The "Party"

This post may be TMI for some of you, so proceed cautiously. But as I mentioned in my previous post, we started potty training last week and it was not received with a warm welcome. Wyatt wanted nothing to do with the potty and refused to even sit on it. If I did get him to sit on it, it wasn't without crying and kicking and anything else you can imagine. This went on for several days and I was so frustrated! It brought me to tears a couple of times as I hadn't left the house and envisioned the rest of my life inside the house with the kids, watching Wyatt like a hawk trying to get him to just sit on the potty (rational thinking had obviously gone out the window by this point). But any of you who have endured potty training know how difficult it can be--or maybe you are just one of those lucky parents whose kids essentially did it on their own (if you are, I don't want to hear about it). Anyways, we finally got Wyatt to sit on the potty and were doing pretty good with #1. However, #2 was a whole different story. He would just hold it in for days--his tummy would hurt, he wouldn't eat much, and he just wanted to lay in bed with his blankie. Then, when he couldn't hold it any longer, he'd have an accident and just go in his pants. He was terrified of going #2 on the potty. And I didn't know what to do.

I talked to several friends of mine looking for ideas and one of my friends told me that her son was the same way and they told him about the "poopy party". Yes, the "poopy party". So we tried it with Wyatt. We told him that down in the potty, there is a poopy party. And if we go poopy in the potty, the poopies can go to the poopy party. But if we don't, they don't get to go to the party and they'll be sad. Well, with Wyatt's imagination and love for playing 'pretend', the "poopy party" stories got REALLY interesting.

We were sitting on the potty one night trying to make the poopies happy and the conversation when something like this:

Wyatt: How will the poopies get to the party?

Me: We'll flush them down and then they'll go.

Wyatt: I think they want to drive a car there.

Me: Sure, they can drive a car there.

Wyatt: Which car will they take?

Me: They can take our Jeep.

Wyatt: I think they want to take Ryan and Jen's car. (these were friends of our that were visiting)

Me: Sure.

Wyatt: Mommy, go ask Ryan and Jen if the poopies can borrow their car.

Me (leave bathroom to go ask): Yep, they said the poopies can borrow their car.

Wyatt: OK

yet after all that, NOTHING! Then the next day as we were trying:

Wyatt: The poopies are still sad.

Me: I know they are. How 'bout you make them happy and send them to the party.

Wyatt: They aren't ready to go yet.

Me: Why not?

Wyatt: Because they are eating mac 'n cheese first.

Me: OK

STILL NOTHING! This continued for quite a while. And then it happened!

Wyatt: Mommy! Mommy! The poopies are happy! Come see them!

Me: Wyatt, I am so proud of you (tears welling up in my eyes--out of pride and relief!). Great job!

Wyatt: Daddy, come see the happy poopies! They are all ready to go to the party. Come see.

(You can imagine how excited Matt was to look at the poopies! Need I say more.)

Wyatt (as we are flushing the toilet): Bye-bye poopies! Have fun at the party!

I'm sure there are some things about the poopies that I have already forgotten, but it seems they have become members of our family. I suppose we will have to address that at some time, but the success of the poopies going to the party far outweighs anything else we have to deal with. And you should all know that many of you have been mentioned in our house in reassurance that all big people use the potty. We have listed all our relatives, many friends, hockey players (even some specifically by name from Uncle Ty's team), and anyone else we can think of. So know that you have all been a part of this arduous process. I'm hoping it'll be easier with Sadie!