Today I earned a huge salary….or at least those new appliances Joel bought me for our 10th wedding anniversary.  Potty training boot camp started this past weekend for Seth and let me tell you, this kid is a doozy!  I’ve got my work cut out for me!

If only he smiled EVERY time....

In just a few short days, he’s learned that M&M’s aren’t worth his time to “park it” on the potty chair for a few minutes.  And for that matter, neither are Skittles, raisins, Craisins, chocolate chip cookies, pretzels, Godfish, Kool-Aid (oh yeah!), Chee-tos or ANYTHING ELSE in my fridge or pantry.  He’s done with books, Imagination Movers and even Seth’s favorite Buzz Lightyear action figure was thrown from the bathroom after he demonstrated his best toileting skills to the onlooking three-year-old.  Oh, but Seth CAN do it.  He’s done it already, lots of times.  He just doesn’t want to, and I’m struggling between feeling like I should strongly encourage him to do it and just keeping things light and fun.

So, today I took the light and fun approach.

And tomorrow I’ll be going back to the strongly encouraging approach.

I know what you’re thinking and what you want to say (and probably will say) to me, “It’s on HIS time.  He’ll do it when he’s ready.  Don’t push him.  Don’t make him do something he doesn’t want to do.”  And while I partly agree with you on that thought, I’ll argue that I bet you haven’t potty trained a child with Down Syndrome. Continue Reading…