'Scuse me while I kiss the sky

Rachel is potty trained.

In case you don't understand the magnitude of such an event, let me explain....

My oldest child is 9 years, 9 months, and 3 weeks old.

I have been changing diapers for 9 years, 9 months, and 3 weeks.

There was a brief (oh, so brief) hiatus after I trained Ben. Roughly 3 months after I finished with him, Alexa was born.

But my tour of duty (doody?) doesn't end there. When the boys were very little, I babysat 3 days a week for my friend's 2 kids....which means I had 4 non-potty-trained kids. We had assembly line diaper changes. I kept the diapers neatly stacked in an easy-to-reach location. I said, "Get your diapers and come to the living room." Nicholas would grab one for Ben, who was too little to take care of it himself. And I changed them one by one....and they threw their own wet diapers in the garbage.

After those kids were no longer with me, I babysat another friend's little girl. More diapers.

Plus, when I was in high school, I frequently cared for my 2 nephews. More diapers.

And after I graduated, I became a nanny for one family with 2 little boys, and then a different family with one baby boy. More diapers.

I'm feeling a little woozy....I think I should sit down.

Wait. I am sitting.

Talk amongst yourselves. I'm going to put my head between my knees.

That's. a lot. of. diapers.

* * * * * * * *

So we started training Rachel a couple weeks ago. We followed the standard Cas Family Method....stick 'er in some panties and brace for the cleanup. The results were typical.

Two days of, "RAH, RAH, YOU CAN DO IT! Yaaaaaay, POTTY!"

Two days of, "If I have to hunt down and clean up one more pee-pee puddle, I'm gonna jump off the Brooklyn Bridge."

Two days of, "Did you just SEE that? She just ran into the bathroom ALL BY HERSELF and pulled down her OWN pants and got onto the potty WITHOUT HELP!"

Ordinarily, I take care of the daytime training first....focusing on that for a month or so before attempting the nighttime training. It appears, though, that Rachel has other ideas in mind. For the last 2 nights, she used the potty before bed, during the night, and in the morning. Her diapers stayed dry!

I'm nearly giddy at the prospect of living in a diaper-free house.

I'm GIDDY, I tell you.













HOORAY for the end of saggy-diaper fashions!