What the Poop??

Poop is a word that brings giggles to Olive and chills down my spine! Poop: Icky. Yucky. Stinky. Smelly. Gross. Poop! I admit it...my frustration with poop is all my own doing. I started potty training Olive before she was ready (hindsight is 20/20, right??). She turned two and the thought of not spending money on diapers and wipes excited me beyond belief! Turns out I was the only one excited about no more diapers... Olive was so not ready; I stopped "potty training" after about two weeks. Everyone kept saying, "Olive will let you know when she's ready!" and those experienced parents were right. It seems like she woke up one day and decided she was ready for the potty. She even decided she no longer wanted to sleep in diapers. Whew! What a relief! OLIVE WAS POTTY TRAINED! HOORAY! NO MORE DIAPERS AND WIPES! NO MORE YUCKY CHANGING STATIONS!...boy, I was so wrong! 

Here we are, two months after Olive decided to pee in the potty, and she will not poop in the potty! Well, let me rephrase that: Olive will only poop in the potty when I catch her in action and run her to the toilet...not my idea of fun! It's quite the opposite actually. Screaming, crying, kicking... 

Brian (my hubby) and I backed off for a bit, thinking that maybe she needed more time. Maybe she's just not ready to poop on the potty, maybe she will wake up one day and decide she's tired of going potty in her underwear...It's not working.

Olive starts preschool in September (two months away) and she must be completely potty trained in order to attend school...yikes! I've been thinking a lot about the best way to help her poop on the potty. I want to make pooping fun. I want to keep it positive. I want her to feel successful each time she makes it to the potty...

Today I finally came up with the idea of a "poop jar." Every time Olive poops in the potty, she gets to pick a special bead and put it in her jar. When the jar is full she gets to open a special present. (I have seen similar ideas used in the classroom to reward classroom behavior, and I have seen it on the internet to reward behaviors at home.)

It is super simple to make and inexpensive. 

Materials:

*jar/small container

*beads, jewels, or other objects to fill the jar

*alphabet stickers

Use the alphabet stickers to label the jar. 

I chose "poop" because I am using this as an incentive to poop in the potty. 

You can use it however you choose (sleeping in your own bed, using kind words, etc,)

Place the jar and beads near the potty.

 Every time Olive poops in the potty she gets to choose a bead to add to the jar. 

When the jar is filled (to the ribbon), she gets a surprise present. 

I want to get Olive excited about her poop jar, so I showed her the bag of beads. I pointed out my favorite one and she showed me hers (the purple butterfly). I took her to the potty a few times today to remind her about the beads. 

She seems super excited about getting a bead for using the potty (she keeps saying, "I going to get the purple butterfly when I go poop on the potty!")...

No poop actually took place today.
 I filled the jar with beads to give you
the idea of what it is supposed to look like!

Fingers crossed!!!

~Meghan