I've thrown in the towel

I've decided it is time for me to take a break from potty training.

B was doing well. Well, he did well as long as he ran around naked. The minute I put a diaper/underpants/shorts on him, he would pee and/or poop. When he was naked, he would run to the potty all on his own and go. No problems.

Something happened last week. I'm not sure what. First he peed in a cereal bowl on the kitchen floor. That was nice to find. Later he peed on the floor and in a chair and didn't tell me. I figured it out because he was missing his shorts. I went back to no clothes and tried not to take him out of the house.

On Tuesday, we had to go to the dentist. I put him in a diaper but bribed him to use the potty. I told him if he was dry when we got home he could have a treat. He asked to use the potty at the dentist office. I didn't help him tuck & he started spraying everywhere. I had the diaper in my hand and trapped the spray and it wasn't a big mess. Since I hadn't brought the diaper bag, I just put his shorts back on him and decided to take the chance.

After the dentist we went to the cousins' house to show off A's mouth minus her butterfly. B was still without a diaper. He asked to go play upstairs. I told him that he had to go potty first. He did. He had already pooped in the potty that morning. I thought for sure we were safe.

I was talking Sister#2 when we heard a noise upstairs. My sister asked B what he was doing and he proudly said, I pooped. Oh the horror. I ran upstairs and sure enough he had pooped. He pooped with his shorts on, it fell out onto the floor and he stepped in it and walked around. He smeared it in a wicker toy basket (luckily it was empty of toys) and then he walked around some more. There were smears of it everywhere. My sister followed me up to see what had happened and promptly ran downstairs because it stank so bad. I told B to stand still and ran down to get cleaning supplies. By the time I got back upstairs, B had decided to play in the it with a plastic T-rex. The T-rex had eaten and smashed the poop and stomped all over the carpet. More poop in even more places. At that point I yelled at DH to forget the television and come up to help. He got B in the shower, cleaned him off, and threw away the toy basket and the dinosaur. I spent what seemed like hours cleaning the carpet and crying.

It has been 2 days now. B has spent the last 2 days back in diapers. At this point, I'm perfectly fine with him entering kindergarten or college in diapers. I just don't want to clean up a mess like that ever again.