Regression

Last night, we were hanging out in the backyard having a grand ol' time.  Alex was terrorizing the dogs with his dune car and I was chatting with the neighbor.  All of a sudden, I realized I didn't hear the dune car and called out for Alex.  No answer.  So I got up and walked to the front of the house to see what the little beast was up to.  And that is where I found him standing next to the hostas, in his shirt and socks, getting ready to poop in the yard again.  Seriously.  I get that kids regress sometimes with the whole potty training thing, but come on.  Regressing to the late 1800's before there was indoor plumbing?  Really?

At first he didn't admit to what he was doing, so I picked him up, put him on the stoop, and instructed him to put his clothes on.  He got a very worried expression on his face and he quickly blurted out that he had to poop.  I scooped him up and headed inside.  The whole while reminding him that we don't poop outside.  

The shock of the situation running through my mind was hampering my ability to come up with a coherent way to convey why this is unacceptable.  The best I could come up with was that people don't poop outside, dogs poop outside.  Which was immediately questioned.  "Why do dogs poop outside?  Because they don't know any better!!  YOU know better!!!!!!"