Poo Poo in the Potty!

I know it seems like all I blog about these days is pee and poop, but ... all I blog about IS pee and poop! With Max's preschool start date looming ever closer, lately potty business is the main focus of our day. You know all those jokes about how after you have kids, the most meaningful conversations you have with your spouse revolve around the contents of baby diapers? Those jokes are funny because they're all too true. :P I think potty training might be the most stressful baby/kid stage so far.

But, I think we're getting awfully close to the finish line. Max is doing a great job with the peeing – he's even peeing in the big potty now. We still weren't making any progress with the pooping, except for the fact that Max really didn't want to poop in his underwear. We'd catch him holding his behind, although he'd deny that he had to poop. I knew that if I could get him to poop on the potty a couple of times that he'd get over his resistance and get used to the idea. Finally, yesterday every time I caught him clutching his rear, he had to go sit on the potty. I'd put him on the potty and we'd sit and sit and sit. After a little while we'd give up and try again. He finally had to go so bad that he started to go in his undies, but stopped himself.

Since Molly was napping, Max and I set up camp in the bathroom and I decided that we were going to hang out on the potty until he pooped. I talked and wheedled and bribed and begged, but he didn't want to poop. I finally decided to sit there and read my book and ignore him for a little bit. Lo and behold, as soon as I stopped pestering him for a few minutes, he did a big poop! He was SO happy and I made a really big deal out of his potty success. We still had leftover cupcakes from Molly's birthday, so we had another potty party – Max got to blow out a candle on half of a cupcake while I sang, "Happy Poo Poo to You." Max then was allowed to play on the Noggin website, which he considers a huge treat.

Today's poop attempt was much the same as yesterday's, but it only took about half as long for a successful outcome. We had another little party and another computer time reward. Max is VERY proud of himself and I'm so pleased with his progress. Of course, now we're about to head out on vacation, which will probably stall our progress. But, at least we're finally making progress!