Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Diapers No More!

One of the front page articles on Yahoo News talks about 'Parents begin potty training at birth.' This was also practiced in Indonesia for you skeptical parents out there! Yes, I'll admit that I am a little too Americanized to take my babies to a tree in the back yard and make hissing or grunting noises to make my kid go to the bathroom.

Let's be honest; I have enough trouble reminding intelligent potty trained boys that they need to LIFT THE SEAT and AIM PROPERLY. Light saber wars with urine over the toilet, trying to spell with the stream or a basic 'hands off' approach to the whole procedure will warrant mommy finding you with antibacterial Lysol and paper towels in hand.

And I already have trouble reining in the typical boy behavior of peeing in the great outdoors. Hearing the tale of my three and their cousin in the front yard in front of the neighbors peeing on an anthill as a form of war on nature did not sit well with my civilized sensibilities. Maybe because I'm a girl and the whole squat process involves me not thinking about "hmmm,.. what shall I write in the snow today?" but more like "I am NOT going to pee on my shoes this time,.."

And don't get me started about the whole hiking in the woods, digging holes and burning your used toilet paper. GADS. Spa me for goodness sake; isn't this why I had boys? So my husband can go camping in the woods with the kids and leave me alone?

But okay, already. I feel bad that I have a land fill in my name because I've had four babies all using disposable diapers. Yes, shame on me. So, I did purchase the cloth diapers and the diaper cover. I've consulted my college friend Craig, who will always be a better domestic goddess than me.

I've been 'circling the wagons' so to speak for a couple weeks now, not really sure I'm ready to do the whole cloth diaper for eliminating thing. But I opened the package and stuck B into one yesterday and it worked! No leaks! The diaper cover is HUGE however, and if she didn't have my big butt before, boy does 'baby got back' now. Good thing most of her pants are long, as she'll need those couple of inches to cover that nice bustle she has grown with the plastic pants.

I have realized that I need more than one diaper cover. Duh. I've tossed the soiled diaper into the vat of cleaning solution, but have done nothing more than peer at it. I did take the easy way out and put her back into a disposable for night time, but I'll make sure that soiled diaper gets company today if for no other reason I make friends for it so I can clean it in the washing machine without too much guilt. Typical of me to go from personal landfill to excessive wasting of water to clean the one soiled diaper I can muster per day. Why isn't anything just EASY?

So the more I think about it,.. this house does have five acres.... and an awful lot of trees.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Wow - you're brave to even think about the no diaper thing. Unless you do move back overseas anytime soon. But I do cloth diapering, too so I'll cheer you on. And, when you're ready, I'll share a few funny horror stories about adjusting to the poop sprayer attachment I had Kevin install in our downstairs bathroom. Why CAN'T anything be easy???