Celebrating Potty Training!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why are there a large amount of exclamation points in the title of this blog post? BECAUSE I'M FREAKIN' EXCITED TO REPORT THAT THE BOY IS FINALLY **COMPLETELY** TOILET TRAINED!!!!!!!! I wish I could put a MILLION !s after that sentence!! It is sooooo wonderful to not have to worry about accidents. So wonderful to not have to carry around poop-y clothes after an accident. AND it is especially wonderful not to get those stares from the dumbfounded people who couldn't understand why my almost-eight-year-old was not potty trained. It had been going on for so long that I had grown a thick skin about those little sideways glances and crazy comments from people. But if you know me, you know that wasn't always the case. But that gives me a subject for a whole other post--you'll have to wait to hear about those shenanigans. This one is about celebrating my boy!

JB is now 8 (September 12 was his birthday), and he has just recently--end of this summer--became fully potty trained. Just for comparison purposes, both of my younger girls--Jenna is 6 (will be 7 next week), and Ressie is 4--were potty trained fairly early. We started for the first time with JB when he was around 2--ya know, the 'normal' time to start. Well, we discovered he was TERRIFIED of the toilet. And completely not interested in going on the toilet. He seemed to not care if he was sitting in a soggy or dirty diaper. That went on for a while. Then he became a little too-fascinated with the toilet and he began to start playing in it. Not like gross pee water and poop smearing play (a lot of other kids on the spectrum seem to do that though), but he was putting his toys in there and seeing if they would float. So one day he thought he's see in Thomas the Train like to swim. And well, he didn't. He sank. And got flushed. And then got stuck. A 'very useful engine' my ass! We had to take the whole toilet out and when we tried to pull it out, we completely broke the toilet! Grrr!!!

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So we got through that phase, and eventually he started to pee in the toilet. That took A LOT of work at both school and home. When we talked to the therapists about his potty training problem, they told us that because JB has such a high pain tolerance, he more than likely couldn't feel that urge to go. So then we approached it as a timing issue. We took him at regular intervals and he learned to pee in the toilet. That whole pooping thing wasn't happening though! He would not sit down on the toilet. Another bump in the road. BUT FINALLY, after years of poop-y underwear and trying to 'get the timing right', it happened. That magical day when I looked up and saw him sneak into the bathroom (he won't go if he knows you're watching). I snuck up to the doorway and peeked around and witnessed a miracle!!  Praise Jesus!--HE WENT IN THE TOILET!!! Have you ever had a moment when you think you hear a majestical choir sing the 'Hallelujah Chorus' in your head?? Well--that was it for this momma!! I am so proud of my lil man! He is happy little boy!

JB and Jenna on the first day of school this year