what can, and cannot, be flushed

Thor is at the age where, like most kids, he is discovering what can, and cannot, be flushed down the toilet. So far, he has discovered that plastic cups, himself, shampoo bottles, toothpaste tubes, himself, large toys, towels, himself, washrags, and hairbrushed cannot be flushed...did I mention himself? For some reason, he seems rather keen on trying to flush himself down the toilet, and always seems rather sad that it doesn't work. I do not know where, how, or why he picked up the need to try this, but at least once a week, he will have sopping wet jammies or socks and pants, because he STOOD IN THE TOILET trying to flush himself. Maybe he thinks it will be a fun ride.
He has discovered that toilet paper flushes really well, both if you put in one sheet at a time, and if you put in a large portion of the mega-roll at a time. He has also realized that you can put just the end of the roll into the toilet, flush, and watch the paper go flying off the roll, at high speed, down the drain. I remember doing this last one, myself, as a kid. It was rather entertaining.

It is suggested, by the expert, that the interest in flushing things is one sign of petty training readiness. This might be so, but when you have a child who cannot tolerate the way his bare butt feels on the potty, training is alittle harder.
Some autism experts feel that they like the spiral motion objects make while being flushed. This, too, makes sense, but does not bring us any closer to having Thor out of daipers.

Hermes was not fully potty trained until right after he turned four. He could use the potty, and would, but it took a little bit for him to grasp that he was supposed to, regularly, even if he was having fun playing. For the most part, he was three and a half when he had it down good, but if the legos, magnetix, or trains were out, we would have to remind him, regularly, to use the potty, and to make sure that he was all the way done before we got off the toilet.
I will be pleased when Hermes finally decides to use the potty. We have so far tried letting him run around naked, supossedly this is supposed to be a fool proof method. What we have found, when trying this, is that he will just find a corner in which to pee. Not my idea of a good time cleaning.

Sometimes I worry that Buddha will be trained before Thor, but I understand that it will be more dificult to train Thor than a standard kid. I have to make it routine, easy, not scary. I might have to start parking the potty seat in the living room to start, so he has easy access. I don't want to transition him out of pull-ups and into training pants until we have the basic concept down, but maybe that is what he needs to get the concept.

Either way, he is still shy of two and a half, we have plenty of time to work on this.

Hopeefully, he won't try to flush his brothers.