Potty training (warning: contains poo and wee references)

Five days, countless pairs of soiled Big Boy Jocks (14 on one day, that's gotta be a record), three different toilet seats, two potties and one mum who nearly went potty.
That sums up my experience with toilet training. And that was just for wees. Getting Ari to poo on the potty took at least another week and a whole lot of accidents.
But what a life changer. And a dollar saver. With a box of nappies costing around $40, that's a lot of dosh we're suddenly saving.
The boy is now a toilet veteran, happily weeing and pooing on pretty much any loo. It's a huge leap from where we were when we first started - a boy who was quite terrified of sitting on the toilet for wees, let alone number twos.
After my experience (and like all parenting, every child is different), here's a few tips I can pass on. Do with them as you will...
1. Have a crack at using the big loo with some kind of insert seat, but if it ain't happening, switch to a potty pronto. I was insistent that Ari use the big toilet (in a "start as you mean to go on" kind of way), but the breakthrough came on day five when we went out and bought a comfortable potty he could get on and off ON HIS OWN. I think in Ari's case (and this really fits with the thought processes of the average 2yo, now that I come to think of it), he just wanted to be able to do it himself. They are independent little buggers.
2. Once you take the nappy off, don't put it back on. It's really easy to give up. I nearly did LOTS of times. But I guess it means starting all over again.
3. Persist. On my fourth day, I was beside myself. It seemed like we were making NO progress and it just wasn't clicking with Ari. I was really distraught. But my maternal child health nurse and my Mum said to keep going and it would eventually click. The next day, we bought a potty and I made a big fuss about it. That lunchtime, I heard the magic words I'd been longing to hear all week - "Mummy I need to do a wee". He sat on the potty, did a wee and we never looked back.
4. Buy lots and lots of knickers/jocks. I had 14 pairs and thought I was being excessive, until Ari soiled every last one of them in a single day.
5. Lots of praise. We made a big deal about how wonderful Ari was doing, what a big boy he was and he was incredibly proud of himself.