Recent News

After Christmas I knew I wanted to start potty training Hayden. He was familiar with the potty and would go before bed or baths, but we weren't doing full time training yet. I was sick for a couple weeks and we had freezing temperatures so I waited until that was over before we got started. First I just put him in underwear and I took him several times a day and he did really well and had zero to just a few accidents. He wasn't telling me he had to go so I thought I would try naked training like a friend was doing with her son and he did really well with that too. He mostly likes the big potty with the seat adapter, but I also have a small potty sitting in the living room if he feels he needs to sit down and go on his own. Bowel training was a little different because Hayden was really just waiting for nap/quiet time to go in a diaper. One night last week Josh and I both kept telling and asking him to go on the potty and if he did he'd get a treat. Finally we were just sitting on the couch and he ran over to the potty and started going. We didn't want to make a big deal of it and have him get embarrassed so we waited until he was done and went crazy praising him. He didn't go much and saved the rest for his diaper, but it was a great start. Sunday I think he sat down on the potty five times in 10 minutes going more and more. I think he was getting a big kick out of the whole process of cleaning up, flushing, washing hands, and getting a treat. The only accidents we've had lately is if we were out of the house and bedtime. We need to get a travel potty seat adapter for the public restrooms because they are so big.

The other recent news is that we have pre-enrolled Hayden in preschool for next fall. I was really on the fence about whether or not to send Hayden at 3, but after talking with his speech therapist I decided we would look for a preschool. He thinks it would be really good for Hayden to be around other kids his age-- especially the kids that are way ahead in speech. He will also be forced to communicate with other kids in play. I found a couple preschools in Branson that looked decent so when our parents as teachers coordinator came I asked for her opinion and she highly recommended one of the schools I found so as soon as she left I called to get him pre-enrolled and they said they didn't have a waiting list yet. He'll be going to First Presbyterian Church Preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

And finally in July Hayden's speech therapist made 6 goals for Hayden to work on and gave Christmas as the time frame to have them met. We finally had speech again after a long Christmas break and Hayden has met 5 out of 6 of those goals. The one goal he hasn't met he does about half the time, but we need to keep working. He's not putting ending consonants on some words and not putting beginning consonants on other words. Next time we will be getting new goals to work on.