Potty training

Thanks, Internet, for your support against the tyrant formerly known as Andy. I wish I could report that after that incident, he's been a perfect angel. We haven't had any flare ups like the one at Chipotle since then and I think he is recognizing that my campaign against crying and whining is serious, but we're a ways off from him stopping his really obnoxious behavior. My theory is that there are several things at play. I think the preparation and arrival of Baby Meg allowed us (me especially) to overlook some behavior that I should have put an end to earlier. That combined with him being three and wanting to test limits combined with a cold combined with his erratic nap/sleep schedule these days has created a perfect storm of irritating behavior. I'm hopeful this stage will pass, sooner rather than later.

In exciting news, Andy came home from school yesterday having worn his new Spiderman underpants all day (including nap time) without any accidents. When we got home, I told him if he pooped on the toilet, that I'd take him for ice cream. So he did. Just like that. So I scooped him and Meg up and headed to Baskin-Robbins. He absolutely loved it. Strangely, all the canisters are too high for little kids so I put him on a chair to look at the selection. He was amazed and thrilled. A boy after my own heart, he picked Chocolate Mint in a sugar cone. I love that flavor for the taste and he just picked it because it was green. He was thrilled with what he had done and the reward, declaring all the way home that he wanted to poop again and get more ice cream. Then he did. In his pants. Oh well.

Does anyone know how to make my kid less regular? I swear he must go three or four times a day. If it was just once or twice, I think we'd have fewer problems with this aspect of potty training. Like this morning, he was excited about his underpants and then pooped in them. And when he came up to tell me about it, he subsequently peed. On the floor. Yuck. On the one hand, I'm ready to shelve this potty training nonsense until he seems more ready. But on the other hand, he can totally do it when he wants to and at times, he seems so close. If anyone has suggestions, please post them. I could use some new ideas.

P.S. I posted a few more pictures on Flickr. There are some cute pictures of Meg practicing holding her head up as well as a picture of Andy and his friend Daniel naked from the waist down in a car. We were trying to practice potty training by letting them run free from the waist down and it was so cute and gay we had to take pictures. That will be my reward for surviving this potty training ordeal.