Just goes to show that sometimes, when I prepare a posting in advance (shock of shocks – I actually wrote ahead for once), something else jumps out of the queue to deserve publication first.  I’ll also circle back to yesterday’s Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee meeting in a few days, after I’ve had time to collect my thoughts on it.

So last night, the wife went to a concert with her sister, leaving me with the kids.  I’d decided to take them out to dinner, arrived at the restaurant to find they were both asleep, and so I came back home.  This resulted in the Monster going to bed without dinner (I couldn’t rouse him sufficiently to eat), and with a dry diaper.

When the wife woke him this morning, his diaper was still dry – nothing to be too concerned about, because he’d not had that much liquid intake late in the day – and he came downstairs for breakfast.  After a few tiffs about what he wanted to eat or drink, he settled in for his juice and some cereal.. though he really only finished his juice.  About two minutes after that, he came over to me to ask for chocolate, which he knows he only gets if he goes and sits on the potty.

Fine.  My breakfast was done, so we went down to the powder room where his potty seat is (The wife got him a brand new one that’s Sesame themed, with a splash-guard that should be high enough to avoid accidents, and makes noises when he pushes a button), and got him out of his diaper and shorts.  I sat him on the seat and sat with him for a bit, before my phone buzzed to remind me to resync it, and I left him alone for a minute to go plug it into the computer.

Stupid me.

When I came back, the floor, seat and walls were dripping wet.  He actually had gone… though from the looks of it, over the splash guard.

Of course, we made a big, big deal about the whole thing to encourage him to do it again in the future.  (Yes, he got his chocolate.)  Right before I went in there to mop up the mess.

It’s progress, yes, and hopefully will be repeated frequently in the future.  I think this also teaches me to not leave him alone in the bathroom so that I can make sure he’s pointing downwards…