Jackson and his new potty adventure

So for the past month or so Jackson has become increasingly more interested in the potty and what Jesse and I are doing when we go to it. We've started talking about what we're doing and being very open with him about the process and his interest just seemed to keep growing so we thought hey, let's give it a shot and see what happens!
Now Jackson only just turned 18 months old and he's a boy so I've done little to no research on potty training boys because I didn't expect him to be interested or ready to try till sometime after he turned 2....apparently I was wrong! We've been taking things slow and going off of his level of interest and ques but we realized that at some point we'd need to make a decision what we were going to do and go with it. We decided that since his interest is there now that we best seize this opportunity because we may not get another one till much later and it may be much harder then. We made the big trip to babies r us to pick out his "big boy potty" which we made a big deal and when we got home after a few "dry runs" he willingly sat on it and went pee which shocked us beyond belief!

Practicing with Daddy

I must say that although we are only 3 days in and haven't really been intensely potty training till probably today it is sure A LOT of work on our part! The constant talking of the potty and our body parts and what things do and where things go makes for quite the interesting conversations in our house :) However, since both Jesse and I are well versed in potty talk and Jesse enjoys sharing about his bodily functions...it really isn't much different from daily life if you think about it ;) I have been overjoyed with Jackson's ability to have a dry diaper during nap time for the past 2 days and we love celebrating each accomplishment with him and seeing the smile on his face.
I'm finding it hard to be optimistic about him "actually"potty training right now when everything else with Jackson has been such a struggle for us. I do think that part of the problem is that I wasn't ready for him to do this yet, he's only 18 months old, he's still my little baby! I'm afraid that once he is potty trained and wears big boy underwear that all the baby will be gone...I'm not ready for that. But regardless of if I'm ready or not, he is, so I need to let him grow because I'm pretty sure that out of all the things that Jackson will do in his life that are new for us this one will be a lot easier than the ones to come...i.e Preschool....ugh I can't even think about that now!
Today wasn't as easy with the potty and Jackson's willingness to be on it. I think part of the novelty of the potty has worn off and now it seems like a chore to him that takes him away from his playing. Even though we had a few accidents today we did have a HUGE triumph in that he went poop in the potty for the first time!!

We got him a new "Potty Time" toy that he gets to play with only when he's on the potty

We'll just continue taking one day at a time and seeing where things go....