Squidney Update

It's been a rough couple of weeks for the Squid. I was just telling the ladies at playgroup on Friday that it seems like every six months, she has a couple of weeks where she just has a hard time. Each 6 months corresponds to some major life change. Right now she's nearing 3 and potty training. At 2-1/2 she had just switched to her big girl bed. At 2 we were back and forth between our base house and our new house most of the summer, then moved. At 1-1/2 she was about to become a big sister and we had just moved here from Hawaii. The poor kid. Toddlerhood is tough.

Luckily she saves most all of her acting out for me at this point. She's been doing really well at holding it together at church and other people's houses. I guess that's good, right? It makes me a teeny bit crazy though, because when I mention it to my friends they sorta look at me like "She looks fine to me." The other day the ladies who did her developmental evaluation came back to put a plan together for going forward with help for her sensory issues. We left playgroup early to meet them at our house and Syd was not happy about leaving Miss Jaimee's house or the fish who reside there. She had a nice little fit right in front of the SLP and the resource coordinator for the early intervention program. "Syd," I said, "Do you need something?" I didn't even think she could hear me over the hullabaloo, but she totally stopped her fit mid scream and said, "How bout a lollipop?" The ladies were rolling. I was faintly amused. She eventually got some goldfish crackers and got over herself. Geez.

Obviously some of this is plain old 2 going on 3 year old stuff. But we can start to see that she really does need some calming mechanisms beyond what she has already figured out for herself. The next step for all that, by the way, is a Sensory Evaluation by an Occupational Therapist. Hopefully that will be soon. In the meantime, Lord, give me strength. And wisdom. And patience. And a sense of humor.

Speaking of which, we HAVE been working on the potty training and the other day out of the blue, Syd walked over to Cory, looked at him quizically and said "Daddy, you poopy?" To his credit, he calmly replied, "No, I don't go poopy in my pants. I use the potty." And they just looked at each other for a second, and she walked away. Ah, parenthood.

BREAKING NEWS: Sydney used the potty at church this morning. This may be the first recorded incidence of her pee pee actually entering a toilet of any kind. Then she threw a big fit (which she hasn't done there for a long time) but I just realized that was probably because I've been telling her if she uses the potty I'll give her chocolate (M&M's. Bribery RULES!) and then she used it and nobody was there to clap OR give her chocolate. Hopefully this incident won't hinder our (virtually non-existent ) progress.