Baby Steps...

Well, we've had three poops on the potty this weekend. The first came out of the blue (as everyone said it would). Afterward JJ got a huge smile on his face and said "you happy mom?" and I gave him a big hug and told him I was so proud and that his dad would be proud too. We of course could not flush the toilet right away because we needed dad to see it, and then JJ said he wanted Aunt Cyndi to come over and see it too.
We had been tempting him with a new toy that we wrapped up and put on the back of the toilet [tank] waiting for him to earn the reward. When he finally was allowed to open the gift it was like Christmas for that boy.
Later that day I needed to go to WalMart and the whole family decided to go. Jerret suggested we buy another gift for JJ and try our strategy once again. So he picked out another toy (a big Tonka garbage truck that Jerret thought was on clearance for $10 but was actually on the wrong shelf) and we brought it home. JJ wanted this new truck so bad that he rushed into the bathroom and tried to force himself to go poop on the potty again. He did find it quite difficult since most people are not able to poop on demand, but low and behold, after a few minutes of grunting and squirming, our little guy raced out of the bathroom and made his announcement! We had a minor setback that night when dad and JJ went to rent a movie and JJ told dad he had to go, but dad thought the kid might be able to hold it until they found a toilet. Which is funny, because I do not think they looked for a toilet at the video store, but were going to try and make it back home and all of you parents out there know how this turned out...
The toys were getting too expensive so we are now bribing him with Oreo cookies. So far he is doing well. We even had an accident-free nap today. We're going to take it slow this time. I will not move him back into the preschool class until I am certain he is ready. We don't need another broken heart.