Shorter Update
I took Sunny to day camp today. I met up with him there for lunch, and he seemed very sad that I wasn't going to be there with him for the rest of the day, so I cut it short and took him home.
He had a great time in the morning. He told me had made not just one but THREE new friends, and he says the gym teacher is also his friend.
We're going to try for a full day tomorrow and see how he feels at lunch. I think we should be able to transition to a full day by the end of the week.
In the afternoon he was very testy and cranky again. He had a smaller meltdown while we were in a store. But by the end of the day, he had earned enough "no pouting" points to play his Gameboy for 15 minutes... and he gave it up at the end of 15 minutes without complaining.
A funny thing happened when he heard me on the phone making his dentist appointment. "NOOOOO!!!! I don't want to go to the dentist because they rip out all your teeth!" We persuaded him it wouldn't be so bad... he's stubborn, but often responds well to logical arguments.
He skateboarded for almost 30 minutes straight today. His progress in that area is amazing! I didn't witness it, only because I was taking a desperately-needed nap. My husband is pretty happy about it. He used to be a very serious skateboarder when he was younger.
I made a bonehead mistake last night. We try to restrict his liquids at night, since he still wets the bed. I made some Jello for the first time ever, because I wanted to start a tradition of healthy desserts. I was so proud it turned out right that I served him a heaping bowl just before bedtime. The concept that Jello is 99.99% LIQUID quite escaped me. Of course he wet the bed.
We're not going to take any measures about the bed wetting, other than mild liquid restriction and congratulating him for dry nights. It's not worth it right now, and he could grow out of it any time. We've got a good sheet protector system set up.
I've been warning my husband that it could get worse before it gets better. We're now past the length mark of a visit time and edging into unknown territory. Consciously, he knows we're his "home base" now. But he must also be thinking "if I act up then maybe this mom and dad will send me back to my other mom and dad" and this idea must be very attractive when we tell him things like "you can't watch Spongebob now or eat that cupcake or buy that slinkie".
I always had respect for single parents, since I was raised by one, but my respect has increased even more over the last few days. Taking care of a child that cannot be left alone for more than a few seconds is exhausting even working as a tag team.
We heard two new, earth-shattering words tonight, 20 minutes before his scheduled bedtime. "I'm tired". Wow...
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3 comments:
Oh no…store meltdowns…I hated those (thank goodness mine is over that…now I just get attitude but I can deal w/ that!LOL) and one thing I’m not looking forward to this time around. The public stuff is always so much more daunting…I used to feel like we were on a display case and everyone was judging us!
That’s funny (about the dentist) although I’m sure a few adults feel the same way!LOL
Instead of jello try watermellon tonight! Just kidding!
One bit of unwanted advice -- keep your congratulations for dry nights very, very low-key. I've found that the less it's a topic of conversation the better. Then again, Sunny is a lot younger than Slugger. Slugger did things like trying to hide that he had an accident in order to get the congratulations. And, though he was NEVER reprimanded by me for having an accident, he started to feel that the lack of congrats was a punishment and it really hurt him.
I don't know if Sunny's self-esteem is as fragile as Slugger's. You know best. But just in case it is, there's my unsolicited advice.
My older son was wetting the bed up to about age 6 (occasionally by that time). We never did anything but limit pre-bed drinking, make sure he went to the toilet right before bed (of course that's obvious) and use good waterproof sheets under the bedsheet. He grew out of it naturally around age 6. One thing I found was that the best waterproof sheets were the ones with some kind of flocking or other absorbent stuff on the top - they were more comfortable than the more vinyly ones. But maybe that is obvious, too... I don't know what kind of things are standard nowadays in the US... our waterproof sheets (yes, we have many!) are all Japanese, and there were two types, one more comfortable and one less comfortable.
Our younger son never had this problem, and in fact, since he was quite small he has not needed to use the toilet *right* before bed, nor does he go to the toilet *right* when he wakes up! I think it's called "toire ga toui" or something - I think he just has a bigger bladder. He has wet the bed maybe 3 times since he was potty trained (compare that to countless times with older son). Younger son also throws up less, demands less, doesn't refuse to wear buttons, makes fewer annoying noises, and the list goes on... LOL :) But the more difficult ones have their own gifts, too, and they mature out of a lot of the problems! You sound like you are doing a GREAT job. We are all pretty clueless with the first child (or is it just me?), and having them from birth doesn't really mean we know any better what we are doing for the first several years!
And I totally agree about the swimming!!
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