I love being a parent. I particularly love those peaceful moments when everything seems right in the world. The world is full of hope. The end is in sight and you bask in the glory of each tick of the clock, so filled with joy that you may burst. I am of course talking about the moment when you realize your child is potty trained. I’m calling it. Griffin is potty trained. To give you a moment of perspective, I have only one in diapers. ONE. The last time this happened was 5.5 years ago, before Maxton was born. I’ve had three in diapers. Twice.
When we had our children insanely close together, I knew that diaper changing was going to be a huge part of it, but I looked at it as an advantage. My reasoning went like this: if you space your children approximately 3.5 years apart (so far, the approximate age of potty training for my children), and you have four children, you will have changed diapers for 14 years. That is a lot of years. Doing it my way, you will have to change the same amount of diapers, but it is condensed to 7.5 years. That is a difference of 6.5 YEARS. Yes, I know my math skills astound. I took calculus.
Baby, I only have 1.5 years left! Maybe sooner!
Griffin is strutting around the house, hugely proud and stuffed with candy. I bribed him. Bribing is one of my main parenting tools. We got a huge fishbowl, filled it with Dots and Tootsie Rolls and he got a treat for every successful bathroom trip. When all the candy is gone, he is getting a fish. We’ve never had a pet, so this is big time stuff. I've been generously helping him along by donating my teeth and daily calorie allotment to eating tootsie rolls. Especially the vanilla flavor-rolls. It's my duty as a mother.
In other Griffin news, we recently had our first “where do babies come from” talk. His aunt is pregnant and due soon, so it’s been on his mind. I explained briefly.
His next question?
“Mommy, what happens if somebody eats your brains?”
I know the feeling about having kids close together. Our kids are 2 years 10 days apart. We changed diapers/pull ups for a few years. Though those first years are truly the most precious and it only gets more rewarding.
ReplyDeleteYes, I absolutely love that moment when you can say that a child is potty trained! I had to seriously laugh at the last part of that. I would love to have a glimpse inside that kid's head to see how it works just once. And the funniest part is, that is just so Griffin to ask that kind of a question right after asking where babies comes from.
ReplyDeleteMy daughter is 4 1/2 months...and diapers changes seem never ending!!!Now you have me thinking about when to have another one :)
ReplyDeleteI LOVE the question about eating brains. I laughed out loud! Too cute!
The vanilla ones are my favorite too. Congratulations on potty training! =)
ReplyDeleteMy baby is only 2 1/2 months old, so I have a lot of diapers in my future. But, I will definitely be remembering your fish reward system when he gets to the potty training age. I always wondered how people transitioned from rewarding every successful potty trip...you can't do that for the rest of their lives! Your fish idea is perfect.
ReplyDeleteI totally plan to bribe my daughter! Love it! Congrats on being down to one in diapers. That's huge.
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