It was a goal of ours to get Joel potty trained this summer.  After all, he has had a few successful attempts at “elimination” both at home and even at school.  And, let’s not kid ourselves here, pull-ups aren’t exactly cheap.  By the way, has anyone else noticed that the older/bigger the child gets, the fewer the amount of pull-ups per package while the price stays the same?  Can anyone else say “rip-off?”  Which, incidently, is part of the reason why we have to purchase them at such a rapid rate, because Joel will, if not wearing his special pajamas, rip them off and run through the house like a naked hippy.  I’m not kidding, that boy loves his naked time!  It doesn’t matter if the pull-up is wet or dry or poopy (yep, that too!), if he gets it in his mind that at that moment he simply must be naked, that pull-up is coming off.  You know that quote from Forrest Gump about “life being like a box of chocoates because you neva know what you gonna get?”  Yeah, that’s life at our house only that “box of chocolates” is a pull-up that could either be dry and just needs to be put back on, wet and easily thrown away and replaced with a new one, or it could be your worst nightmare.  Usually, it is the first two and that is okay.  We can handle that.  But, the third one, the nightmare one, that is very, VERY unpleasant.  Needless to say, if Joel is not wearing his previously-mentioned special pajamas, we watch him like a group of hawks circling the cutest little nudist hippy bunny you’ve ever seen.

Like I said, potty training was the intended goal, but things don’t always go the way we want.  Since the summer break began, Joel has had an increasing amount of meltdowns.  We were kind of expecting that at least until he got used to the summer routine, but things haven’t really smoothed out.  So, we’ve become proactive.  I’ve been doing my research and I came across some great ideas for children with sensory processiong disorders and have started implementing some of them.  One of my favorites is giving him a bear hug.  Who doesn’t love the idea of Bear Hug Therapy?  I’ve tried it a couple of times in a pinch when I see him getting worked up and it has been effective.  Not only does he tend to calm down after a few minutes of squeezing, I get a hug out of the deal.  That sure beats getting pinched and/or kicked.

Another thing that worked really well is homemade playdough.  I got the recipe for it here.  To keep it from drying out between uses, I wrap it in a moist kitchen towl and store it in a cupboard Joel can’t reach.  When I think he needs it, I get it out and we play together.

I’m happy to say that with just those two activities, Joel had no meltdowns yesterday.  It was wonderful.  One could even call it bliss.  And, who knows, if things continue to go as smoothly as they did yesterday, we can get back to the orignal plan.

One can hope, right?