Learning To Thrive

(Image above is Liam chewing down on Mt Mikes Pizza)

Liam's first full week of school went great. There's been a lot of progress and discovery.

His physical therapist said he's doing worse than she remembered. That was upsetting. I work with Liam every day and I didn't think he was getting worse. I didn't see him get a whole lot better either. Two days ago the special education teacher called me. She had spent two hours with him in the class and said that his teacher was a perfect fit for him.

She also said that she thinks that Liam's low muscle tone is affecting his ability to use the

bathroom. The theory is that Liam can't control his urine flow and that he doesn't know when he's peeing. It makes perfect sense considering I've been working on potty training him for 2 years now. Now we're doing a timed training method where we have him sit on the potty every hour on the hour. It helps but it isn't accident free. I'm worried how Kindergarten is going to go if he's not potty trained. It's in his IEP that he's not potty trained but still.

(Liam flexing his muscles in his superman shirt)

Liam has always had texture issues. It's been a large problem his entire life. Finger painting

has been something he hated. Yesterday and today he finger painted and loved it! His teacher Mrs H taped off one of the carpet squares just for Liam so every day he knows exactly where he's supposed to sit and he gets really excited.

Every morning the class eats breakfast together. The teachers are working hard to get Liam

to drink milk. That helps me out because he needs the calories. He's been doing very good eating breakfast with his "friends". He still doesn't eat a lot but it's a start. We're also working on keeping his hands out of his mouth. We tried bracelet he could chew on but he just took it off, had it on the ground wrapped around his shoe so his teacher took it away. So no more bracelet for Liam. He just has to learn to control the stimulation without using his mouth.

Liam's speech has improved drastically. It's almost like he's a new kid. The speech

therapist hasn't even seen him yet but because speech is so ingrained into this school he's improving daily. He's using more complete sentences and talking clearly. Finally he's able to tell me what he wants, how he feels or even just about his day and I understand his without having to decode him. He still has times or days where his speech isn't very clear and that happens more when he's tired.

(Liam loves to get on stage and dance and sing along at church on Wednesday nights)

We were having problem with him tolerating his night feed, then he got better and worse again. This whole week Liam has handled his feed so much better. He's up to 105 mls per hour for as close to 12 hours as I can get him. Unfortunately he got into a coughing fit early this morning and I had to turn off his feed an hour earlier so he wouldn't vomit.

Every morning I wake up Liam at 6:45. He then sits on his potty in front of the tv and watched cartoons for 45 minutes to an hour like that in an attempt to empty his bladder. This helps. After he uses the potty he gets to pick something from the prize box that's full of little toys and stickers. This reinforces potty time for Liam and gets him excited to use it.

Liam and our kitten Ozzy have continued to bond. Liam and Ozzy continue to play chase everyday and Ozzy has taken to sleeping with Liam. Ozzy likes to sleep on Liams pillow and Liam likes to sleep with his feet on his pillow and his head at the foot of the bed. Its funny to see this.

All in all everything is going good. Liam is learning how to thrive finally. We still have a long road ahead of us in life but the story has to start somewhere.

Potty Dance

I never thought that at the age of 3 my son would still be in diapers. 

My daughter started potty training at the age of 1 1/2 and was fully potty trained by age 2. 

Obviously we couldn't start potty training Liam at the age of 1 1/2 because, for starters, he didn't walk until right before his 2nd birthday. He hasn't been able to communicate with us verbally until recently. We tried once before, this last spring, to potty train but Liam didn't understand it. 

Now it's clicked in his head what the potty is and what your supposed to do with it. 

Yesterday I happened to be in the bathroom using the potty (TMI) when Liam walked in. He asked me what I was doing so I told him. I saw this look in his eyes like something clicking together and so I asked him if he would like to use the potty. 

Liam got so excited. He clapped his hands and said "yay potty". And sure enough he used the potty! 

This was yesterday evening, right before his shower. After his shower I asked him if he'd like to use the potty again. And again he was excited. He had used the potty successfully twice before bedtime. 

Today I've kept asking him if he had to use the potty. He successfully used the potty 5 times before 1:30pm. One of those times he even went #2. (Again I know TMI)

Liam was rewarded with plenty of cheers and high fives. This last time he didn't want to stop playing but did without a fight and was rewarded with a sticker. Boy does he love his stickers. 

Today hasn't been accident free, and I didn't expect it to be. I also don't expect any of the days to follow to be accident free. In fact, he's still wearing diapers because he isn't going 100% in the toilet. In fact we've still had several full diapers. 

I feel like starting potty training and immediately changing him into undies would be too big of a change that he just can't handle or process right now. The last time I tried to potty train Liam I immediately put him in undies and that resulted in both of us being frustrated. Today hasn't been frustrating in the least. 

We've been celebrating his accomplishments in using the potty and I think that's going to be our key to success. Just letting him do it on his own time, but reminding him to go. I'm very proud of him and how well he's been doing so far. I don't expect this to be smooth sailing. What I do expect is many accidents and weeks of failing until he gets it down. My expectations aren't high, they're reasonable and reachable. 

Potty Training Day 1

Well I finally broke down and started potty training little lamb. I honestly didn't feel he was ready but he's proving me wrong. He's sat on the potty 4 times today. The first time nothing but he really tried. The second time he tried hard again, really concentrating and he went # 1. The third time around he went #1 and #2!! I was amazed and very proud. And the fourth...nada. It hasn't been perfect. He's gone in his diaper many times today but I'm still proud he's trying. He knows exactly what the potty is for and he wants to use it. The knowledge and the drive is there but we will see how well each day goes. Justin thinks he will be potty trained by the end of the week. I laughed at him because its an unrealistic expectation.  Yes Lanie potty trained fast but every kid is different and Liam's been through a lot. I give him a month and he will he using the potty more than a diaper during the day. I don't expect him to be perfect. I expect accidents, maybe a few melt downs over said accidents. He's a smart boy so he will figure it out in his own time. 

To help Liam stay on the potty longer without getting bored and wanting off Justin suggested giving him a magazine. Normally I'd give him a book because that's why worked with Lanie. Only Liam's attention span is shorter so he uses his kindle to do puzzles during potty time. Hey it works!