Potty training success begins!

In the past couple of days John Paul has suddenly taken a SERIOUS interest in using the potty.  He's constantly talking about, "A crotch for makin' pee, and a booty, and a little hole for makin' poop!" (edited wording to part of "Once Upon A Potty," one of his favorite books.  He keeps finding underwear and trying very hard to put it on himself, and then he gets very upset when we tell him he can't wear that to bed until he learns how to pee in the potty.

He keeps reading another favorite book, "The New Potty" and reciting the beginning, "I.  Am a big boy!  I pee in the potty.  I weah undah-pants with skateboards on it!"  But Andrew and I remind him that he doesn't pee in the potty yet, and he seems to be very sad that he hasn't yet mastered that skill.

Two days ago he decided that he WANTED TO PEE IN THE POTTY!  So he ran to the BIG toilet and had me sit him on it.  Nothing happened.  He tried, but he had no idea how to make himself pee.  He was VERY upset when Andrew and I made him get off to take his bath.  But then he had a lightbulb moment - if he can pee in the bath tub, he can use that same feeling to figure out how to pee in the toilet!  He tried again the next day - no luck. 

But this morning he was having naked time for a while before we got dressed for church.  All of a sudden he paused and said, "PEE IN THE POTTY!" and RAN to the toilet, lifted up the lid, and sat down on his own.  Nothing happened.  And then, all of a sudden, he figured it out!  Meanwhile I'm crouched on the floor in front of the toilet, holding his legs to make sure he doesn't fall in, hoping desperately that he doesn't pee on me...

He is SO proud of himself and keeps reciting parts of "Once Upon A Potty" while he sits on the toilet.  He managed to go a tiny bit before his nap as well.  He has yet to do anything on the little potty seat we got - maybe that's totally unnecessary?  But I'm pretty excited about this new development - hopefully he'll keep improving and I won't have to worry about him still not being potty trained by the time he's like, 4!

*Edited to add - Before we went upstairs to go to bed he managed to produce a little #1 & #2 in his little potty downstairs - looks like we are ready to start taking this a little more seriously!