She's Awesome!

Tuesday was the day that we ran out of diapers.

I have been warning Geral since I bought that Costco sized box that I wasn't going to buy anymore. I bought it while she was still 2 and started talking up her third birthday. Three-year-olds are big enough to use the toilet. Well, her third birthday came and went and she had no interest in using the toilet. I opened the last pack of diapers and told her that I really, truly was not going to buy any more. Every time I changed her diaper I told her that I wasn't going to buy anymore and asked her what she was going to do when we ran out. Most of the time she got the answer right and actually seemed excited about it. But did she want to practice by wearing underwear that day instead of a diaper? No, she did not.

Ralph and I were quite entertained to see her begin to ration her diapers as there got to be fewer of them. Especially when there were fewer than twenty and she could count them easily. We would tell her she needed a clean diaper and she would turn us down or try and get us to wait. I wouldn't have thought she was that savvy but evidently she is. Tuesday morning arrived and there were only two diapers left. I was ready to not buy more diapers but was a little worried about nighttime. I was not completely convinced that she was waking up dry and didn't want to spend half the night changing sheets or having her crawl into bed with me when she was wet. I decided that those two diapers would be for nighttime only. That concept did not sit well with Geral. She didn't get a diaper that day, but at the same time she refused to wear underwear. In retrospect, I think it was because she knew there were two diapers left. Still, as sullen as she was about the deal, she didn't get a diaper and she did manage to use the toilet that day. She held it in most of the day until she was about ready to pop. She was pleased with herself when she did manage to get it in the toilet. And then there is the excitement of actually getting to flush it! She thinks that is awesome.

She went through her first diaper quickly because like I said she had been holding it in most of the day. So the second diaper was the one she went to bed in. I shouldn't have worried, she woke up dry. Knowing there were no diapers left, she happily put on the underwear the next morning and hasn't had a problem since. She even goes in the bathroom and takes care of it all by herself now.

How great is that?