Progress

We’ve been trying to potty-train Zach now for several months and progress has been almost non-existent.  All of his little buddies are now veterans on the potty and I’m starting to be a little embarrassed that I’m having so much trouble, especially when parents ask me for advice in clinic about potty-training.  Being a parent has made me a very humble pediatrician at times.

Anyway, we had a breakthrough today!  On the advice of our friends in Montana, I’ve been letting Zach run around naked as much as possible.  Last night this resulted in him crawling through the dog door and pissing and crapping in the dog’s yard.  Joe (bless him) even went out and used the dog’s poop scooper to clean up the mess.  Zach was thrilled (about having his poop scooped), and so was I.  Hey, any poop not in the diaper is progress, right?

Then this morning, I took him outside to pee, he crawled up a pile of gravel with his naked little body and procedeed to thouroughly mark his scent over the entire pile, even scratching with his foot cover up his pee; it was like watching a cat in her litter box.  Then a few hours later, I couldn’t find him anywhere.  He usually disappears like that when he needs to take a dump.  Oh SHIT!, I thought (pun totally intended) as I raced around the house looking for the pile of crap that was waiting for me somewhere.  I noticed the bathroom door was closed and I peeked my head in, and there was Zach proudly holding the cup from his potty which was filled with pee and a huge turd.  I have never been so proud.