We did the little potty before bathtime thing too for a few months, and then one day around 32 months my son just said his diapers were itchy and he didn't want them anymore. He also wanted to use the big potty instead. I think a lot of our success came from waiting for him to be ready.
So I put him in underpants, except for nap and night. Day one there were lots of pee accidents. He was also so exhausted that he actually napped at nap time! Day two he had no accidents till around dinner time when he was getting really tired from the effort. Day three we were so worried as we took him to church, which has one potty for the whole congregation. But no accidents, and he even told us he needed to go and used the church potty with no problem! In fact, 4 months later he has had no accidents except our first big group playdate. He didn't want to stop playing and started to pee, but stopped himself. If I was a little better getting him on the potty quickly, we probably wouldn't have even needed a clothes change.
A couple things to keep in mind. Even if everything works out really simple like it did for my son, this will still be a difficult process that tries your patience. It takes so much effort and self control for kids to do this that you will have a few weeks of behavior changes. My son was super-independent, but became really clingy for a few weeks. He also had a hard time sharing during play dates and controlling his volume for a few weeks. We knew he needed a potty break when his behavior would get wild and out of character. He even understood it on some level. After our first public potty use at church, we were so happy and praising him on the car ride home. And all he said was, "I had a really hard time making my voice whisper in church today." And it was true! He hadn't been that antsy in church in well over a year! So expect behavior changes and try to be patient :)
We watched the Elmo potty video a few times. It was helpful for getting the routine down of wipe, flush, wash hands. I do wish Elmo wore pants though! My son could care less if he put his shorts back on! (For some reason he kicks them off before going.) We also read the book called Big Boys Use the Potty. It's the one about Michael, a "boy just your age." It goes through the whole process in a really clam, comforting way, including that Michael will need a diaper at night still. I also liked it because there is a toy truck or some kind of vehicle on Michael's shirt on every page and my son is transportation- crazy! Another great book for little boys is Even Fire Men go to the Potty. All these people, doing all these cool jobs like construction worker, policeman, train engineer, stop working. Where could they be? Lift the flap, they are going to the potty! It's a good way to reinforce that no matter how cool what you are doing is, you take a potty break!
I was surprised that my son responded so well to a sticker chart. He really showed little interest in stickers previously. I think it had more to do with him being interested in numbers at the same time. We numbered the chart all the way up to 100, and he learned his higher numbers well that way.
I will say that we did use food as a reward after week three with no pooping in the potty. I'm not one to give M&Ms as a reward, but my son thinks yogurt covered raisins are candy. We had to give it that extra step before he would poop on the potty. (Previously, he always waited to poop till it was nap time and we put him in a pull-up. He would never have an accident in his underpants so we knew he understood the feeling and could control it. He was just a little intimidated and needed the extra persuasion.) Good luck!
