Up to our eyeballs in poop....yeah, ya' heard me!!

 Aidan has, for as long as I can remember, has filled our world with light and happiness.  His fun-loving personality and heart-on-his-sleeve attitude makes him probably the most magnetic and definitely the cutest member of our little family.  You should hear this kid pray--so cute (God, tank you for mama and daddy and Connor and Aidan, and grandma and pop pop, Jesus and God....and tank you God for shoot guns)--couldn't you just eat him up?! 

He rolls with the punches.  He laughs with the best of 'em.  There's no such thing as a stranger, shyness is unheard of, and his middle name could be play....or maybe milk---tee hee.

With Connor in kindergarten these past few weeks, we've gotten to spend more one-on-one time with this here cutie pie...and we are loving it!

His play is almost totally different than Connor.

      

It's cars, trucks, trains, and planes....and a whole lot of SILLY.  He makes pow sounds for guns and rubbling sounds to help his vehicles come to life.  He talks while he plays--I can't always tell what the story is about, but usually I hear him narrating where his trucks go. And, I've noticed him going off on his own for 20-30 minutes at a time, just pushing his cars around the floor making up pretend games with them.  He's content not to include me...very self-motivated. 
He looks up to Connor with so much pride.  I'm totally in love with him when I see his entire body filled with excitement and joy in the presence of his big bro.  And, thankfully, at least so far, he doesn't seem too broken-hearted if Connor rejects his enthusiasm and refuses his company at times.  To see the two of them together, getting along, is truly the stuff of my dreams!

I guess you're wondering about that title...well, no cuter-than-cute kid can be completely perfect...right?!

That brings us to the subject of poop.  We knew we were up against quite a different personality going into potty-training.  I thought that I'd out-smarted it...waited til he was 3...til I thought he was ready.  Well...apparently, his 'testins (as he likes to call them) weren't ready. 
By the end of the first month of my VERY casual and not-very-consistent tries to potty train, the kid was doing both jobs on the potty during the day.  I thought I was home free.  What a great and smart mommie I was! 

But, poopie-pants put a big kink in my ego-trip.  A few weeks after daytime success...after diapers had been removed and given away, the kid just started back up pooping in his pull-up. 
And, we're not talking a one-time-a-day pooper here.  Aidan is.....very regular.....more than very regular.....like 3-5 times a day regular. 

Once his preschool started back up, his teachers urged us to put him in underwear rather than a pull-up. 

He was good....for them! 

But, he held in 2 days worth of poop at school and then let it all out on his next day home with me.  FIVE pairs of underwear people!!!  FIVE.  FIVE!
Finally, I surrendered back to the pull-ups (BTW, that evening I had one dirty pull-up too!)

Not sure how cloth diapers are environmentally friendly.  I must've swirled those underwear in the toilet and flushed 4 or 5 times each before I was able to soak off all that yuck.  And, my skin crawled thinking about them spinning around in my washing machine.......**shudder**

I'm at a bit of a loss as to why the digression.  Am I expecting too much from him?  I've been told that boys generally have a harder time potty training than girls at the same age.  I know he can do it b/c we had 3 or more good weeks. 

During one of the grossest clean-up sessions, I caught Aidan laughing at the situation.  OH NO HE DIDN'T!  "It is NOT funny young man!"  And, to this he cleverly and in his very cute and Aidan-way answered,"oh, I wasn't laughing at that Mommy.  I was laughing at something else." 


What has worked for all those other mommies of hard-headed boys?  Any advice is welcome!!  Pretty please!