having conquered this, but Sam is a unique child. Is it not laziness or carelessness that has prevented him from potty training. He remains oddly afraid of the whole concept, and my concern is that if I push him, I will make the problem much worse. I have settled for talking about potty training in a positive light and encouraging him whenever I can. I also signed him up for preschool. He knows he cannot go unless he is potty trained. I have 5 1/2 months to help him accomplish this.

Anyway, Sam has suddenly decided he does NOT like being poopy. To me, this is huge progress. Before, he didn't care, and would often lie in order to avoid being changed. The past couple days, he has coming running to me saying he 'needs me'. When I ask him what's up, he says he needs to poop. He tells me right AFTER he goes, but I do think this is a step in the right direction.

But then there's Nolan. We are two weeks away from his second birthday. He is suddenly asking to sit on the potty. He sits, concentrates really hard for a minute or two, then says he is done. He hasn't produced anything yet, but I don't care. Sam was too afraid to even do what Nolan is doing now. Nolan receives 1 M&M for his efforts each time. I told Sam he could have candy too, if he would try, but he says he isn't ready yet. Sheesh, at this point, I'd offer him anything he wanted, if I thought it would help!

I must remain optimistic. Otherwise, I might lose my mind. Potty training was never supposed to be like this.