Potty Training 101

Ok, I am backtracking to February. It started at night and on the weekends. After every bath, I would put them on the potty and tell them to push the peepee out. The first time David went right away, and I thought to myself, this is going to be easy, but then they always cried each time I put them on and nothing was done. Then when they had their February break, I said this is it, do or die time. Well, I almost died. I started by putting on their underware and setting the timer for every 10 minutes to take them. Well they cried every time I stopped them from what they were doing to go to the potty. They did not like sitting on the potty (we used the regular tiolet with a potty seat) and would cry everytime and needless to say didn't go. After the first couple of hours, I was exhausted from stopping every ten minutes so I switched the timer to every 30 minutes. Still not working and in the meantime there have been accidents everywhere. So I spent most of the day cleaning peepee and poops. The next day I left them totally naked so at least I didn't have to change their underware every 10 minutes (honestly I ran out of underware. Also I can't count the number of underware I threw away). Still no success and now I am cleaning peepee and poop off of every floor in my house. The next couple of days go the same way, and I tried every trick in the book. I bribed them with everything I could think of - lollipops, cookies, stickers, TV, toys - nothing worked. At this point I am literally crying thinking if I could pay somebody to do this I would. I finally started putting pull-ups on them because if I cleaned any more poop I was going to go crazy! My aunt Geri told me to try the cheerios in the tiolet so they could aim their peepee at it. I was very skeptical, but then again I was desperate. Of couse I had no cheerios so we used Fruit Loops, and it worked, but only with Brandon. He stood up on a little stool and aimed his peepee at the loops. I couldn't believe it. I would then tell him get the blue one. David still refused and continued with the crying every time I would take him. Brandon caught on pretty quickly and after about a day didn't need the loops anymore. David's mircle came when my aunt Geri, again, came to my aid. She gave me a little potty that her grandson Teddy used and David for some reason liked it and would sit on it and "push" the peepee out. And when he was done he would say "I made yellow." He was so proud of himself (as was I). So peepee was pretty much under control from then on. Brandon would stand and go and David would sit on the little potty and "make yellow". Poopie came pretty easily for Brandon. He started sitting on the little potty and doing it in there. He liked the process of doing it in there, dumping it in the tiolet and flushing. They both really like to flush. David wanted nothing to do with poops at all and would only go in his diaper at nap time or night time. One nap time, I opened the door to find David had taken off his pants, taken off his diaper and proceeded to do a gigantic poop in his crib which he then smeared all over the crib, walls and himself. And of course all this happened about 10 minutes before I had to get Nico off the bus. I threw him in the bath, got him dressed, got Nico off the bus, then had to wait for Brandon to get off the bus. In the meantime things are hardening in his room. It was so bad, I threw the crib sheet and bumper away in the garbage. I then had to practically scrape everything off the crib and walls, and you can just imagine the smell. Let's just say that was not one of those precious moments I will always treasure. The next week when they went back to school, the teachers were very impressed with their progress. I sent them in a pull-up and after 2 days the teachers told me to send them in their underware because they had not had an accident. It gradually progressed to where Brandon will tell you when he has to go peepee or poops, goes in the potty and rarely has an accident. David will rarely tell me when he has to go, so I have to take him about every hour (he standes now) or else he will go right in his pants. He still does not do poops in the potty. It isn't a problem at school because he has been doing his poops in the afternoon. But what he does is, he poops in his underware, then tells me he poops. (He also likes to touch it.) I then clean him and put a pull up on him because there is always more coming. Believe me, I had to learn the hard way. His teacher said he made poops once at school in the potty. She said she left him there by himself for a few minutes and he went. (I still don't believe it). When I try that he just cries and screams. It is getting very frustrating now. I think because he doesn't want to go on the potty, he holds it in and is making himself constipated. Then he will go a little each time, so 5 pull up changes later, he is still not done. Just the other morning, as we were just about to leave for camp, right after I washed their hands and brushed their teeth, David did a little poop in his pants and prceeded to wipe it all over his hands, shirt and shorts. Needless to say, I lost it. Another nap time, I knew they were awake b/c they were talking to each other and going into each others beds, but I needed a break so I left them in there (I should mention they are in big boy beds but I will elaborate on another post.)Next thing, I hear the tiolet flush and I am thinking that can't be good. I go upstairs and I don't know what he did, but David had taken off his diaper and there was poop all over him, the rug, his bed and the tiolet. I haven't given them a nap since then. That was about 2 weeks ago. I don't know what do to. I am hoping he will grow out of it. But, on the bright side, I am definitely saving a lot of money on diapers.