Molly’s toilet training has been a bit of a saga.  Molly first successfully peed in the toilet almost a year ago.  And two months ago, we finally got rid of Molly’s diapers for good.  So that’s the end of the story, right?  Well, I am writing about this now, so… no.

Actually, the transition to underwear went pretty well at first.  Molly has been peeing in the toilet pretty consistently for two months now.  She also spent the first diaper-less week or two putting her poo in the toilet.  Then she decided that she would rather poo in her pants.  Every time.  She wouldn’t even try the toilet any more.  She would often poo in her pants while standing in the living room five feet away from you without a word.  She pooed at the table Jason’s deli after swimming.  That one was the worst since we didn’t have anything to clean up with; just a long, messy trip to the men’s room.  She comes home from school with poo-stained underwear in a little plastic bag.

When queried as to why she does not want to use the toilet for poo, Molly usually replies, “I dunno.”  We eventually got out of her that she felt more comfortable standing up.  To her credit, Molly tries to clean up after herself.  Sometimes we’ll find her in the bathroom trying to empty her underwear into the toilet and wipe down any mess.

This situation has lead to some vacillating about what to do.  Does Molly need an incentive to poo in the toilet?  Or would an incentive make things worse?  Or can we do anything at all?  In the end, we did promise her some treats, etc. if she poked in the toilet, but so far to no avail.

So here we are.  After a year, Molly is potty trained… kind of.