Poop Training

This picture has nothing to do with this post...just a picture of our cutie pie!

Believe it or not, I'm writing a blog about poop.  Gross, huh?  It's all part of parenthood.  Well, we've been potty training for over a month now, and I did some reading and got advice on that before we started.  Turns out potty training came pretty easily for Clara.  Not sure we can take much credit for that, other than the fact that we waited until she was ready like so many advised us to do.  Timing is everything...especially with this child.  You can't force her to do anything, and the harder you try, the more determined she becomes.  The second weekend Matt was in Australia, Clara asked multiple times to use the potty.  She would ask, and I would take her.  It wasn't until the following weekend when Matt returned, that we launched into full scale, pump her full of water/juice/milk, take her to the bathroom every half hour, potty training.  She even announced to Matt one evening at Target, "Daddy, I want to wear panties!"  No surprise, her Daddy isn't thrilled that we call them "panties" rather than "underwear."
We've had suprisingly few accidents--she's actually only wet on the carpet once.  The articles I read didn't give any advice on poop training though.  I figured that would just come.  Well, it hasn't.  And I'm not sure what you're supposed to do to get there.  I keep reminding myself of the saying that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink, and telling myself that she surely will get this down before she goes to kindergarten.  I feel like we're so close to being fully potty trained, except for this important piece.  And man are pull-ups way more expensive than diapers!  But until we get this skill mastered, we're not brave enough to leave the house without a pull-up [and the little miss will not hear of wearing a diaper now].
Tonight she made her first official poopy for me in the potty!  She'd done it once before at her Gamma's house, but tonight was the real deal, and she did it without any prodding from me.  I tell you I was/am so proud of that little girl!  We cheered, high fived, and did a dance (which we dubbed the poopy dance).  I caught a glimpse of my super pregnant self in the mirror doing the dance and had to chuckle.   Then she was rewarded a gummy worm (we'd been bribing her with these for weeks to no avail).  So hopefully something has clicked with her tonight and we'll be doing the poopy dance a lot more...I guess we'll see.  It's progress though.  One of the joys of parenthood that you have no concept of until you experience it.  And you have no idea how something like this can be such a proud moment, but somehow it is!  She was so proud of herself too and told me twice, "Mommy, I did really good."  Yes, yes you did little one.