Goings On

So we are working on a few things here at the DeCarlo home, and we have had some successes that I wanted to share.

First I have been working on getting Travis to eat a greater variety of food. Really, he does FANTASTIC. I cannot complain, (he eats spaghetti squash for goodness sake!) but the are some things I want him to try. Last week I splurged and bought t-bone steak. I cut some small pieces for Travis to try and he put the first piece in his mouth and he started to chew. And chew. And then sing. And chew some more. And look out the window. And chew. FOR TWELVE MINUTES! It took him 12 minutes to eat a piece of steak the size of my pinkie nail! At first I said he had to eat all the steak, but by the end I just wanted him to SWALLOW!

So tonight I offered him salad. He has said in the past that it is too yucky, but I know that children need to be introduced to things several times. So salad: I covered it with ranch dressing and I told him he had to try one bite before he could get down. He cried and said it was too yucky, but I got one bite down. And then he ate another. And while we were eating our dinner, he ate the rest of the salad, and even said that it was tasty- without prompting! Wow! Tomorrow could be another story, but yeah for today!

The other thing we are attempting is potty training. I figure if we are stuck at home, let's try at least. He sits on the potty and pushes until is face turns red and then says, "Not working." So I noticed that he always goes pee-pee in the bathtub so I put his potty in the bathtub so his feet are in the water and that makes him go. The past few nights we have been having successful potties with more each time, and more quickly too. The first time he did a few dribbles, got his sucker, and then peed in the bath water afterwards. Tonight I told him that he had better get it all out because Justin was going in the bath and I didn't want his pee in with Justin. And he likes it when Justin takes a bath with him so that is an incentive. He did GREAT! We had several dribbles (and Randy is teaching me all about how to know if he's done or not) but overall, very good. And he even got out of the bath and asked to sit on the potty and he did more. I know it's a process, but I am encouraged, and that is enough to keep me going. Now we have to work on the morning. He pees between his bed and the door, so I have to camp outside his room to get him before he opens the door. Not looking forward to that...