SYLAS'S FIRST AHA! MOMENT!!!!!!!!

(From June 24th)

The 9pm hour today was quite possibly the best 9pm hour I've ever had in my entire life, for I saw my son have his first "AHA! moment" - an Oprah-worthy moment, for sure.

For those of you who don't know, on Monday, I had surgery to remove a large cyst from my neck (almost 4" in size, but not cancerous, praise God).  I haven't had much more than a moment's rest even though I'm supposed to, and I missed a pain medicine dose once yesterday and once today, so I'm not in the best of shape.  I spent a few hours this evening resting and watching TV, which is a good thing, because little did I know, I'd be overdoing it tonight.

I am very lucky to have had the help of my sister, who generously donated a month of her time to come here and stay with us.  She does not have children of her own, so when she showed up here last week, she had stars in her eyes about what she was going to be able to "accomplish" with the kids during her stay.  Within the first 2 days after my surgery she was as stressed as I sometimes get!  However, she has let Sylas eat 100% on his own, no matter the mess, and she has been determined to get him potty trained.  This week he has gone about 4 times out of 20 or so tries.  We really have been trying to get him on the pot as much as possible.  A few times he has led US there and tried to go, but mostly it's us taking him.

Tonight, around 9, we took him on his last trip to the potty before bed.  He started his routine - lift up the toilet seat, put the potty seat on, flush the toilet (though we're trying to get him out of that habit, he LOVES to flush before he sits down) and pull down his pants, then my sister lifted him onto the potty.  Instantly, he peed just a tiny bit, whereas usually he sits for a good 10 minutes or more before he goes.  When we clapped and shouted "yay!", he looked up at us and with a tilt of the head, his eyes lit up.  He looked down fervently and motionless, and about 4 seconds later, more pee!  We clapped and shouted and he said, "yay!".  Then he looked down again, concentrated, and again, more pee!  We clapped and shouted and he said, "yay!".  This went on about 10 times, and all the while you could pride fill his entire body... he sat straight up, stuck out his chest and grinned from ear to ear.  He clapped and "yayed" like it was going out of style.  He got it.  He finally got it.  He finally made the connection between the toilet and what he is supposed to do there, as well as how he can get his body to do it. 

I am so proud of Sylas tonight!