The Flying Pee

I know it is an odd title, but it fits. You see, T gets grumpy when he is tired. Since he decided on his own at some point that he was finished with naps he gets grumpy most evenings before bed time. It is hard to time bed time around this issue. If you put him to bed too early, he will work himself up while in bed and just start playing in bed and has no problem staying awake until 9 O'clock. He goes to bed at around seven. So, if we try to wait a little longer until he looks tired, then you risk he will hit the very grumpy stage and the rest is a battle of wills until he is in bed. Getting a kid to brush his teeth and take a bath when he doesn't want to participate can surely take an extraordinary effort by the parent.

Well last night I went too long. He started to look sleepy and I thought it was the right time to go, but he had just started playing a game on his computer. That was a bad sign. I tried to lure him away peacefully, but things escalated quickly and it ended up with me carrying him to the bathroom. Screaming, kicking, crying, the whole works. So in the bathroom we needed to get back to calm. He was sitting on the floor refusing to participate in going to the bathroom so we could get into the tub. So I tried talking him down a little. We talked a little until he was a bit calmer, and then I asked if he wanted to go pee pee sitting down or standing up. He just got the hang of standing up to go about a month ago, so its still a little fun. But his answer was,"I don't want to pee sitting, and I don't want to go pee standing either."

"Hmmm", I said. "Well, if you don't want to go sitting, and you don't want to go standing, then I guess the only way left is to go laying down." He looked at me all confused. We got his clothes off because he was curious about this lying down method. I then picked him up, face down, and held him hovering flat across my arms with his pee pee just over the toilet bowl. I was actually kind of kidding around thinking he would say,"No" and I would put him down to try going standing up. But instead, I noticed that he got quiet, and his body tightened up a little, and he went pee while floating above the toilet like Superman. When he was done, I put him down and we both started laughing pretty hard. The rest of the process then went very easily as every time I could see he was thinking about something, I just started laughing and said,"You went pee pee laying down. No one goes pee pee laying down." We would both start laughing again and he would keep on task getting ready for bed. He got to bed, and we read his bed time story. He was out a few minutes later. A success, and all because of the magnificent flying pee.

OK now I hear people saying, as did my wife, "what are we going to do tomorrow when he won't pee normally and demands to be held like superman over the toilet. Yes, that was a risk, and no, I of course had not thought it through when I did it. I'm more of a act on the moment person which I know is sometimes bad. Today, I took him to the bathroom in the morning, and it did come up. He asked me to hold him over the toilet again. I just said, "You are a big boy, and my back hurts a little from holding you like that, so we should just go normally from now on." Luckily that was all it took, and he had not asked for the rest of the day. It may not be over, but I choose to believe it is all good.