Potty Mouth - 2012 Blogging Advent Calendar Day 7

I wonder how many great inventions, plays, songs and ideas have come to people while on the toilet.

It has to be pretty staggering right? I think we get inspired because if all is going well, we usually don’t have much going on. We are in there killing time. Waiting for something to happen and staring at the walls. So the mind wanders. Maybe you fantasize about being wealthy, or hitting the big shot in a game. If you are a parent to a crazy house full of three kids… maybe you just lock the door and hope for a little bit of peace and serenity.

For the most part, we look forward to going to the bathroom. Bianca is starting to get to that point. Potty training is starting to come around. A lot of my friends that have kids on the spectrum have told me that 7 is the magic age for a lot of them. I dunno about that. Time will tell. But my wife and I can’t wait for the day that Bianca is fully potty trained and “Code Brown” or “Poo-caso” are no longer terms being used in our house. We believe that day will come at some point.

Bianca seems to know when she has to go nowadays. Her “tell” is hard to miss… she gets naked. When we see the pants come off, upstairs we go. We sign “potty” with her, we walk her upstairs and get her situated. She can walk into the bathroom and put the lid up and place her Dora potty seat on the regular seat. She can even take off her diaper and put it in the trashcan when reminded.

Where the magic happens.

Then we wait.

Bianca takes her sweet time getting down to business. There is singing to do, scripting, laughter, soap to try and grab, shaving cream to rub into her hands… lots of activity going on while we wait for the… umm… “main event”.

Bianca has started to use words to communicate more and more. She started by saying the word with the sign, but for a lot of more common words she will just say the word. Lots of times I will sign with her or try to get her to say some words while she is on the potty. She likes when I say HER words too. This is a strange phenomenon to me. Bianca has a lot of nonsensical words (to me anyway) that she repeats. If I repeat those words or phrases back to her, she lights up. She gets a huge smile on her face and she grabs my face and tries to get me to say them again. It is really rather cute. I assume then that the words must mean something to her. She repeats them over and over, and they are the same nonsensical sounds each time with the same inflection.

Then one day while taking FOREVER to go potty, Bianca says. “A… ‘Ahhh’… Alligator”

I praised Bianca and assumed this was something that she was taught in school that she is just scripting.

“Beeeeee… Buh… Buh-nana.”

I applauded and cheered and Bianca smiled from ear to ear. She started reciting Dora and Backyardigans stuff, but I wanted to see if she could keep going. “Bianca, can you give me a word that begins with the letter C?” I asked. Bianca didn't respond and kept on singing her Dora song.

“Bianca… Can you tell me a word that begins with ‘C’? Ceeeeeee… Kuh… “

“Carrot” replied Bianca.

“Good job Bianca!”

“Cucumber, Cat”

“Wow!! Good job Binks! What about D?”

“Deee… Duh… Dog.”

“Awesome!”

“E… eeeee… echo-bush”

Dora related, but I will take it! “F?” I prodded.

“F… fffff… frog. Flower.”

Where the hell is my phone?!? Why did I leave it downstairs?!?

My wife was taking a nap before I had to go to work. She was a couple of rooms over and the door was open. Bianca hadn't done anything like this since her regression, and I had to document It or get a witness. So as I continued through the alphabet, I would under my voice do one of those whisper screams… “Elsa….. Elsa…. Elsaaaaaaaaa”

I finally got her to stir and I instructed her to listen.

“Ok Bianca, Good! Now M”

“M… emmmmm…. Monkey. Music.”

“GREAT!!! How about N?”
“N… ennnn…. Naked.”

What? Awkward! But who was I to stop her? She was rolling!

She went all the way through the alphabet. Then we did it again, cheering her all along the way. I was so proud. I started to well up with tears from a… ummm… allergy attack. Damn cats.

Bianca also happened to poop on the potty which was also cause for celebration. My wife and I were beyond amazed.

Since that moment, we have been able to re-create this alphabet game several times. It has given us so much hope. We know that Bianca is going to keep improving, but to have something so tangible really helps to gauge progress. She is such a smart kid. I know that she is just waiting to bust through those barriers.  We just have to help her break through with lots of love, patience and understanding.

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