Success on Many Levels

Rhys is doing so well. We are having great success at training each other. His wet pants make it unpleasant enough that I remember to take him to the bathroom periodically (usually) and I have found the secret to make him go once he gets there. For some kids it is the promise of candy, or stickers, or a toy. For Rhys, it is Sesame Street.

We bring a laptop into the bathroom and let him watch a two minute clip of Sesame Street while he is sitting on the potty. It is like magic. I think the real secret is that he has to forget that he is on the potty and is supposed to do something.

The first time we started having any consistent success with Rhys was when we would refuse to let him get up if we were fairly certain that he had something to let out. We would physically hold him on the toilet and he would start to scream and wriggle and fight, and suddenly, relieve himself. Occasionally this led to very wet parents, but once we figured out the pattern and prepared for it, we usually got him off the toilet clean (us and him).

Then, some angel whispered in my ear to turn a show on the computer and, like magic, he stopped fighting and arguing. He still insists that he doesn't want to sit on the potty and that he doesn't care about Sesame Street right up until the point that we get his pants down and the computer sitting next to him, and then, quite often, he will go in the potty before the show even loads. And then he doesn't want to get off, so I pause the show and won't start it again until he is washing his hands. Then he can finish it.

The best part is that it really is helping, not just for when we can use the computer, but even in public places, if I take him to the bathroom, he knows what to do and he does it. Of course, when we are home he insists on having the computer before he will go, but it is progress. If we take him consistently, he will be dry all day long. We haven't actually achieved that yet, but we have gotten very close.

We are still working on #2, but I have been encouraged in this, too. Two days ago we were at a friend's house and I went to the bathroom to wash my hands. The door was shut so I knocked, and a little voice I recognized called out from within, "Come in!" It was Rhys, playing with the doors to the cupboard under the sink. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I go poopoo." Yes, his pants were full, but just newly. I don't know whether he went before or after he went into the bathroom, but he was in the right place, all by himself.

Yesterday after lunch he stood up and said, "I need to go potty." When Daddy took him, he had a small smear of poo in his underwear, but sat right down on the potty and relieved himself of the rest. Yay! Yay! It didn't happen this morning. Instead there was an epic battle of wills to get him to go more after I caught him making a little bit in his pants and I am still waiting for the rest of the dirty pants to come later. But yay! It is real, good, self-directed progress, and I am glad for it.

The second level of success was funny and extremely joyful to me. Kevin and I were sitting at the table with all four kids--Sam and Benji as well as Rhys and Willow--and we had just put bibs on the two little ones. Sam and Willow insisted they needed bibs, too, I told them I thought they probably wouldn't spill. They said they would spill and started chanting, "We'll spill! We'll spill!"

I told them, "If you know that you will spill then you can be all done and get down from the table right now." They stopped chanting and Willow turned to Sam to say in awe, "Wow! She's a good Mom!"

I can't tell you how heart-melting and hilarious it is to have that level of good-mom-ness recognized by a four-year-old.

And I have a confession. All those "new me" improvements I rejoiced in a while back weren't so unalterably permanent and I wished they were. I still know I can do it, and it feels like that is the me I am trying to get back to, but I'm having a hard time making it work in everyday life. But I am starting to have success again--particularly with tracking what I am eating. I haven't been doing that, or able to get myself to do that for several months, but I have been with semi-consistency for about a week. I'm again working on consistent personal study--scriptures and journaling--everyday. So hopefully you will be hearing more from me soon.

And a mysterious way that the Lord works sometimes: This is an experience I had a long time ago, but was reminded of it today--how the Lord can work through seemingly entirely unrelated things to bring about a greater understanding and to show shadows of truth. Oh, back in elementary school, I think, when the X-men cartoon was on every afternoon, I watched an episode in which there was some virus killing people and no one survived it. If I remember correctly, there was also a time travel element, so when things were resolved in the end, they could go back and save people that we thought didn't make it. And the entire resolution was make possible by one character--Wolverine. I had always thought that Wolverine's mutant power had to do with that pointy hair and how he could shoot metal claws out of his knuckles. But, as my brother explained to me, that was only something that was done to him that his real power made his body capable to survive--his real power is that of near-instantaneous healing. So when he got infected with this virus, his body alone, of all the bodies in the world, was able to survive and produce antibodies to conquer it. From samples of his blood after he had defeated the infection doctors (probably some mutants, but I can't remember who) were able to create a cure that worked on everyone. Thus that he, the only one who could defeat the disease himself, not only survived, but made it possible for all mankind to survive, as well. I'm sure you see what I'm getting at. Somehow, this impossible fiction made the true and real Atonement of Jesus Christ seem a little more comprehensible to me. There was something fundamentally different about His body that made self-willed resurrection possible. And somehow, being half like us, He was able to use this occurrence to make possible a formerly impossible resurrection for all fully mortals. It doesn't really explain it any more than I already knew it at the time, but somehow it made more sense after watching Wolverine do it.

Does anyone else have a story like that to share--where something so entirely unworthy of being related made some gospel principle make more sense, or seem more comprehensible? I would love to hear them. Please share.