How We Got Joshua to Poop...

Let me start by saying that I hate potty training.  I hate it.  Maybe it will be easier to train Mercedes (partly because I will not even attempt to do it before she is able to say, "Mom, I am ready to begin pooping and peeing in the toilet.").  All I know is that my son is 3 and a half and we are still having trouble.  He's got #1 down, he does a great job at that--but, somewhere along the line he has developed a phobia of doing his #2 business in the toilet.  For a while, he was going in his underwear, and then we began trying everything we knew to do to get him to stop.  We were unsuccessful (we downright FAILED miserably) and I got very tired of cleaning up his mess.  So, I began to tell him to just bring me a diaper when he needed to go and I'd let him do his business in it.  Eventually, Jon Mark decided that if he was old enough to bring me a diaper when he needed to go, well, then he was old enough to stop using diapers all together (I completely agreed but was still not looking forward to the messes that were for sure going to happen).  Again, we attempted everything.  Here is a list of the things we tried:
1. Bribes of all kinds
2. Sticker charts with a grand toy sitting on the shelf above it
3. Threats
4. A "poopy basket' filled with toys and goodies that he could only have while he sat on the potty to go poopy
5. We went to the store to allow him to pick out a toy that he could earn if he'd just go on the potty
6. We gave showers afterwards instead of baths (he doesn't particularly care for showers)
7. Heart to heart talks
8. Letting him eat candy while sitting on the potty
9. Allowing him to play with Jon Mark's IPOD while on the potty (that could have resulted in a catastrophe)
And, my personal favorite:
10. A letter from Santa

Anyway, I am sure there were other tactics that I'm just unable to recall at the moment.  The point is, I was at a loss for words and ideas.  It got to the point of Joshua holding his business for days at a time until finally he just went in his pants again.  I had no idea what to do.

Until...

Well, Joshua told us that he likes to go #2 standing up.  That gave Jon Mark the idea of letting him stand on the toilet (I know...messy).  He still wouldn't go.  He said he would go if we put a diaper on him while he stood on the toilet... and this is where we get a little desperate in our approach.  My brother in law, Kevin, said to cut a hole in the diaper large enough for his #2 business to fall through into the toilet (messy) and that maybe he'd see that pooping in the toilet wasn't scary.  So, that is what we did... and that is what worked.  Messy?  Yes.  Annoying?  Definitely.  Are we going to keep doing that?  For as long as it takes.  I told you we were desperate...