A New Prince On The Throne

Nicholas just turned three in November. Several months before that, he discovered the Big Potty and would pee in it to be like his big brother. Anyway, after a while, the novelty of the potty wore off, and the convenience of the pull-up won over. For a little while, I didn't mind, because I remember that Gabriel did the same thing. You can't force it, as much as you try. So, to entice him, I bought him some new underwear of the Buzz Lightyear, Spiderman and Nemo varieties. "I wanna wear my nunderwear!" Oh, I thought I had him for sure... No problem. We're on our way!

So Nicholas put on his 'nunderwear' and had a few accidents. That's to be expected. But one would think that after pissing on oneself several times, and realizing the unpleasantness of it all, one would stop. And, after a while, Nicholas DID stop peeing in his underwear. Instead, he would run into his room, take off his underwear, put on a pull-up and PROCEED TO PEE! Afterword, he would remove the pull-up, drop it in the trash and put his underwear back on. Backwards, I might add, because the cool picture of Spiderman is on the backside, and what good is it if you can't see it! Anyway, this wasn't all bad, except when he pooped, because I still had to clean that -- and that boy's poop is as bad as any grown man's.

Anyway, last Sunday morning was the last straw. He woke up with a dry pull-up, announced that he was going to put on his Scooby-Doo underwear, stood there and emptied his bladder into his pull-up before replacing them with backward underwear. "THAT'S IT! NO MORE PULL-UPS! PULL-UPS ARE FOR NIGHT-NIGHT ONLY!" I gathered every last pair and put them up in his closet where he could not see them. "LET THE GAMES BEGIN!"

The first time he had to pee, he ran into his room looking for his little pull-on porto-potties and found none. "I wanna pull-up!" he cried.
"Nope, pull-ups are for night-night. Pull-ups are all gone. You have to pee in the potty." And I walked out. He looked around frantically, crying "I wanna pull-up! Where's my pull-up!" I just shrugged and said "All gone". Finally, he couldn't take it anymore and almost didn't make it to the potty. But he did. And later, he had no choice but to poop in the potty too. Oh, he was HYSTERICAL! Sitting on the pot, holloring for a pull-up, furious that he was not in control! Well, he got quiet for a moment, and all of a sudden I hear "I DID IT!" And he continued to do it for the rest of the day. And now, it's been a full week and it's over! No more panic when the pull-up stash gets low! No more fear of running out of wipes! No more fear of having to USE the wipes! No more rolling the trash can as far away from the house as possible! I can't believe the joy I am deriving from this victory. The thrill I get from casually passing by the diaper section of the grocery store knowing I'M DONE WITH THAT CRAP! LITERALLY!