As if the Toilet were Made of Monsters

My 4-year-old son refuses to potty train. To be fair to him, he has had issues with constipation and this has made him reluctant to poop at all! I keep telling him that it would hurt a lot less if he would stop holding it in, but he thinks mommy's pulling his leg about that, so we have to get creative by hiding prune juice within chocolate milk - things like that.

For a while, he was willing to pee in the toilet, just no pooping, but now he's become lazy on that front as well. The usual tricks haven't worked thus far. If we put him in just underwear with characters he likes on them, he'll just go in those - then there's more of a mess to clean up and he needs a shower. If we put cheerios in the toilet, I get lectured (by him) for dumping cereal where it shouldn't go. I've heard that fruit loops work better, as they're more colorful, but I fear I would just receive further lectures.

Reward charts haven't worked in this endeavor either, not yet anyway. He seems determined not to use the toilet, even though I promise monsters won't spring forth and bite him in the butt!

I'm considering trying out this site - they say that their methods can help any child to potty train in as little as 3 days. I figure if it works within 3 months, at this rate, it would be well-worth the minor cost to obtain the tips and information on how to make it happen. After I get it, read through all the materials, and put it to the test, I plan to write a review on this site - let you know how/if it worked out for my stubborn little man.

Have you had any issues potty training any of your children? Care to share any tips? I am all ears...

I Don't Think I was Prepared for Boys

Okay, so I have two older daughters from a previous marriage. The eldest was always very well-behaved, while her little sister could certainly be a bit of a mess. And before I had children of my own, I was a child development major and worked in a daycare center. Still, I had no idea what I was in for with boys of my own who would not be sent home to their parents at the end of the day.

My sons are sweet, they really are. A good deal of the time, they will even freely admit that they are mama's boys. But they have little to no patience what-so-ever, love the word 'no', and are the tiniest wrecking crew I've ever seen. The thing I was least prepared for was the sheer amount of sibling rivalry.

The girls always worked together as an inseparable team. To be fair, the boys are a team as well... just a team that winds up smacking each other most of the time and occasionally needs to go to separate corners. I thought there wouldn't be too much of a difference between the genders at this age, but unless my memory is missing some key moments, there is a huge difference in how these little guys behave in comparison to their sisters. Hell, the 4-year-old often has so much extra energy he feels the need to run up and punch my butt in rapid, Rocky-like fashion while I'm doing the dishes!

I'm getting used to the differences now, it has been four years since my first little man was born after all. But when I was pregnant with him, more than one parent claimed there was little to no difference between the sexes when it came to child-rearing. I think those parents are lying. ;)

If you have had both boys and girls - have you noticed any differences in the way they behave? Which gender was more all-over-the-place? Is it just me?