I just finished a rather busy week at work but it ended with some cute stories:

Trying to Pee
One of the things that I work on with my patients is their morning routine. At the hospital, it seems weird to have to actually get up, brush your teeth, and get dressed when all you’re going to do is go back to bed, right? Well, that’s not how it goes in rehab. I saw this little 4-year-old boy yesterday in the wee hours of the morning as he was getting up. As he was trying to put on his socks and shoes, his little bum started tootin’. I asked him, “Do you need to go booboo?” He said, “Nooooo….but I have to go pee pee.” That’s great! We’ve been trying to teach him how to use the toilet all week. So, we made out way over to the bathroom, pulled down his pants and diaper, and waited. He’s really unsteady on his feet so as I was stabilizing him in front of the toilet, he started to rock side to side like he was doing a little dance. I asked him “What are you doing?! You’re supposed to be aiming!” He said, “The pee won’t come out!”. So I turned on the water at the sink and we waited some more. At one point the two of us were yelling “Pee Pee come out! Pee Pee come out!!” It didn’t work but at least he told me that he had to go instead of automatically going in his diaper. What a way to start a morning.

Growing Up
On Wednesday, I was working with a little 4-year-old girl on handwriting. We had the treatment room open and our Rehab Aide, Ian, came in to ask me a question. The little girl stopped her writing and asked me, “Who’s that?” I said, “That’s my friend Ian. She helps us out here in the hospital.” There was a brief pause and then the little girl said, “There’s a boy in my class named Ian and I’m going to marry him when I grow up.” Nice! So I asked her, “So is he your BOYFRIEND?” She sheepishly said, “Yea.” Trying to change the subject a bit, I asked her “So do you know what you want to be when you grow up?” She replied, “Yea, I’m going to be the mommy and he’s going to be the daddy.” Awesome…what a way to bring the conversation back to the boyfriend.