The happy ending to a most trying week

If I had sat down to write this blog earlier in the week, it would have been an incomplete story. It all started on Sunday a week ago. We were having a family day and we were out and about. James pooped in his underwear. On Sunday, I didn't think anything of it. We had been away from home most of the day and he is not one to poop anywhere but home. But then on Monday he did it again. And Tuesday. And Wednesday. It happened more than once on Wednesday and I got tired of cleaning dirty underwear, So, I made him choose to wear a Pull-up or go commando. He choose commando. Weird. On Thursday, same thing. More than once. Friday too. Even with the babysitter. I thought for sure he wouldn't do it with her. He did. And then he proceeded to actully POOP 3 more times on Friday. What the world? I tried asking him if he was worried about something. No. Did his tummy hurt? No. Well, and before I get to the end of the poop part of the story, let me show you something else.

This happened on Wednesday. I had recently learned that James could put his shoes on all by himself from my brother-in-law but he was holding out at home letting me and Chris think he couldn't do it. Then we asked him to start putting on his own socks too. Well, you see how that went on Wednesday. This is a clip of the last 5 minutes or so...of the 20 minutes of screaming and whining. You would have thought I had pinched him and made him bleed. I did no such thing. I asked him and then expected him to put on his own socks and shoes. Also, in this video you can see his bald spot prominently displayed. I cut his hair on Tuesday. It was "No TV Tuesday" and I got bored and James needed a haircut. It was traumatic to say the least and I will no longer be in charge of haircuts. It will now be a Father/Son outing. Soooooo, fast forward to Friday. We've had pooping in the underwear everyday, the awful haircut on Tuesday, meltdown over socks on Wednesday and so I thought we needed to get out and go to the park on Friday afternoon. We had a GREAT time...until it was time to leave. I swear there were several kids at the park having meltdowns at the same time. It was freaky friday at the park. We had to quickly stop at the grocery store on the way home and my patience was hanging on by a thread. And then James snapped that thread. He stopped walking with me in the parking lot and took a defiant pose, folded his arms across his chest and gave me his mean face and said, "You are a mean mommy and I don't want to go anywhere wif you. I don't want to go to the grocery store and I don't want to go home wif you.". This is what popped in to my head,

"Ok. That's fine James. When we get into the grocery store I want you to look around for a nice couple you might like to go home with. I will give them your booster seat from my car and you can go home with them." He thought I was joking so I actively started helping him "look" for someone else to go home with. There was a nice lady in the produce section. And the man with the little boy in the racecar cart. James could have a little brother! And then, I stopped a couple. And winked at them. Here is what I said, "James thinks I am a mean mommy and he doesn't want to go home with me. Do you need a little boy?" They played along! The man said, "Well, I have some work that needs to be done around the house and I could use some help with my dogs". James was holding on to my sleeve with all his might and I said to him, "James! They have dogs! You love dogs!". He says, "MMMMMMMM! No Mommy!" I looked back at the couple and shrugged my shoulders, "I'm sorry. I guess he has changed his mind". The man looked down at James and said, "I think you have a very nice mommy". We drove in silence all the way home and when I pulled into the garage, I looked back at James and told him, "I love you always. No matter what". I think he may have needed to hear that. I  know that sometimes kids need to know that even when they mess up or act up that their parents will always love them. I will.

Back to the poop portion of this week-long saga. At 7:30 pm on Friday night, James sat at the top of the stairs- 5 feet from the bathroom- and pooped in his underwear again. This time I made him help me clean his underwear. He did not like getting poop on his hands and he cried and cried. I had to put him in the bathtub to get his completely clean. And then I did this. I grabbed the phone from my room came out into the hall way in front of his bathroom so he could see me and this is what he heard me say:

Hi Dr. Nechyba. This is Connie Lewis. I am very concerned about James. He has pooped in his underwear everyday this week. He normally is very good at putting all his poop in the potty. What should I do? *silence for a few seconds* What? Really? There's a no-poop-in-your-underwear shot? *silence except for James gasping and looking horrified* So if James can go a whole day without pooping in his underwear then he doesn't need the shot? Ok, well I will give you a call back tomorrow night and let you know if I need to bring him in or not. (this was a completely FAKE call. I never dialed a number)

It was a gamble. But it worked! James pooped THREE times before lunchtime on Saturday morning. He'd been holding it in for some reason. We called Daddy and Nana & Pop-Pop and Mawmaw to tell them the good news: James would not need the shot! We are now 2 1/2 days of clean underwear and all poop in the potty. Needless to say, we had 2 days of lessons on Monday and Tuesday and the rest of the week was spent dealing with poop and socks and attitude. 

Ok, it's a new day. And a new beginning. Wish me luck!