Personality

My goal has been to not write too much about potty training, because no one wants to hear gross specifics, but there has been one funny aspect of Ethan's personality demonstrated repeatedly that I have to share, and in order to do so, there will be some potty talk, so please excuse me (or stop reading now).

First of all, we weren't done after the 3 day program.  Two days after we finished that, Ethan got a stomach bug for the first time.  A few days later we went on a 5 day trip to Grandma's in St. George (no accidents in the car!!!) and some time in that window he got a new molar.  These are the reasons I'm giving him for regressing on potty training two days after the big weekend. 

Anyway, one of the areas he really regressed in in St. George was going #2 in the toilet.  His schedule is to go #2 during bedtime or nap time, so it has always been a concern.  We heard him wake up from his nap at Grandma's and went in to find him without any underwear.  Upon further investigation we realized that he had independently done exactly what I would have done had I found him with dirty underwear: he took off his underwear, put the poop in the toilet (although I wouldn't have used my hands), and then put the underwear in the tub to wash them.  He was very proud of himself for having his poop in the toilet.  He did this again yesterday morning.  We heard water running in the bathroom and found him cleaning up poopy underwear in the toilet.  We're making sure to be very clear now that it only counts as going in the toilet if he goes straight into the toilet, keeping his underwear clean.

His efforts at cleaning up #2 may not always be helpful, but if he goes #1 by himself, he is very good at dumping and cleaning out his little training toilet all by himself, even though we've never asked him to.  He can be very independent and tries to be good and helpful.  Now if he would just get the motivation to put underwear on all by himself rather than have me do it he could be so much more independent (he takes his underwear all the way off every time he goes to the bathroom, but won't put his feet back in by himself).