The Potty Project: Part VII "Party Pooper"

Mission: Potty Training
Mission Target: Cooper Poston
Mission Status: Finalizing...

WARNING:  This blog is rated PG (poop graphic), as it contains graphic materials regarding...well...poop.

At this point Cooper is mostly potty trained.  I'd even be willing to say he IS potty trained.  He wears big boy underwear everyday and has very few accidents at home.  BUT, being in the final stages of potty training, we still struggle during outtings, especially long outtings.  Short trips to the store or a doctor appointment, he usually does great, but several hours out somewhere...that's another story.  Honestly, when we do take long trips out it's more mommy and daddy's responsibility to help remind him to go potty more than anything, especially if he's somewhere where he is easily distracted.

Today Cooper, Chloe and I went to Cole's 1st Birthday party.  (Bro stayed home since it was his naptime and it was easier on mommy to keep an eye on the two big kids that way) They were having a great time playing with Cole and Tanya, and getting in some social time. They got to play foosball, ride on a rocking pony, play with balloons of course, and even "help" open presents.  Things were going great.  Then all the kids went outside to play with Cole's new T-Ball stand which is when things "took a turn"...

Prior to this Cooper had been doing wonderful.  It was well past naptime, so he was a little tired, but he was toughing it out. At one point he went into the closest where the toys were to hide. I should've known then what was happening, but I thought he was just becoming extra shy from being sleepy, so at that point we had decided to leave, but we saw the T-Ball stand set up on the way out and stopped to play.  About this time Cooper started acting up and seemed very stand-off-ish.  Again, I just thought he was tired.  He wasn't wanting to take turns all that well and kept pushing the stand over right before Tanya would go to hit it, so I finally said, "Ok time to go", at which point Cooper turns to me, and announces very matter-of-factly in front of everyone, "My got poop in my pants."  Oh boy... I guess I now know what he was doing by himself in the closet AND why he was acting so stange.  I wouldn't want to walk around with poop in my pants either. LOL

Luckily I already had the bag outside with me, so we said our goodbyes as fast as possible and then worked our way over to the car to get changed.  I figured it was definitely time to go now LOL  I had brought Cooper an extra pair of pants and undies just in case, so I was prepared, but I wasn't prepared for what I was about to discover...

We get to the car and I do the usual "mommy check"; pull out the top of the pants and look down inside to assess the situation, but to my surprise there was no "situation".  Undies looked clean.  I was relieved.  I almost wanted to go back up to the party and announce to everyone, "False alarm!  He didn't poop his pants afterall!"  Good thing I didn't... I looked at Coop and said, "You didn't poop your pants bud.  There's no poop in here..."  He looks at me and says, "No. Poop in HERE" and points... to his ankle.

Yes, his ankle.  I look down to discover a large lump protruding over his shoe inside his jeans.  I do what any mother would do and I feel it...It's poop.  It's a big poop turd that had fallen out of his underwear, traveled down his pants, and landed in the cuff of his jeans.  A few more minutes at the party and poop may have fallen out his clothing onto the front lawn.

Thankfully this made for easy clean up believe it or not.  I took his shoes off, the poop fell right out, and I pulled his pants, socks and underwear off and wrapped em up.  Of course there were several "skid marks" (yes real skid marks this time) on his leg were the poop had brushed by, but those were easily cleaned with wipes.  I put his new undies on and we headed home without pants. What's the point of pants now anyway.  We're just going home where everyone knows I'm a nudity supporter. :)

Anyway, in the end it was all rather humorous.  Overall Cooper is still doing very well with potty training, and Chloe is still picking up on a few things here and there as well.  The other morning she woke up at about 4am with Josh's alarm, had a completely dry diaper and asked to go to the potty.  She went upstairs, took off her diaper, pottied, and came back to bed.  I was VERY proud of her. Granted, she hasn't used the potty since, but hey, progress is progress right?

Well that's about all for this "potty report".  As always, thanks for checking in and you know I'll be back soon!