Be Prepared: The Potty Hits the Road

Summer seems to have finally arrived in Rochester, and for many of us, that means more time in the car traveling to activities or visiting family that lives out of town.

By the grace of God, our son recently potty trained. While in the heavens there was great exultation at this incredible development milestone, our thoughts turned to wise words from The Lion King: Be Prepared.

So…nigh on 2 years ago, our oldest achieved the same milestone as we prepared for a trip from Rochester to Myrtle Beach, SC. So a 30 month old and 6 month old sat like cherubs in the back of our Honda CRV as we disembarked for the beach.

I don’t think we made out of New York before our daughter exclaimed in mild panic:

The virtues of this potty can be summarized as such:

1. Sturdy and portable (with those all important side bars for stability when hunkering down)

2. Separate receptacle for catching waste (so you can pull over and “dump” it)

3. Arm & Hammer insert (to keep the odoriferous factor sanely controlled)

“I need potty!”

Thankfully, I married well and wisely. My wife suggested that we bring the portable potty.

I never realized I could get so close to the steering wheel as my wife helped maneuver our daughter behind my seat to drop trowel and properly relieve herself into said receptacle, which we had packed as a last second precaution for the road.

As fortune would have it, my daughter felt so moved to have a bowel whilst we were stuck in the throws of stand-still traffic outside of the fabulous District of Columbia. As our son was screaming to be fed by his mother, our oldest lost a pound or two in the loo. The loo located directly behind the driver's seat.

So…this is all by way of saying: Be prepared, listen to your wife, and pack a potty. It’s no joke.

The Golisano Children’s Hospital’s Celebration of Miracles

On Friday, May 20 – as I prepared to launch this website and blog – I had the honor of attending the Golisano Children’s Hospital’s Celebration of Miracles Annual Luncheon at the Riverside Convention Center as guests of Daniel Deyo’s Family. Each year, five patients from the children’s hospital are honored for their “journey to health.” Daniel is a 2016 Miracle Kid.

I met Fauna Deyo in January of 2015 as part of the Behavior Intervention for Families at Kirch. We met on Fridays at 8:30am for 12 weeks and covered a topic each week to help improve Daniel's behavior in the home and in the community. The program involved work during our session and homework between sessions, and Fauna consistently applied the skills we covered and recorded detailed notes for us to discuss at our next meeting. Each week we built on what was covered during the previous week to facilitate greater inclusion for Daniel.

It was a real joy to meet with Fauna each week and to learn of Daniel's progress as part of our work together. Fauna and Daniel’s accomplishments were recognized by Golisano Children's Hospital, and I feel very blessed to be able to witness and share in this honor with them.