Gratitude Friday: He Saved Us a Spot...

The past week has been a nightmare.

And I might be under-selling that.

Six days of potty training and Rhys made, again, zero progress.  Chris gave it a shot on Sunday and still nothing.  We've spent hours sitting on the potty and yes, he does go when we sit there but he never once...NOT ONCE...gotten up and gone to the potty on his own.  

Sunday it all manifested into a horrible headache.  You know, one of those that starts in your shoulders and works it's way all the way up and around the tip of your nose?

Yeah, THAT headache.

It was still there on Tuesday.

Although, I was dulling it to an ache with lots of drugs and caffeine.  

Preschool's requires their three year olds to be potty trained.  I think that's a pretty common requirement these days.  Unfortunately, my son's brain doesn't really care about those requirements.  It hasn't caught up to the fact that's he's turned three and should therefore, magically, be able to understand when his body needs to use the potty.

I reached out to my amazing friend who is pediatric therapist and I discussed it with his doctor at his three year check up.  My friend had no suggestions other than what we were doing but she did say, it sounded to her, like he was not ready.  Like, physically, not ready.  The doctor reminded me that most boys learn somewhere between three and four.  

Apparently, those boys don't attend preschools.

So I contacted our preschool and asked if we had any options.  Move him down to a two year old class?  Send him in pull-ups until it clicked?  Anything?

Nope.

Well, that's not true.  Our option was to keep him out of school but continue to pay for his school until he was fully potty trained.

Listen, if he had given me ANY hope, I would have done that.  But truly, I can see him not being ready for another six months.  Easy.  

And we cannot afford to pay for something for six months that he's not even attending.

So after I had myself a full-on ugly cry, I set about to find an alternative.

I called an audible.

It felt like we were drowning.  He was miserable.  I was miserable.  This was just not gonna happen.

And in His truly gracious, loving nature, God provided.

The first preschool I contacted had an opening.  Same hours.  Same amount.  Right next door to our gym and six minutes from AK's school.

We went Wednesday to meet the Director and tour the school.

They have one space available.  ONE.  In their entire preschool.  And it's in their Two/Three bridge class.

The class is a cross between a Mother's Day Out day and a preschool classroom.  There are older two's, who turn three in the fall, and younger three's, who turned three in the summer.  They do not have to be potty trained but they can be.  The teachers take the kids to the potty on a consistent schedule.  

He'll get a weekly letter, a monthly theme, music, circle time and a daily bible story.  

Y'all.  

I cried.

God saved us a spot.    

So we put back on the diapers.  Rhys was thrilled.  He still used the potty twice today.  When AK went.  He follows her everywhere.  He can take that diaper off LIKE A BOSS so it's not as if that thing is keeping him from using the potty.  It's just keeping ME from washing poop out of his clothes.

And that, folks, is a thing of beauty.

I don't care when he learns how to use the potty.  He's not going to college in diapers.  He'll figure it out eventually.  Probably about the time all the boys in his preschool room start teasing him for being the only one still in diapers.  And I'm okay with that.  Strong-willed little people have to realize Momma's right at some point.  Might as well be with potty training.

I am grateful Chris let me call that audible.  He would have preferred to keep trying for the next two weeks.  That was the plan.  And plans were made to be followed.  But he's smart enough to know he's not here with the kids all day long and Momma's gotta do what Momma's gotta do.  

So the rest of the week, we've gone to the gym, met friends for a playdate, swam, played in the garage, hit the grocery store and gone to Chick-fil-a for Frosted Lemonade.

Audibles change the game.  And God knew it was coming and I would need a spot.  

So He saved us a spot.

Thank you, Father.