We Have Lift Off, Well, Poop Anyway... :)

I don't want to jinx this but I'm so happy I could cry!  Over poop, yup that's right - good old fashioned poop!  My wild man F I N A L L Y decided to poop on the potty.  This has been an on-going battle for the last 4-6 months with no success.  We tried everything.  I do mean everything - good and bad.  I've been at my wit's end over this last month trying not to pull my hair out.  I read weblogs, websites, scanned magazine articles, even contemplated buying a self-help book (horrors!) trying to figure out what we were doing wrong.  Wild man had gotten it into his head that he was going to refuse on principle, just because we so badly wanted him to.  He even made it a point to tell me this about 2 months ago.  You can't force them to do it - it has to be done in their own time - but come on!  Actually telling us he wouldn't do it because we wanted him to?  Cheeky!  I mean he's been peeing on the big potty for nearly four months with no issues - even getting so he can stand on a footstool and pee like a big boy. 

So, today, I knew he had to go.  He'd been wearing his big boy underwear and knew he couldn't poop in them like he can with his pull-ups.  He was doing the potty dance but refusing to even try.  We've taken away all his computer privileges and have been using it as an enticement for about a week.  I could tell we were wearing him down but was unprepared for how suddenly he switched!  We went in and closed the door.  He flipped out, screaming, kicking, hitting, banging on the door - I stayed perfectly calm, sat on the footstool and closed my eyes.  I ignored it all.  I thought, "I've tried everything but this."  Every so often I'd crack an eyelid and catch him watching me. When he saw me looking he'd start in on the tantrum all over again.  I finally, calmly and cooly, let him know that I was happy to talk to him about this.  He settled down and we had a little conversation.  Turns out he was scared of the big potty (as I suspected) and didn't tell us for reasons unknown.  I asked him if he'd like a little potty of his very own - one where his feet wouldn't leave the floor and he could sit and read or play his DS.  The more he thought of it the more excited he became!  I went into the garage and dug out his training potty, which is WAY TOO SMALL for him, tweaked it and fiddled with it so I could finally sit him on it and have a hole big enough to do what it's supposed to do :)  He happily sat down, turned on his DS (which was a perk he had to earn back through this whole process) and talked, sang, chitter chattered and finally, 20 minutes later, we had accomplished the deed.  He was SO happy and proud of himself!  Now he can't wait until he has to go again!  He wants to earn another privilege back and win a toy!  And, if all goes well, at the end of five consecutive days, he gets a big prize and Mummy will throw him a party complete with cake, ice cream and friends.  He says he can't wait!  So cross your fingers and PRAY really hard for us that he'll stick to his game plan.  He had a chart on the fridge reminding him of his good deed and he's looked at it at least 20 times already!  So we're happy and to top it off, I got about 10 rows done on my crochet project while we were sitting in the bathroom :)  Bonus!