Just wanted to start with a thank you - I've been lurking on the potty training board but rarely contributing, just absorbing lots of useful advice on other people's threads. Sorry about the long post!
We seem to have had a breakhrough in the last week. DS is very nearly three and I've been spending the last year fending off pointed comments from my mum about how he shouldn't be in pants any more (even suggesting I should get him assessed for a developmental delay!).
For quite a while he has been happy to sit on the potty and be read stories but would very rarely actually do anything in the potty, no matter what bribes of stickers etc we offer, and we have generally ket him in nappies as on the few occasions we have given pants a try he has been just as happy to poo into pants and has had no problem with being wet ot dirty.
Just quite suddenly last weekend we were visiting a friend whose son was getting the hang of using a potty, and DS just seemed to suddenly "get" it and was happy to sit down on a potty next to his friend and they both made a wee and thought that was very funny.
We've had a few accidents over the subsequent days (and one day when we reverted to nappies as it was all too difficult) but it's really happening now and I'm convinced that it was the right decision to not push it until now when he's really ready and interested.
He still won't actually alert us to needing the potty, and then use it (except if he's trying to postpone bed time) - we are having to tell him "it's time to sit on potty, can you do a wee" and he will comply ever so well. During the day if he says "I need a wee" what he means is "I am having a wee right now look my trousers are getting wet" so really would be good to work out how to encourage this next step!
He's still quite reluctant to poo (stickers are now at last working as a bribe though). Even if he needs to poo he can keep it in for ages and just won't until he can't control it any longer. Luckily he has a fairly regular "schedule" so when we suspect that one is on the way, we are taking off his pants and letting him play bare bottomed nearby the potty - and after a few minutes or half an hour he will suddenly sit himself down and make his poo. Cheers and stickers all round but it's not a very convenient technique when out and about. I have no idea how to make the transition to him asking for a potty when he is ready!