Potty Training

Every parent knows potty training can be a nightmare, and our experiences with the kids were nothing less. Unfortunately, any tale involving the phrase "potty training" is bound to leave somewhat of a bad taste in anyone's mouth. These stories are just gross, yet inevitable. But like I always say, "if you're a parent, you're going to get your hands dirty." If you have a sensitive stomach to the subject, then read no further. But if you're a parent then you've seen it all and should have nerves of steel by now. I'm not going to go in depth about the time I woke up one morning to find fecal matter strewn all over Dryden's bathroom (mirror, sink, faucet, floor and all), or the multiple occasions I found liquid excrement oozing out from underneath the bathroom door. But Thing 1 has cleaned himself up and ironically he's now somewhat of a germiphobe. Now it's Keenan's turn. Keenan has done quite well, actually. He caught on and was potty trained after 2 weeks. Now, if he could only wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, he'd be all set. Unfortunately, he's such a heavy sleeper he usually just wets his bed. And under normal circumstances, I would leave him in his wet clothes until he learned to hold it longer or wake up to go to the bathroom. However, Keenan has developed a habit of climbing in to bed with us in the middle of the night, wet clothes and all. Everytime I wake up in the middle of the night and he's there, I feel his pants to see if they're wet. Usually, they are and my discovery is commonly followed by a Chinese "ai-yah! You're all wet!!!" just before kicking him out of the bed. One morning, however, Keenan tried to think his way around this. Rather than changing out of his wet clothes and putting on a fresh set of pajamas, he just removed his wet clothes and then climbed in to our bed. And that's how I found him when I woke up that morning; with no underwear or pants! I could completely understand what he was thinking that morning. "If I remove my wet clothes, Dad won't kick me out!"