Yes, I believe the day has finally arrived...Caleb is pooping in the potty! At a whopping 4 years old!! For crying out loud, it's finally here.
Of course, this journey has been long coming. The 2 years or so of trying have not been without incident. I have recorded several of them in here, but here is another to add to the list. Caleb has a distended bowel, I have no idea if I spelled that correctly or not. Whatever it is, it's in his large intestines therefore our pediatrician informed me that until that got sorted out I should just forget potty training. So, we've been working on that since May and have finally got that worked out. Now, he actually knows when he has to use the bathroom. Last week, we were outside playing and he had started using the potty a couple of times. But, since we were outside he didn't want to take the time to go in. So, what does the child do? Goes into the garage, pulls down his pants and undies, and poops in the garage floor in the corner. Seriously? Why can't he just use the grass like a dog? At this point, he runs in, informs me of the mishap not that I cannot see it since he's now running into the house sans pants and underwear. John then comes running in with Linley Claire, she was playing outside, walked into the garage, stepped in the poop, tried to get it off her feet with her hands, and now she has poop on her. Are you kidding me? I mean seriously? Oh yeah, failed to mention we were leaving in about 10 minutes to go somewhere.
Mention here: My mom now says that we are going to have to start borrowing money from Caleb. She has given him a dollar everytime he poops in the potty and is giving our inheritance away. I, for one, think it is well worth it.
Yesterday Caleb has pooped in the potty before we go to Homeschool Playgroup at the park. We are pulling up and Caleb then starts a discussion:
Caleb: Mom, I scratched my butt and now my fingers smell like poop.
Me: Caleb, I wiped you very good, I know you don't have poop on you.
And so goes the discussion downhill from there. We pull up to the park, and what does the child do? Grab the wipes, pull down his pants and start wiping his tail in the van. Then:
MOM!! SEE I TOLD YOU YOU DIDN'T WIPE GOOD!!
As he proceeds to show me the wipe. Now, I think I could have gone all day without that discussion and visual. If you know me you know my germaphobia, so I grab the trashbag, have him put the wipe in it, then squirt half a bottle of hand sanitizer on him, which he then wipes on the passenger seat. Mind you, this is the same boy who for a year and a half now has pooped in his underwear and now he can't stand for anything to be on is bottom.
So, then we play at the park and the boys start getting to that point, you know, when a meltdown is coming up soon. So, it's burning up and they start whining. I tell them to go grab the water out of the van. *Note, in school this week we have been talking about the character trait of thoughtfulness and also about firefighters so we made brownies to take to the firemen after the park. Ethan returns from the van,
Ethan: Mom. Caleb stepped in the brownies.
Me: What?
Ethan: He stepped in the brownies.
Now may I say here that I am surrounded by about 10 other moms and children running everywhere plus I am pushing LC in the swing.
Me: Okay. We'll deal with it.
Inwardly, I am screaming but then I think to myself: Well, there's nothing we can do about it now. So, Caleb returns and I ask him:
Caleb, did you step in the brownies?
Caleb: Yes, I actually did it, (Which means accidentally).
Now, I'm thinking to myself, how can you accidentally step in a 9X13 pan of brownies that have a humongous red lid on top that are also sitting in the passenger seat? Still baffled by that one.
Meltdown is in full swing so we leave and make a pit stop by the church, where we fuel up on water and a knife to to fix the brownies, luckily he just smooshed the icing on top of pan. We deliver the brownies, and make it home which is only by the hand of God.
Today has been an extremely hot day. So, we end up outside and what do the kids want to do? Play on the trampoline, naked, with me spraying the waterhose at them. And you know what? I don't mind doing it one bit. They giggle and laugh and I spray them with the waterhose. Of course, who pulls up but the mail man and my mom. No telling what is going through that mailman's head. I know our usual mail lady, whom we go to church with, says that if she ever is going to see naked kids it's always at our house.
Caleb poops in the potty, mind you he ran inside since we were outside. I wipe him and I'm so happy about it. After dinner we are riding bikes and Caleb starts following me. And now our discussion begins again:
Caleb: Mom, I scratched my butt and it smells like poop.
Me: Caleb, poop comes out of your bottom. That's why it smells like poop.
Caleb: Nuhuh. Mom, you didn't wipe me good.
Me: Caleb I wiped you with a wipe. Yes I did.
Caleb: Nuhuh. I'm right and you're wrong you didn't wipe me good.
Me: Get on the trampoline, I'm fixing to spray you again with the waterhose.
Yes, we ended the day with a good jump on the trampoline and water hose.
