Potty Pooper

Yeah!!! Sadie is finally a potty pooper. Nope, not a "party-pooper" She is a potty-pooper. The Merino household is very happy. For those of you who don't know our long saga of pooping on the potty, it's probably better that I don't get into it. Let me just say that it has been a year and a half of struggle and frustration. Our cutie pie just refused to poop on the toilet. She was completely trained and would ask for a diaper when she needed to poop. So that was ok, but we were getting really tired of it. Sometimes we would try the "take-away-the-diaper" approach. She would hold it for 3-4 days and be in agony. So, how did we do it?

First, we have been counting down to Sadie's 4th birthday (it was on the 14th) We told her that she would have to start cleaning her diapers -- we have cloth diapers. She would insist that she wouldn't have to because she would go on the potty when she was 4. We definitely had our doubts, but we tried to remain positive. So, on her birthday she asked for a diaper. I reminded her of our deal. I told her that she still had a choice. I was willing to put a diaper on her, but she would have to clean it up. Her choice was to go on the potty or in a diaper, but she would have to clean the diaper. She really didn't want to do that. So she tried the potty. It didn't work. That night she pooped in her pull-up right before she fell asleep and I had to wake her up to change the diaper. Here we go again. Our hopes of peaceful conversion were dashed. I stuck to my guns though. I reminded her of her choice. She usually chose to hold it.

A couple of days went by and I realized that we needed some more powerful incentive. We went to Wal-mart and she got to choose a doll that she would get once she pooped on the potty 5 times. (We tried the incentive before but never actually bought the toy) She chose an Ariel doll. We bought it and we took it home. We also bought some Yo-gos for a treat after every time she went poop. (She has been asking for yo-gos ever since Jon and Lauren Funk introduced them to her last October).

Now we are at home she tried once but it didn't work. A little while later she really wanted to open the Ariel doll. I told her that she could hold the box while she pooped. She said ok and did it. I think actually having the doll and holding it made it possible for her to do this thing that was really hard for her. She was very proud of herself and told everyone in the courtyard that she pooped on the potty.

So to end the story, Sadie continued to poop on the potty and earned her doll. She has gained a new sense of confidence since this success. She used to always need me to be with her when she did anything potty related, but now she does everything herself. She acts like a big girl now in other situations too. She is proud of herself and she sees how proud we are of her. You know . . . I'm really happy that I don't have to clean up poop anymore, but I'm more happy about her success in working toward a goal. I see something new in her eyes and it really makes me happy.

I hope you enjoyed my play by play account of our bathroom adventures. If you would like to know more about all the things we tried, let me know. If not, I hope you were amused and maybe appalled. I never thought I could be so proud of someone pooping, but I have the proud parent syndrome really bad. We have awesome kids!