Poop on the Potty!!!

Hallelujah! We made it. Eli is 100% potty-trained. On Sunday, he went poop on the potty, and he hasn't looked back since. *Warning -- I will be going into detail, so for those of you who would rather not read about potty details, feel free to skip this post or skim as necessary. Now back to our milestone... as I've said in a previous post, Eli has been potty trained as far as pee is concerned for quite some time now. He's had dry naps and dry bedtimes for weeks now, and he would only have tiny accidents, he'd stop himself and finish on the potty. But, he had no interest in pooping on the potty. He would tell us he had to poop and ask for a diaper. We would always try to talk him into using the potty instead, by bribing him with anything imaginable, talking it up as an accomplishment, or talking about how much better it was. But, nothing seemed to sway him. A few people suggested denying him the diaper for pooping. We didn't think that was a great idea. He's been doing the "poopy dance" for a while now. At some point, he decided pooping hurt, so he'd hold it, then when he finally couldn't any longer, it was harder than a rock, therefore reinforcing the cycle.

Early last week we made progress, without really meaning to. He would get a diaper to poop in, pee in it first, and ask for another one. With his tummy bug and the peeing preceeding pooping we were burning through diapers, and we had no intention of buying another box. So, Scott said he had to pee on the potty first, every time he requested a diaper. We also said that if we had to buy another box of diapers we wouldn't have any money to buy dessert. The dual approach seems to have worked. I think having to sit on the potty even for a moment while he had to poop helped, and the boy loves his dessert, and had no intention of giving it up! We started talking about how he could try to poop on the potty, then get a diaper. Then, we bought some M&M's to reward his effort. We said he could earn an M&M for each minute he sat on the potty or for every toot. He was interested. Which leads us to Sunday. He needed to poop, sat on the potty to pee and we had convinced him to try to earn some M&Ms while he was at it. Scott was in the bathroom with him, I was changing Keira's diaper. Eventually, Eli asked for a diaper, Scott nonchalantly stalled and before he knew he had pooped! Of course, we made a huge deal out of it. We called both Grammie and Dendi who were holding on to some rewards for him. Grammie came over that night to give him a few little things she'd been saving for him at her store. Scottie took him out to get chocolate cupcakes that night. And, yesterday, Dendi came over to take him to get a special cupcake that she'd promised him.

He hasn't looked back since. I think he's pooped in the potty about seven times since then -- the end of this tummy bug has provided a lot of practice. :) Finally, we are down to one in diapers. I'm so happy.