I'm getting to that point with Tyler, though I keep saying I'm waiting til Cole starts school in 3 weeks to really do the potty training. But one of my soccer mom friends said she had the problem with her 3 year old daughter, she would use the potty some days and not others, so she threw away all the diapers and said "you are wearing panties from now on". Hasn't had an accident since she did that.  Maybe we (we'll do this together, okay?!) need to try the straight forward approach instead of the training approach.  I keep telling Tyler 3 more weeks and no more diapers. He laughs and points to his Thomas the Train chonies in his drawer.

oh, he's so testing you!  good luck on finding that magic button that just makes it click for him.  i will tell you, however, that my younger brother did the same thing.  when he was a bit over three years old and beginning to change his own diaper, my parents duct taped one diaper on him and made him wear it until he decided it was time to go on the toilet.  thirty something hours later (and no i can't remember how in the world it stayed on...i only have this memory of a puffy diaper with silver duct tape all around it and him stinking to high heaven) and one gigantor diaper rash later, he was potty trained. 

when i was potty training my son, i left his diapers on longer than usual just to induce a diaper rash because of that story.  it worked.  but then again, he wasn't changing his own diapers. 

The kiddo found diapers and pull ups much more convenient than using the toilet.  I just figured she'd eventually potty train - all kids do.  She wasn't fully trained till well after turning 3.  And they say girls train earlier- ha!

The peeing right in front of you on the carpet - I feel for you.  He is testing you to the outer limits.  I do know one parent that had tired everything with their son.  Then they purchased a gameboy, but wouldn't let the kid have it until he potty trained.  It worked.  However, that created another monster to deal with - the old limiting computer game time. 

I found in my potty training days with my first son, if I used pull ups or even training pants the crotch padding gave him the sense of diaper security. I used little boys regular underwear. Very few accidents came when I removed the extra padding and that security.

I have to agree with many of the posters here....I had to avoid pull-ups like the plague to get the potty training accomplished!  Throw them away and only have big boy underwear, if you are brave enough.  The peeing on the carpet is a power struggle.  My oldest did that more than once.  He is a strong willed little guy (has been since day 1).  When we moved into our newer home, we had the carpets cleaned and that was my final snapping point...to see him introducing his younger brother to peeing on the carpet!  This was his way of showing me his unhappiness with our move away from his only home...even though he loves it now!  None the less, he still peed on the carpet (with 3 year old brother helping initiate the carpet....)!!!  So, their punishment was to help me clean it up, wash everything that required washing (play rugs - one of which went in the trash instead of being washed) and then they lost their favorite toy for a really long time!

A friend of mine used a brand new set of play tools to get her 4 year old to finally potty train.  She kept to the program and he was trained in less than two weeks.  (Not sure about night time....)  The motivation worked for her because he was just too lazy to take a minute out of playing.  Another suggestion for your little bag of tricks...try buying the rubber (plastic) training pants that will protect your carpet, but make it unconfortable for him to stay wet for long.  They have elastic around the legs and can be pretty uncomfortable if you want to make them....that may be the ticket.  My oldest hated them, especially once he wore big boy underwear!  Good luck, and remember....it's only for a short time! 

Re: "try buying rubber (plastic) training pants..."

I never heard of such a thing. Where do you buy them?