Black Nails

When MomC brought Youngest Son over this morning, one of his fingernails had been painted black.  He told me that he got some black nail polish for Christmas because black is his favorite color.

Impulse and Stability

I ran across this quote on a board that I was reading today.  It was in reference to the revisited marshmallow study on impulse control.

If there is any basis for impulsivity, the study seems to hint, it is affected by the exposure of the child to unreliable circumstances, adults not following through, or otherwise not being able to deliver on what is promised.

It got me to thinking about MomC.  And about my children.  MomC has a strain of impulsive behavior.  Her father was mentally ill.  She's said that he was diagnosed as bi-polar, but she now wonders if he was schizophrenic.  He had delusions, and committed suicide when she was about 10.  So she definitely grow up with an unreliable parent who didn't follow through.

One of my major goals is to give my boys a consistent, reliable, stable home.  I think I'm succeeding.

When I told Oldest Son this summer that I had a girlfriend, he was very upset.  My nanny related a conversation that she had with him about it.  She commented that it would probably be hard for him if his mom had a boyfriend, and he told her no, that wouldn't bother him, but he didn't like me having a girlfriend.

I remember talking with my psychiatrist about it.  He asked me how that made sense to me.  What occurred to me was that my home was a point of stability for Oldest.  And change at my house was scarier than change at mom's.

Again with the Trash

Middle Son is now getting obsessive about emptying the trash.  It's about 1 in the afternoon, and so far he has tried to take the trash out three times.

I've seen this dynamic before.  Middle learns some new skill, and he REALLY wants to use it.  Over, and over, and over.  I think he enjoys doing something useful, being helpful.  On the one hand, I want to encourage it when he does something that is helpful and appropriate.  On the other hand, I'm running out of trash bags.

This last time I intercepted him as he was coming into the kitchen with the empty trash bag.  He looked really excited.  He got really upset when I told him to put it back.  So I got the windex out and had clean the outside of the microwave.  Then while I was writing this, he got the windex out again, sprayed an small area of the kitchen table, wiped it off, and put the windex away.

I've gotta find more jobs for that boy!

Trouble with Trash

Middle Son was up in the middle of night last night.  I looked at the clock when I first heard him.  It was about 3:45.  He does this sometimes, so I wasn't too concerned.

He made a lot of noise.  I heard banging sounds, and the toilet flushing, and him giggling and screeching.  Eventually I got up to see what was going on.  I looked at the clock and was surprised to see that it was 5 a.m.

Middle was taking used napkins, paper towels, and kleenex out of the kitchen trash and flushing them down the toilet.  And cackling with glee.

I stuck the trashcan in the bathroom, locked the door, and sent him back to bed.

Toileting

I got a reminder today that even though Middle Son no longer poops his pants, there are still some "areas for growth" regarding the toileting process.  

I gave Middle a bath last night.  After the bath he still smelled.  I couldn't figure out why.  When we went into the living room I sniffed him again, and he smelled fine.

This morning after taking a shower, I grabbed a towel to dry off.  I discovered that the towel was crusted with poop.  Apparently Middle wiped his rear on the towel last night.  Now I know why he smelled bad in the bathroom but fine in the living room.

The smell was coming from the towel instead of from him.

More Trash

Yesterday Middle Son brought me a trash bag.  Then he went and stood by the kitchen trash can.  Sure enough, it was full.

Apparently he has decided that the trash is his chore.

Improvement!

Two years ago I sent Middle Son to summer Camp Stand By Me, a camp for children with disabilities run by Easter Seals of Washington.  Last year I didn't get him signed up in time.

I was filling out the forms on line to send him this year.  It auto-populates with information from your last registration.  I got really excited when I got to the section about toileting.  Two years ago Middle Son was not fully toilet trained-the note that I put in was that he was bladder trained but not bowel trained.

This time I got to check the box for full control of bladder and bowel!  Woo-hoo!