Growth … It sneaks up on you
I don’t know when it happened exactly … it just hit me a couple of months ago and I am just now coming to the realization that it’s a permanent thing.
I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want to jinx it.
Parents are superstitious that way. If we got a good thing going we don’t want to high-five ourselves until it feels concrete.
And now three months later, I’m finding that I can exhale.
I’m done.
Completely done.
And it’s awesome I can’t even tell you how amazing it feels that diapers are no longer in my short-term future.
Huggies. Luvs. Kirkland. Pampers.
On average I used to see about 50 of you in one week.
50 of you every week, for a combined total of six years.
Yup Two kids. Six years of diapers.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for the Velcro straps and the disposable nature of you. I’m thankful that I wasn’t crazy enough to go all Little House on the Prairie and get cloth diapers, the butt rash alone would have killed us both.
But I’m glad to be done with you.
Diaper Genie. You’re gone too.
I’ve completed the diaper phase of parenthood and I can’t tell you how awesome it feel to reach this milestone.
Sure it was my daughter who technically made this achievement happened for the last time in our household, but wasn’t really me wiping and washing and changing … day after day? Wasn’t it me having to wake up in the middle of the night as this Time Bandit woke up because the diaper was overflowing?
Yeah. It was me. And now I’m happy to see that phase has been completed.
Successfully.
No night-time accidents.
No I’m at Bed-Bath-Beyond-and-we-just-peed-all-over-the-Beyond-section episodes.
No. I got this.
Growth happened and it totally snuck up on me. I mean I was training for this to happen, giving stickers, and hugs, and M&Ms all kinds of parenthood bribes just so she would use the “potty.” I knew it would happen eventually, I could see it on the horizon.
I was hoping for it to happen, and then just like that it happened … and here I am … witnessing growth. It’s a trip. An awesome one. I totally high-fived myself and then I paused.
Crap.
Now I have to wait for all the other growth coming my way … the kind that will probably make me wish she was still in diapers.
Dude.
Thank God for chocolate.
The Wish Factor 
Love your writing! Very true to life & wise too 🙂
Ha! Thanks so much. It was a long journey … a tough one, and now that I’m here it’s pretty awesome, but the horizon freaks me out a little. But for now the no-Huggies zone is good.
I was so grateful when throwing out the last diaper. I never looked back! I still remember the smell. We didn’t have the Diaper Genie. Time may creep right now, but in a few years it will accelerate like crazy!
Oh My God. It was so awesome I couldn’t believe it was happening and then I didn’t want to say it out loud because I didn’t want to have any setbacks. But duuuuuude when it hit me that I didn’t have to buy another 120-diaper box from Costco I was like duuuuuuude.
Great news. I laughed when I read your last sentence. I’m sure those concerns are way in the future. 🙂
Oh My God it was awesome news and then I got a little ahead of myself and I freaked out a little. And I thought I got plenty of chocolate for those years…don’t think the store will run out.
Hooray! Just think of what you’ll do with all that disposable income now that you don’t need to buy diapers anymore. I see a whole lot more chocolate in your future. 🙂
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuude you totally read my mind on that. I was thinking boxes of 100+ diapers from Costco duuuuuude see ya later I should have at least 300 by now, but for some reason it’s just 100 bucks. My math is a little off…
I love that picture!
Ha! Thanks! I was searching something in diapers, but then I saw this one with her Dora Backpack Backpack socks and I had to post. Too funny.
Oh congrats! I felt like that when my dog learned how to go to the door and paw to be let out. I totally get it.
Oh my God! It was so amazingly awesome…such a relief to have that happen. I was ecstatic, totally high-fived myself.
Aww, that’s sweet. I think you’ll especially enjoy the fact that you preserved this in writing. Most of us just have these blurry, zombie-like memories.
I try to put those out there in writing so I can look back on them. I tend to forget things so I’m glad I was able to get them down on paper. Thanks for the positive words they’re always good to hear 🙂