An underwear success story...

It's the little things in life that make me ecstatic these days. As I wrote about a few weeks back, Nicholas suddenly began peeing on the potty one day...completely and totally of his own accord. In much the same way, he suddenly decided last week that he would begin pooping on the potty. Again...out of the blue without so much as a word to his mommies about it. We were more than a little overjoyed, to say the least. He'll be four years old next month. It's about time!

We've been struggling since he first peed on the potty, however, with Nicholas refusing to wear underwear. He flat out would not put them on. He was a Pull-up boy all the way. We tried gentle coaxing, begging, bribing...all of those useless and utterly ineffective parenting tools. Nicholas would not budge. He said he did not like the way underwear feel. Specifically, he said, "Underwear makes my penis feel uncomfortable." Not having a penis myself, I didn't really have an argument for that one. Perhaps underwear DO make a penis uncomfortable....how should I know? We tried boxers. We tried briefs. Nicky vehemently refused and clung to his Toy Story Pull-ups for dear life. Until today...

Grandma showed up at the door bearing gifts this afternoon. And they weren't her usual sweet-laden, mania-producing, hop-them-up-on-sugar-and-then-leave grandmotherly "gifts." Actually, she DID bring a whole crate of chocolate chip cookies...and she DID manage to create a bit of a sugar-induced frenzy this evening. However, I can forgive her for that this one time because her other gift was simply brilliant. She brought something that I had never even considered...something so simple....so logical...she brought boxer briefs. Grandma showed up bearing a 3-pack of multi-colored boxer briefs. Initially, Nicholas was skeptical. However, after coaxing them on him and distracting him with chocolate chip cookies, I believe we have an underwear success story here, people! He has been wearing them all day. He even had a bit of a dribbling incident this afternoon and reached for another pair of the boxer briefs instead of his usual Pull-up. I don't say this often, but I believe that my mother is a genius! If I didn't know any better, I would think she had done this child-rearing thing before....