Diego Underpants

On Friday I took Nick to Target and let him select many many pairs of big boy underpants. He got Thomas underpants, Diego underpants, Bob the Builder underpants, and Cars underpants. I was very pleased with the selection at Target, which was much better than what they had at Wal-Mart. There I found Superman underpants and Scooby Doo underpants, which might be great if Nick had any idea who they were. I also found underpants with tiny skulls on them, but since Nick is not a biker but is actually, only two-and-a-half, I said no.

Now that Nick has more underwear than I do, the next step is getting him to wear it. It isn't actually all that difficult. He LOVES his underwear. This doesn't mean everything is ready, because he's still only pooped on the potty once. But it does make things a bit easier.

Friday afternoon Nicholas started coughing, his nose started running, and at about 4pm he started complaining of an earache. Saturday morning I called the doctor and made an appointment, and Steve decided he'd bring him in, after a short detour to a computer store...

About an hour after they left I carried Nate into the kitchen, chirping and singing and in a good mood, and then I saw a pull-up on the kitchen counter...

...and that's when I remembered that Nick wasn't wearing a diaper.

Now, it's one thing to go out into the world with Nick and no diaper. But even when I do it I have an extra pair of pants and an emergency pull-up with me.

Steve had nothing. No change of clothes, no extra underwear, no pull-up or diaper. He didn't even know Nick was... well... "unprotected."

I tried calling Steve's cell-phone, but after a few frustrating moments of playing with redial and the call-waiting beep I realized he had forwarded that number to the house for work. I kept calling myself and hanging up on myself to answer myself.

And then...

Then there was nothing to do but wait.

I imagined Nick peeing in the store. I imagined him peeing at the doctor's office and Steve not having any equipment to deal with it. I wondered if the doctor would still let Steve take Nick home without pants. I felt so bad for Steve, because he would be surprised and then left helpless, and I felt bad for Nick, who was just getting the hang of things, and I set him up for failure and how long would this set him back?

And then they came home.

And Nick was dry.

He hadn't peed. He's asked to use the potty and Steve had discovered the underwear and no pull-up and they had both coped with it and lived and were both dry.

I can't tell you how relieved I was. So, so, so glad. The Diego Underpants stayed dry,