Potty Training, the Sequel

After the year long fiasco that was potty training Alex, I've taken a completely different approach with Max.  That is to say, I'm not "potty training" so much as I'm "potty suggesting".  We started in December and though he seemed to understand the concept immediately, and was even successful a few times in depositing both poop and pee into the toilet, resulting in much celebrating, rewards and a few end-zone dances from his parents, he just wasn't interested.  So, we didn't push it.  Before bath time I'd sit him on the potty and he'd pee, John would do the same occasionally, but still, he wasn't showing any interest in doing it on a full time basis.

A couple of weeks ago however, John started getting sick of poopy diapers and told Max that every time he pooped in his diaper he'd have a toy taken away.  If Max pooped in the toilet he could have a toy back.  This seemed to work wonders, after the first couple of days he had a whole collection of "poop toys" up on the top shelf of John's DVD case, then all of a sudden it seemed to click with him, he not only earned all the toys back, he's earned a couple of trips to the store for new "poop toys".  Now Max is essentially "poop trained".  He tells us when he has to poop and he hasn't had a poop accident in about a week.

Peeing, that's another story.  Max either doesn't recognize the feeling of needing to pee, or simply doesn't care about it.  Making it even more interesting is that he absolutely REFUSES to wear anything but a diaper.  He won't wear pull ups, detests training pants and breaks down in a puddle of tears when presented with a pair of Toy Story Underoos.  And don't you DARE call him a Big Boy!  He is a LITTLE BOY! And becomes very distraught if you suggest otherwise.  Max has no interest in being a big boy.  He very much enjoys being the baby of the family, and apparently intends to milk this position as long as he can. 

The biggest difference between potty training Alex and potty training Max is me.  I'm just not stressed out about it at all.  I worried and wrung my hands and fretted about the possibility that I'd have to send Alex off to college with a case of adult diapers, yet he was potty trained LONG before he even started his first year of preschool.  Max isn't doing 2 years of preschool, meaning he's not starting until NEXT fall and I'm confident he'll be potty trained with plenty of time to spare. 

I hope anyway!