It took a while for me to get the courage up to cloth diaper. It’s true. I was a fraidy cat.  Now as we leave the diaper daze behind us (slowly, but surely) I miss the diapers the way I missed breast feeding.  It just ends one day after what seems like years. And sometimes, is.

Four years. Four years of diapers. And I’m finally walking away from that yellow and poop stained brick road.

It’s been days since I washed diapers.  That panicked “what? only one clean diaper?” feeling has been replaced with, the ‘what’s that I smell?’ feeling.  I keep forgetting to wash the diapers.

I’m just saying. That day is coming!

I’m here to do more than just gloat I’m here to offer insight. My oldest son was not cloth diapered, and I have to say the transition to training pants has been so much easier this time then it was last time.  I already have the ’set up’ as it were.  Messy pants just go in the diaper pail.

With my first son I was washing and soaking dirty underwear all day and it was a waste of time and water, but having my second in cloth diapers has meant that as we transition out of of the diaper daze the clean up is much easier and that makes it more enjoyable.

In case you weren’t sold on cloth yet I’m just giving you that little push.  No buckets of poo pants sitting by your washer, you already have the set up.

Finally, at the end I feel like I got a brain.

I think I’m rambling with joy.

But the heart of the matter? Is that I’m going to ask you for money. All that money you are saving on cloth diapers? (ha!) Well throw some over here at me. Friday is the last day for a fundraiser I’m having on my other site.  It’s for a Young Man I’ve know for a very long time.  His name is Lee, he is 22 and last March he received a brand new heart, now his family is struggling with medical bills, and I’d like to help out the best I can.

Take a minute to read my story about this Young Man who has a new Heart, and maybe give up that  beautiful diaper on hyena cart this month. (Next months designs will be cooler, you know they will!

Lets make the world a nicer place for our kids, one cloth diapered mama at a time.

All we need is love people! And cloth diapers…and pants.

Not unlike the Holy Grail, or cloth diapers, I’ve found it nearly impossible to find cloth training pants.  I know! How could small town T@rget fail me this way? Or even Small Town Fred Meyers? Aren’t you people chain stores? HELLO! Are you telling me that no one uses cotton training pants anymore?

*sigh*. Inevitably I turned to the web. Which bonus! meant I could use paypal, which is like free money? Right?

Last week I bought these Potty Scotty pants for Wah, they came in blue, cars and white. I have four white which I’ll be dying this weekend because lets face it, training pants? Not so much with the staying pristine.

So my cotton training pants stash has begun. I’m interested in Hanna Anderson too however I was able to buy three potty pants for the price of one on Hanna’s website, and I’m beginning the stash so I want volume now. I’ll keep you posted on how these guys hold up.

This potty training experience has been totally different than my first.  My two year old, tells me when he has to go potty, rarely has an accident and wakes up in the morning dry.  He even empties his own kiddie potty for us.

Total opposite of his brother.

Maybe he thinks this will make up for never sleeping through the night.

Ever.

So I’m just going to go ahead and be all uppity about it because I feel like it’s my turn to be that mama that says “my kid just potty trained himself”.  And let me tell you, I have heard that a lot, “oh I did it in one day” or “my daughter just decided she was potty trained and that was it”.

With my first son, I would hear those comments and I would know what an utter failure I was a this whole parent thing, why? WHYYYYY?! Couldn’t I get my two and a half year old, my three year old, my three and a half year old to potty train?  I tried the one day thing I tried the potty chair in the play room thing I tried the crying thing…..

I would come into the room seconds after an unsuccessful trip to the potty to find him playing blithely in the living room in a puddle of urine (his) and I would want to rip my hair out.  All around me other kids could use the potty, other parents were successful. But not me.

And then one day he decided to use the potty and he did from that day out. He was three and a half.

His younger brother is two and a half. A month ago he decided to use the potty, which was awkward as we were on vacation but though he was still wearing diapers they were generally clean and mostly used the toilet. We have been home over a week now and he has been in trainers for most of that time, except for car trips, or bike trips.

Today was his first accident. He immediately told me that he needed a bath.   A BAF!!  I go potty in my pants. I needa baf! No playing in a puddle in the front room. It’s totally bizarre and so completely classic. This second child has so far proven every theory I had about myself wrong. He proved all the things I thought I was doing wrong to be erroneous and all the things I through I was doing right even more so.

His brother would play quietly by himself for hours since birth, while my two year old hasn’t stopped making noise since birth.

So I won’t deny it I’m reveling in my new status as competent potty trainer.  When asked my secret I will simply shrug shyly as if to imply, humility in the light of an obviously charmed life.  On the inside though I’ll know that like so many other moments in my Mamahood, it is completely out of my hands and instead of the teacher I’m the taught.

Here are a few tips from my son on things to bring to the potty with you.  These all make for a better time…apparently.

Tags: potty training, Tips & Tricks

Thanks for joining us this summer for our giveaways!  We’ll start the giveaways up again in October. There are some big changes afoot at the Stitch house this September.

We’ve been home less than a week but already the dirty laundry is piling up and among that laundry is some new underwear. That’s right Number two is potty training.  True to form and completely unlike his brother he decided at 2 1/2 ( a year earlier than we accomplished this with brother) that it’s time.

One week before we headed out on vacation he announced that he wanted to use the potty. And now he does.  I won’t brag about my amazing potty training skillz or about how there hasn’t been even one accident, because of course none of that is true, but it has been amazingly easy.  As opposed to the year plus we spent trying to potty train his brother, who frankly, just didn’t care. And then one day older brother decided he would like to use the potty and that was that. He’s like that.

Younger Brother?  hardly ever has accidents and seems to save it all up for ‘THE POTTY!! THE POTTY!!”.

That whole bit about each kid being there own person…true.

So September will be spent transistioning from cloth diapers to cloth underwear.

Updated: Monday 8.18.08

Karin! You’re the winner! Email me your address at Terrapintextiles @ gmail dot com and also your choice of tea mug coasters or the flower coasters.

Random Generator Video Here.

(this giveaway is now closed)

This Giveaway is just cuz. (Mostly because it’s been to hot to think creatively or to sew anything.) A coaster set (okay, I did sew these..the winner gets to choose the flower or tea coaster set the other one will be posted in my shop.), complete with mug and chocolate. This mug is perfect for filling with tea/coffee/vodka then forgetting about while you chase your diaper clad darling bumpkin butt around the house only to discover the cold mug of tea/coffee/vodka two hours later, pop it in the microwave to reheat, then forget about it as you circle the house picking up socks, washing diapers and wonder….’wait, what is that smell?’.

The chocolate is for naptime. (Theirs…)

The coasters can double as spill rags for when you accidently drip cold tea/coffee/vodka on the keyboard while your checking out the latest post at Cloth Diapering Mamas.

I know. I think of everything. It’s a gift.

To enter just comment on the post by Sunday at midnight, we’ll be back here Monday morning for another round of my Kid is a random number generator.

**Sorry winners are limited to US residents, due to not only postage but my unwillingness to drag two small boys to the post office and fill out the forms. Thanks for understanding.