Lollypop Photo-op

If you have read any of the earlier posts on this blog, you may have gathered that potty training Mac has been a bit of an adventure. For a while there, we were in that "no mans land" kind of spot where I knew Mac needed to be in real underwear, but the accidents were starting to get the better of me. 

There was a month's worth of time where he was doing great with making "pee-pee" in the potty, but the "poopies" were just not happening. Well, let me rephrase that, they were happening all right, just anywhere but in the toilet. 

He would cry and beg me to please not make him sit on the toilet to go #2, and I found myself offering increasingly bigger and bigger rewards if he would just get those poopies in the potty. Anything to avoid another day of cleaning dirty underwear!

We got to the point where by the time Mac actually pooped in the toilet, I had promised him a $15 train from the toy store. I didn't care, I was just so happy not to be cleaning up a mess. But then he started to go in the potty more, and Ellis had to have a financial intervention with me. 

So, somehow I have been able to convince Mac that a lollypop is a really awesome reward...even as great as a new train! And we are actually making some progress. This morning Mac told me he wanted a lollypop and he sat on the potty for at least 20 minutes trying to earn one...and he did! Hooray! We decided to have a lollypop photo-op to celebrate.

In my mind, I pictured a nice photo of the two kids holding up their lollypops and smiling. In reality, this is about as good as it could get. Mac could not stand still, and Corrie would not look at the camera. So we just went with individual shots. 

And later, I saw this cute scene:

Whenever we visit Granpa and Grandma Belding, we always have to remind the kids to be nice to their dog, Jake. Here Mac is saying, "Thanks for giving me a nice pet Corrie!"