Selective Germaphobia

Earlier this summer, I wrote about our daughter's dance with daytime urination syndrome.  This was not a fun time in our household and it made going places almost impossible.  Fortunately, it passed fairly quickly and we have no problem with it anymore.

Unfortunately, Caelyn has decided to take a whole different route to crazy town.  She has what I like to call selective germaphobia.  Essentially, when at home and not kept sufficiently busy, she starts worrying about germs on her hands.

She will ask if she touches this or that part of her leg, does she need to wash her hands.  After she goes to the bathroom and she touches the door before washing her hands, then touches it again after washing them she will ask if she needs to wash them once more as the germs may have moved from her dirty hands to the door and then back to her clean hands.

She has come up with detailed scenarios in which germs have moved from 4 or 5 locations in order to make it back to her body somewhere.  Then her hands will come in contact with that part of her body and she worries that she has to wash them.

We have tried to reassure her that germs don't work that way but she won't listen.  Sometimes this ends up with a crying child, a frustrated parent and a trip to timeout.  It has gotten really old, really fast.

The funny thing about this is it started suddenly and it almost never happens when she is busy.  She can be out playing and never mention it.  Yesterday, she spent three hours at a friends and never once asked about washing her hands.  Today, we spent almost as long at the pool and again, no worries about germs.  But on both occasions, she starts asking about germs as soon as we get home.

Wait a minute, maybe that's the key.  Maybe it's not that she thinks about it when she is isn't busy.  Maybe, it's just that we should really clean this house.  =-)

A Milestone for Our Son

This weekend, I witnesed a milestone in our young sons life.  At only 21 months, there have already been quite a few.  First solid food, first step, first word, first ER trip.  Yes. there have been numerous milestones so far, but this was a big one for a boy.

My mom would say the milestone this weekend was Caleb telling her he loved her on the phone.  Mom was telling him she loved him over the speaker phone when Caleb, sounding very much like Scooby Doo said, "Love you."  Mom howled with delight and I placated her by saying, "If she wanted to believe Caleb had said love you, she could believe what she wanted."  It was only after he had done it multiple times, and only in response to someone telling him they loved him, that I realized my mom was right.  I hate it when that happens. =-)

While the first time a guy uses the words I love you is a momentous occasion, the milestone I am referring too is larger still.  The milestone our son reached this weekend was peeing while standing up for the first time.  At least without a diaper.

Our son hates taking a bath.  He likes to play in the water with the bath toys, but he hates taking a bath.  Truth be told, he is not really a fan of the water either.  He refuses to sit in the tub.  He will stand.  He will stomp.  He will play with the toys.  He will fight you every step of the way during bathing and he will not sit down.  Every bath is done with him standiing so I guess it was inevitable his first pee standing up would take place in the tub.

When he started, his whole body jerked in surprise and he scared himself.  He scared himself so bad, he let out a little cry of surprise and stopped mid-stream.  He then looked a little confused.  It soon started up again.  This time he cackled with delight as the pee hit the water making a splash.  When it was over, he howled in indigation.  He would now simply have to play with the regular bath toys.