Hey, just thought I’d let you know that Elijah pooped in the toilet yesterday! Woohoo! I never thought I would be so happy to type that sentence. EVER.

We haven’t really been pushing potty training, we just take them to the toilet at almost every diaper change and just make them sit on it. I instituted a new rule - I took away their “computers” (the cheap $20 ones that teaches them letters/numbers) and let them play with it when they are on the toilet. Elijah is totally hooked on this computer, so he always wants to go to the toilet. And when he’s there, he wants to sit on it forever. So yesterday, he said “doodoo coming” but he says stuff like that without meaning it so I didn’t really take notice. I had him sit down as usual, and then let him be. I checked back every couple of minutes to make sure he’s ok. He always sends me away. Then finally, maybe after 10 minutes, he said he was done. When he got up, I saw that he pooped! I don’t think he even knew he did it too. I was really surprised and pleased and praised him without going overboard. He just wanted to play with his computer.

I hope this is the beginning of the end. It’s really hard to train them since they’re not home all the time, but I’m trying to watch them for signs that they are pooping. They usually poop in the morning while at school, so that makes it hard. And a lot of the times when I see it, it’s too late to do anything. I was also worried that he would freak out about pooping in the toilet, since I heard that some kids think it’s a part of their body. But that is not the case, at least with Elijah.

So overall, the computer reward has been good for them. It makes them want to go to the toilet and it makes them sit there for a long time. I was going to reward them with gummi bears, but then someone told me not to always reward them with food, so I’m glad that this is working!