Katherine is pretty reliable when it comes to using the toilet. We bought this low-tech cool seat thingy for her (from Coo Chi Coo, if you’re in the St. John’s area and looking) so that she can use other peoples’ toilets as she wasn’t keen on this at first.

While we’re on the subject…. potty training kids isn’t terribly complicated, for the most part. But the paraphernalia? Holy majoles! Just a small assortment of the toilet adapter/potty variety can be seen here. Insane. I particularly love the toddler urinal. Every guy needs one, right? Lotsa fools with big bucks out there, apparently.

Anyway, Katherine is great during the day, even at other peoples’ houses, but we haven’t tried night training yet. As she’s dry most nights anyway, I figure she’s just about ready, but have been waiting for the sleep issue (ours, not hers) to resolve itself before pushing forward another step. To that end, she wears a pull-up at night, just for confidence, really. This morning, though, I caught her putting one on for the morning. The ensuing conversation made me really glad I was doing okay for patience today.

K: But I want to wear a diaper!

Me: No, diapers are for night-time. This is daytime. In the day, you wear underwear.

K: I don’t want to wear underwear. (Insert kid hysterics, sobbing, whining and general misery.)

Me: Hmmm… Come over here a second. Now, diapers are very expensive. We don’t have enough money for diapers for the day and diapers for the night. If we buy diapers and you use them in the day and the night, we will either run out of diapers or money quickly.

K: But I don’t want them to be expensive.

Me: Neither do I, particularly, but they are. Look, I’ll put them away in the closet for now, but when the night comes, I’ll get one out for you.

K: But I don’t want to! Bring them back!

Me: (Ignoring the objections) Okay, now it’s daytime, so which underwear do you want? We have fairy underwear, Pooh Bear underwear and pink underwear.

K: Nothing!

Me: Okay, well, why don’t you just think about it and let me know what you figure out.

Pause, during which I go out of the room and K sniffles for five minutes. Then she calls me back in, seeming (surprisingly) somewhat more cheerful.

K: You know, I think I made the wrong choice.

Me: Oh?

K: Yes. I think I made the wrong decision about the underwear. It’s daytime. I really should have chosen underwear instead of diapers.

Me: Right. Good thought. Glad to hear you figured that out. Do you feel better now?

K: Yes. Much. Now, let’s play trains. You can be Thomas…..