poop in the potty...please!

I was just re-reading my blog from December where we started Tagg on potty training. I actually said the words "potty training is pretty fun so far." Oh you silly, silly girl. Three months later and we're in pretty much the same exact spot. Except that Tagg won't wear his diapers or pull-ups during the day anymore so it's only underwear.

Sounds like we're making progress right? Well, in some respects, we are. He's peeing in the potty pretty regularly (by that, I mean he's also peed on the carpet, the couch and the stairs at different points during this adventure) and will even tell me when we're out and about that he needs to go potty. He's got the hang of getting his own pants on and off so those are all good things. He loves to wipe, flush and wash his hands. I'm feeling very proud of myself as a mother. If I could just ignore the poop.

Problem #1. Underpants on head, not bum.

He still refuses to poop in the potty. As a matter of fact, he's a stealthy little shit about it (no pun intended) I'll ask him if he needs to poop, or wants to try while we're peeing. "NOOO, mommy. I don't need to go poop in the potty." Got it, buddy. We'll try again in an hour. Please tell me if you feel like you need to go. And then I go put some clothes in the laundry or something. Two minutes later, he walks up to me..."Mommy, you want put my poop in the potty?" WHAT?!?! Are you kidding me? Sure enough, crap in the pants. Which he wants me to take off and dump in the toilet so he can flush it. You can see the disconnect here, right?

I know, I know. They (whoever "they" is...I'd like to meet "they" sometime and discuss their credentials for all of this parenting advice) say that you can start potty training boys at 2 and finish at 3 or start training at 3 and finish at 3. So I guess we've chosen the long road. We've tried bribery - stickers, candy, toys, movies. We've bought three - count 'em, three - different types of potty chairs, potty chair inserts. And I think we're on package 6 of little dude underwear. I'm not going to lie. Sometimes when the mess is just too crap-tastic, I just chuck them. It's gotta be better for the environment than diapers. At least cotton is biodegradable.

What else can we do? Nothing. Except have a ton of patience with a good dose of humor, and remember every time we're washing a big turd out of his Lightning McQueen underpants by hand that our poor, poor parents had to do this for us for years when cloth diapers were the only option.