So long, diapers

Well, not really: Kate's still wearing them, seeing as she's only 4 months old. And let me just say that I don't recall Jack ever being as happy to have his diapers changed as Kate. I put her down on the changing table and unbutton that sleeper and she's grinning from ear to ear. In fact, if she's crying, the one sure way I have to stop her is changing her diaper -- even if it doesn't need to be changed. She smiles and I play "This little piggy" on her toes and she laughs it up; for some reason, that particular rhyme is just hysterical to her. Or maybe she's ticklish, now that I think about it. Hmm. Anyhoo, I still get to change Kate's diapers, one of the main bonding moments we have, so that's always fun. And she can only pee on my hand, too.

But Jack, in contrast, is moving on. He started a new class a few weeks back and on the first day I asked his teacher about potty training. She said, put him in underwear. And I'm like, really? And then: Really?

But we did, and although the first day we had to change his clothes twice before we got him out of the house, twice more that evening, and collected him at school that afternoon to find him wearing clothes we'd never seen before and accompanied by a huge bag of pee-stained clothing, we stuck with it. Second day, Emily picked him up, and he was wearing the same clothes we'd sent him into school in that morning. (That, incidentally, was his 3rd birthday.) Third day, same thing. When he had to go, he told them. At home, when he had to go, he told us. A couple of times he actually went into the bathroom on his own -- all of a sudden I noticed his absence, walked into the bathroom, and there he was sitting there on his little potty seat, pants and underwear down around his ankles, holding a book. "Hi, Daddy!"

When we go out for long periods of time, he wears a pull-up. (Although we're starting to wonder if even that's necessary.) When he sleeps, he wears a diaper. (Definitely still necessary.) But otherwise, he wears underwear: school, home, everywhere. And he's been great. I'm sure there will be setbacks, and he occasionally makes a fuss about washing his hands. And it needs to be mentioned: cleaning that little potty seat is not the most enjoyable thing in the world; I get flashes of our old dog, Max, who didn't have full control of his functions in later years. But then again, changing multiple diapers each day had really reached a point of uncomfortableness, both because of their contents and the fact that Jack's so damn big these days, with legs splaying everywhere. It was time.

So now I change one diaper for Jack per day, and even that will end eventually. Kate's still got a couple more years in diapers, most likely, and then the Real Dads Change Diapers might have to be renamed (assuming we're done, which I guess is just an assumption at this point).

Real Dads Changed Diapers?