Retrospective

He may still toddle in the literal sense, but he's not a toddler anymore. Bradley is growing up fast! A quick post to memorialize some of his recent transitions:

• Potty - I'm happy to report that Brad's potty strike was short-lived. To recap, we did what most parents do in the beginning - we prompted him a lot. So that he wouldn't forget. Well I think all the prompting made him anxious, which resulted in the potty strike. To remedy the situation, we did two things: (i) we chilled out, and (ii) we started him on double fiber sandwich bread, just two slices at lunch time. I don't know if it was the fiber or something else, but he got the hang of it, and today, he's solid. No accidents.
  
• Big boy bed - we finally transitioned him out of the crib. We opted for a real bed (with safety rails), rather than a toddler bed since he's a tall 3+ year old. He mounts it on his own with a little stool, but he doesn't dismount on his own. So he still waits for me to get him in the morning and at nap. But the good news is that he really likes the bed, and he didn't have any difficulty with the transition.
  

And last, my confession:

• Paci - yes, until recently, Brad was using a paci at nap and overnight. The pacis NEVER left the crib (so they're not a speech delay culprit) - they were only used as a sleep aid. We did the same with Jeremy and I credit the little sleep I was able to get when they were infants to the pacis. Anyway, I was very nervous about this one, but we ditched the pacis when we transitioned him out of the crib and...drumroll...success! It was unremarkable. I think the novelty of the new bed distracted him from the loss.

Brad is anal.

Brad is anal retentive. No, he's not fixated on order, nor does he insist on eating the same thing every night in a particular way, like say chicken fingers with cheese and fruit (hat tip to Kia). Brad is not anal in the freudian sense.

Brad is literally holding in his shit.

This is a new development. He had a few poop accidents in the wake of his potty training, and now he's freaked out. We've got issues.

Potty Update

It's official: Brad is day-trained. He's been in undies for a week, with only one accident. Here's how we trained him:

Every weekend since the Countdown began (about 6 weeks ago), we gave him two hours of underwear time. On Saturday, I would make sure he had a success, basically by keeping him on the potty at the right time. I figured out that he pees at around 8:45 AM. When he "succeeded", I gave him an M&M. On Sunday, I would give him underwear time, but just let him do his thing, which caused him to have an accident, in which case, no M&M. Also, during the week, we started doing potty time after breakfast.

For the first four weeks, his weekday potty time (after breakfast) consisted of him sitting on the potty for a few minutes and not peeing. By week 5, he must have figured out how to hold it in because he started peeing in the potty after breakfast.

So that's pretty much it. But every kid is different, and certainly spectrum kids have body awareness issues that typical kids don't - what worked for Brad might not be the answer for everyone.

There's also a normative parenting issue embedded here - some believe any form of potty pressure or self-imposed timeline is wrong. I see it the reverse. I feel as though independence is a great gift to Brad - indeed, he smiles ear to ear when he potties - and as a parent, I feel obligated to at least give him that chance.

The Countdown, Part II

We're living on borrowed potty time. See, when Jeremy was born, we bought two of the Neat diaper system, which is comprised of a diaper pail and special bags. The Neat system was discontinued in 2007, at which time we stocked up on the bag refills.

Here's all we have left.

That's 8 refills. Each refill lasts approximately 1.5 weeks. So that's about 3 months.

I will NOT buy a new diaper pail. I got suckered into one diaper pail racket - never again.

As of today, Brad does "potty time," but he doesn't get it. He doesn't hold it in. He has peed in the potty a few times, but it wasn't his idea. I've given him underwear time twice, just to give him the experience of peeing himself.

That's the status. 8 refills to go. The countdown starts.