Adventures in Potty Training, Rounds 2 & 3
Sometimes I just have to look at my kids to remember how fun the little stuff in life really is. I mean, when was the last time you had THIS much fun on the potty?!
Or felt this damn proud of an accomplishment?!
Or went about your life totally uninhibited [as a side note, a little inhibition goes a long way…but screw that when you’re a toddler!]
Yes, we are potty training two kids at once. Like a bandaid. They are both showing signs of readiness; Shane will come tell us when he pooped, and Fin will tell us before and after she does. She’s been ready for awhile, but we’ve held off because she’s a little scary with it. Finley actually attempted potty training when she was about 16 months old, but became so freakishly obsessive over it that we thought she was going to push an internal organ out. She’d turn purple from pushing, and I’m pretty sure she would have done it until she passed out if we didn’t pull her off the potty each time. So we stopped letting her sit on the potty. When I told my mom about that, her response was “oh honey, you did the same thing at 17 months…pushed so hard you had a terrible fissure and we couldn’t let you sit on the potty until it healed because of how you obsessed over controlling your bowels.” Well, I don’t know what is wrong with me, but apparently my daughter inherited the “control freak” gene too [though I’m REALLY trying to go away from that with my whole “mean to be” stuff;]. And the above picture of a toddler biting her toenails? That could have been me as a child too. Eww. Today when she peed on the potty, the first thing she wanted to do was run to the basement to tell Jack. So cute how badly she wants her big brother’s praise. Shane’s interest in potty training is more normal in that he is excited to sit on the potty, but bored after about 30 seconds. At least he likes to be clean, unlike Jack at that age who would have preferred sitting in crap all day to having to pause his playing for a diaper change!
The other little milestone we have hit around here is an interest in anatomy. Fabulous. At 21 months, Finley is all about calling out peni$es and va9inas. Every time we’re changing a diaper, she’s right there commentating. She’ll run through everyone she can think of and assign either a peni$ or a va9ina to them (accurately, I might add), saying “Shane have a peni$, Jack have a peni$, daddy have a peni$, mommy NOT have a peni$ (sometimes she’ll say what we DO have), etc. I’m waiting for her to start pointing to men and women on the streets and yelling “there’s a peni$” or “that one’s a va9ina!” I’m just FLOORED that little kids get the concept of gender at such a young age.
Tomorrow morning we have a big evaluation for Shane. We still have a whole team of people working with him, and tomorrow he has another cognitive evaluation with a child psychologist that was requested by the developmental pediatrician who is now part of our therapy team. It’s slightly different that the one we did last year, but the results will probably dictate our next step, diagnostically and therapeutically, to some degree. I am so amazed at how awesome our county’s services are – the developmental pediatrician will be doing a home visit with us in a few weeks to see Shane in his normal environment, at home, with us. Shane is a tough nut to crack. He SHOCKS us all the time with how much he knows. He sang me the ABC’s last night (to the tune, and using sounds that resemble the correct letters). He can identify just about every letter in the alphabet. He knows his colors. He has definitely shown us that he knows a lot more than he can communicate to us. That said, we still aren’t 100% sure his is a purely expressive language delay. We are just praying it’s something we can overcome with therapy, and that we can get him caught up before he’s school age. But whatever it is, he’s our Bug and we will do everything possible to help him thrive.
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9 comments
I think Filley is a cutest todler on the potty ever, with her lovely tush, and certainly can do multi task, entertained herself,while waiting for…and hoping for more good news on Shane’s therapy tomorow.
i think it is smart to potty train them together.
we are fighting with early intervention for what lulu needs right now. maybe i need a developmental ped. i just want to hurt someone real bad right now i am so mad at early intervention lol
Let me know if you would be willing to talk to me about your experience with speech delays. I just called my country program today to get my daughter evaluated and she is just about Shane’s age (I think). She was adopted at around 20 months though so perhaps her delay is due to that - not sure. I think you can see my email when I post a comment - if not let me know. Hope we can chat by email - thanks!
We have been going through the whole gammet of services since our son was born and adopted. We are just finally getting a Developmental Pediatrician onboard with our “team” and I am so impressed. Our son has a significan speech delay, but like your bug, he ‘knows’ so much, but has an inability to express it. He has had services for the past 36 months and we were able to just get him into a mainstream preschool program with an Individualized Education Plan, but it has been an extremely tough road!! He has many, many other issues that are probably very different from Shane, but nontheless, I just wanted to tell you that I think that everything you guys are doing for him is awesome. If we don’t advocate for our kiddos, who will?? The pics are absolutely adorable and we are potty training 2 right now also. I think that “I” am almost potty trained!! hehe…them on the other hand…hmmmm not so great!!
Wow, Finley! She is just beautiful. And she looks like a little girl, not a baby anymore. I love her eyelashes.
Good luck with Shane’s eval. He is a smart little kid, he just needs a little more help communicating all he knows and feels. I’m so glad you have such good services available for him!
LMAO! Oh the time when they learn body parts.
Funny related story. I teach two year olds. Last session I had a little girl who called them Woo woo and Wee wee. We don’t shy away from body parts as I potty train so to me those words were normal. In the same group I had a parent who was very.. uhm conservative is a nice word. The particular little girl walked right up to him and proceeded to explain to him that he had a Wee wee and so did his son and his wife had to have a woo woo or they wouldn’t have had a baby. His face turned all shades of red to purple then back to a slight pink. It took everything in me not to die laughing at the whole situation.
Good for Shane! I am so glad you are parents who are willing to understand that your child may have a problem and instead of making excuses actually taking proactive steps to help him. I am so glad you both were brought into Shane’s life.
thinking about you guys today, wondering how it went for Shane(and you guys…)
My son is apraxic, and some of the ways you describe Shane sound very familiar to me. Austin did a lot of “singing” wit perfect intonation, but was only able to make a few different sounds. Inour case, it is a very severe case, but he has started making excellent gains lately. (He is 4.) we have been to a lot of specialist, and it is very difficult to diagnose apraxia so young, but well. Just in case you hadn’t heard of this particular thing, which I’m sure you have actually!
I can’t believe how big Fin is! She’s looks like a little girl now, not so much a baby. That pic of her biting her toenails will make excellent discussion topics for suitors later, I’m sure.
Good luck with Shane’s eval!
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