Leotard #2

I'm pretty sure what I'm about to tell you isn't condoned by any twin mom, twin expert or twin book.

First some background:

As you all know, the girls showed interest in peeing in the potty a long time ago. Elizabeth is pretty damn good at it now only having accidents when at someone's house and having a lot of fun. And she always knew when she was going to poop, but chose to hide in a certain place in the house rather than sitting on the toilet. So pretty much every time she disappeared I knew what was going on.

Miranda, who is having major issues with poop, is now on serious medication daily and the poop doctor (GI specialist) said we shouldn't even think of poop potty training her for 6 months after her poop is normal. In other words, a long ass time.

So a couple weeks ago, I told Elizabeth that if she pooped in the potty 5 times she could get a prize. A prize being anything she wanted. And not to repeat my story, she got the prize: a plain pink leotard that she chose completely on her own.

This worked so well, that I tried it again and told her we could choose another prize. So the next time we were at a kids store, we picked out a purple leotard (her choice again) and I taped it to the kitchen cabinet with the sticker chart underneath. (One sticker for one poop...5 stickers = leotard.)

Unfortunately, she lost interest and started hiding again to poop. Then the strangest thing happened. Miranda started pooping in the potty. After one such time, she looked at me and said, "I get a sticker?!?" I hadn't prepared myself for this, so I took the sticker chart and put a line down in and said, This half is Miranda's and this half is Elizabeth's. Then I put a sticker on Miranda's side.

They still kept referring to the leotard as Elizabeth's leotard, so I started reminding them that whoever got to 5 sticker's first got the leotard.

Within a couple days, Miranda had 3 stickers and Elizabeth had 0. A fact that I pointed out often.

Then something "clicked" with Elizabeth and one day she walked up to me and said, "Mommy, I have to go poop now," and took my hand and walked me to the bathroom where she peed. This happened again about 10 minutes later when she pooped. And since then, with only one after nap in the diaper situation, she has done this everyday. Usually, she feels the need, but can't get it out and then goes back a few minutes later to take care of business.

So this morning, it was Elizabeth 4 and Miranda 3 and Elizabeth went into the bathroom on her own and went poop. Then she ran to the leotard and started telling me it was hers. And she was right. I took it down and put it on her.

Miranda was sad, to say the least. But that sadness turned to happiness when I went and got her one of her plain black leotards. Then they both ran back and forth in the house for a good long time, laughing and giggling all the while.