Potty Talk

He did it!

Melissa

He wore underwear allll night and stayed dry allll night.  I am so proud of him!

He was adament last night that he did not want the diaper. “No, No, No!  Back!  Away!”  lol   So we took the plunge two days early. 

Then, after he was up and moving around, he pooped in his boxers.  Ah, well…we’ll get there too.  We had been feeling a bit frustrated about this because the toileting specialist has told us repeatedly that the bowel movements are the easy part.  Just sit them on the potty for 5-10 minutes after a meal and presto chango!  Poop in the potty!

The problem, of course, is that Monkey is not going anywhere near meals.  He’s going before breakfast, he’s going two hours after lunch, he’s going pretty much…whenever.  So. 

I mentioned our potty success this AM to his teacher and the subsequent issue and she reassured us that it’s totally normal ((One of the classroom assistants, who has been doing this for 30+ years actually laughed when we told them what the potty specialist has said)).  She said that the bowel movements are the hardest part for the kids to master, in  her experience.  In 8 years of teaching special needs classes she has surely potty trained more children than we have, lol, so we’re going with that.  He’ll get there when he’s emotionally ready for it.  We know he can sense it and there are no more consistency issues…he just needs to mature a bit.

I think we’ll return that box of diapers and let Monkey spend the money…maybe we can convince him to let us buy him some more underwear too, lol.

Countdown to Dryness 2009* – Night 4

Melissa

Last night Monkey put himself to bed a half hour early.  That, coupled with the fact that he woke up around 10:30 requesting a glass of water, drank it and then asked for more, did not bode well for his efforts to stay dry for 7 consecutive nights but HE DID IT!  He woke me up at 6:45 (which is also 45 minutes late for him) and we went straight to the potty ((Ok, OK, I rolled around and whined about how early it was for about 5 seconds before we went to the potty…I am never going to be a morning person.)).  I am very impressed.

The other, massively important, aspect of potty training is at a dead standstill.  He’s gone twice in his pants each day this weekend.  The potty training specialist keeps saying we need to get him to sit for 5-10 minutes after each meal.  The only time this kid sits still for that long is when he’s eating.  We are not eating in the bathroom!  We’ve tried the sticker charts, we’ve tried really fun toys, we’ve tried books, we’ve begged, we’ve bribed…nothing will entice him to sit there.

I really just don’t know what to do.  He knows when he has to go, it bothers him enough that he tells us as soon as he’s done so we can clean it up, but he still just keeps going in his pants.

*Thanks Holly’s Mom for the snazzy name.

Another dry morning!

Melissa

I’m so excited, Monkey is doing so well “holding it” during the day and it seems that he’s able to do the same overnight as well, very cool! 

On Sunday, when the plumber was downstairs cutting the cast iron pipes below the bathroom floor, we put Monkey in a diaper.  The noise in the bathroom was tremendous and it was coming in spurts, Monkey was too scared to go in the bathroom to do his business.  Rather than risk an accident we thought a diaper made perfect sense.  Monkey didn’t seem to mind at all. 

Then, a few hours later, Monkey came running to the kitchen where Dudhee and I were talking.  He was very upset and he grabbed his diaper.  I thought he’d gone and wanted a change but I quickly realized he was still dry.   Duhdee ran down to ask the plumber to take a break and we rushed to the toilet.  Poor Monkey barely made it…he really had to go!  I was happy to see that he is this determined to be potty trained.  He seems to have really turned the corner on this and is much more motivated than he had been. 

Not so much on the poop still.  We still have to catch him or he goes in his pants.  He knows he has to go, he runs to hide, but he isn’t willing try to go on the potty yet.  I wish I knew why :-\

In other news…I’m back to work today.  *YAWN*

He stayed dry all night!

Melissa

We have not been worrying about this, he will do it when he can.  We encourage it verbally and celebrate it when it happens but when it doesn’t, it’s not an issue.  This morning he woke me up around 7:30 and we did our normal weekend morning routine.  I gave him some Cheerios and juice, we played on our respective computers, we had tea (hot chocolate for him) and then I suggested it was time to get our day started.  We went to the potty and he was totally dry!  He went all night plus an hour and a half this morning!  Woah baby.  He used the potty and is now, very happily, wearing a pair of his new Spiderman underwear.

I’m so excited for him and yet part of me wishes he concentrate on the poop part of potty training first!

What an odd duck we are raising.

Melissa

Monkey is at home with Duhdee today, as I mentioned earlier.  He has been doing a great job with his potty training lately.  He will stay dry for several hours at a time.  We are now just reminding him to go potty, if he has too, every 2 hours, just in case.  Today he’s been going on his own/unprompted.  Duhdee decided this last time deserved a reward…so he gave Monkey some M’s.  Monkey then fed the M’s to Dudhee and requested an alternate reward. 

Eggs.

He’s eating eggs as a potty reward.  Weirdo!

I am clutz, hear me roll.

Melissa

Have I mentioned before that I’m a clutz?  Seriously.  I can be standing still and lose my balance.  I’ve actually hurt myself to the point of bleeding while sitting in a chair and putting my hair in a clip.  I have twisted my ankles so many times that I couldn’t even guess how many times.  I did it again this morning.

Monkey and I were walking down the stairs on our way to school when I caught the heel of my boot on the stair tread and went down.  Hard.  I ended up only 5 stairs down because the stairs curve and I hit the wall.  Now, if I were wearing sassy high heeled boots it would be understandable that I’d caught my heel but I was wearing my decade old pair of Herman Survivors ((and WTH, Herman Survivors was bought by W@lm@rt?  Argh, so much for my favorite boots.)), people.  The heel is…oh… 1/4″? Good lord.

The absolute best part?  Monkey was holding my hand when I fell.  He instinctively tightens his grip on my hand when I try to pull my hand away sometimes and he did it this morning which meant that I catapaulted/dragged him down with me.  Ugh.  He was scared but not hurt.

I’ll be fine in a couple days, my ankle is a little swollen and I bet it will be really pretty come tomorrow! 

In other news, Monkey stayed dry all weekend.  He’s been willing to sit on the toilet to go poop and he’s settled on the must-read book for the event.  It’s a book called “Monkey Goes to School” put together by his teachers when he started in this classroom.  It has pictures of all the other kids and of the staff.  Monkey loves to look through the book and name his favorite friends.

Interesting to note, last year Monkey was all about the ladies.  He had 4 favored peers and they were all girls.  This year he has 4 favored peers and they are all boys.  Quite the change of heart!  I think it’s because there were not very many boys in the other classrooom and they were all quite active.  This year there are more boys than girls and they’re much more lowkey.

He galloped his way into the classroom again.  That makes it a full week of ho-hum school drop-offs.  I like.

Umma’s getting BRAVE.

Melissa

Have I mentioned potty training lately?  I don’t think I have since before Christmas.  The reason?  We’ve been lazy, plain and simple.  It would probably seem logical to most people to spend time focusing on potty training when you had a nice long chunk of school vacation to work with but, well, we’re not most people I guess!  We were just so busy running around and there was no real schedule to anyone’s lives so we just decided to ignore the potty training for a while.

Monkey has been staying dry at school for the last few days so that, along with the appointment we had today with the potty training specialist at Children’s Hospital, prompted me to decide this AM that we were not going to wear a diaper today.  Way to plan ahead, right?  Duhdee looked at me a little funny but he went along with the “plan” (as if you could call a sudden wind of inspiration a plan, heh.)

I told Monkey about 15 minutes before we left the house that we were not going to wear a diaper today and he went along with the “plan” too.  Awesome.  He picked out some SpongeBob tightywhities (he prefers boxers but they’re too bulky under his clothes for comfort) and we were off.

When we arrived at Children’s I took him straight to the bathroom.  Monkey let me know he did not have to go so we got dressed again and went to play while we waited to be called.  Just before we were called Duhdee took Monkey to try again and was shot down.  I let the specialist know we were in underwear for the first time out of the house and she was very pleased.  Our appointment lasted about 1/2 hour and while she was writing up the note for us to share with the school Duhdee took Monkey to the potty again. 

When they came back Duhdee was happy to report that Monkey had gone!  Yay Monkey!  Then he told me that Monkey had first requested that Duhdee pee by pointing in the direction of Duhdee’s…uh…”equipment” and telling him “pee!”  As soon as Duhdee complied, Monkey took his turn, lol.  Awesome.  The specialist was so excited that she gave Monkey TWO matchbox cars! 

Duhdee and Monkey dropped me off at work and were going to return home and then make a run to Costco…all sans ‘per.  I haven’t recieved any e-mails or phone calls telling me that we’ve had an accident so I’m hoping this means that the extra set of clothes (and diapers) go unused for the remainder of the day.  *fingerscrossed!*

In non-potty related news…

Monkey let them do his height and weight today!  He hates this for some reason and always puts up a fuss but he was a champ today.  He stood on the scale several times while it hemmed, hawed and errored and they got a weight.  44 lbs, a solid little Monkey if I ever saw one.  Duhdee forgot to give me the height reading, lol. 

He was rewarded with a Cookie Monster sticker.  Actually, he was technically bribed with it since they gave it to him while they were still waiting to get a reading but I’ll call it a “reward” anyway.  A pre-emptive reward. 

He kept the sticker with him and during the time we were waiting for the specialist to write up the note Monkey turned to me, holding the crumpled up sticker, and said “trash” as clear as could be and started looking for the trash can.  Poor Cookie.