January 27, 2003 - Monday
On Saturday morning we switched Harry to Pull-up diapers. It wasn't part of any carefully thought out strategy for potty training, just that we had bought them on a whim a few days earlier and that we had the occasion to change Harry midmorning early in the weekend. I guess we thought we'd try them out for the weekend and see how it went. But, two days hence, there is no turning back.

Curiously, Harry put up quite a fight about them initially. It's since become obvious that he knows many of the older kids in preschool wear pull-ups and that they have something to do with peeing on the potty, and that is something Harry stills resists beyond his otherwise very regular and objection-less effort before his nightly bath. His complaints about trying the pull-ups were kind of unexpected, at least their magnitude, making the situations plenty awkward. I suppose we could have just backed off, but it all happened so quickly. We had the idea, the timing was right and it seemed like an important step forward to get this training process jump-started. Somehow turning back at that moment, even with Harry manic protest, seemed more counterproductive than accommodating. It just seemed to me that once he got them on and realized that they were actually more comfortable than regular diapers, that they were just like the swim diapers he wears at the beach, he would be OK and not somehow scarred for life by the incident. In hindsight, I do believe that's what happened. He quickly came around, although I'm not sure that he wasn't initially just trying to act super nice following an unsavory outburst, and now continually asks for the pull-ups as if to make sure we're not going to switch back.

And, we are not, except for at night. I brought a stack of pull-ups to school this morning and told Cathleen, Harry's teacher, that we were trying them out and that he seemed to like them, although I'd leave the others there in case of resistance from Harry. When I picked Harry up I learned that wearing pull-ups means no more (#1) changes on the pad. It's apparently a way of transitioning the kids to seeing the pull-ups as underwear. She said Harry asked to go on the pad at her offer for him to use the potty, but acquiesced about being changed standing on the floor. Anyway, that seems like a step from which we shouldn't back up, so we'll do the same at home. It's a small step I guess, but a step nonetheless.


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