Underwear Wars

Bentley was successfully potty trained right after his third birthday. Until that time he did not want to be potty trained--which was okay because his mom did not want to potty train him. Potty training is not fun. As a mother I should be able to testify to this fact, but I didn't potty train Kara. I went away to Girls' Camp for four days and the baby sitter (and Kara's daddy in the evenings) potty trained Kara while I was gone. She was 27 months old. Of course, she was a girl and loved to please her mom and her dad.

Bentley doesn't have that handicap. He is firmly convinced that the people around him are thus positioned to please him. (Who could have reinforced that message?!)

So, anyway, back to the blog topic--underwear wars. Bentley now wears underwear. Jake is livid that he has to wear diapers still. Every morning we have a little tug-of-war over the underwear. When Kara or I take Jake out of his crib, he immediately goes over to Bentley's underwear drawer and takes out a pair for himself.

Bentley then starts shrieking (yes, little boys shriek), "Jake, those are MINE!". Next he runs over and grabs the underwear and knocks Jake down or he knocks Jake down and then grabs the underwear. After a few days of this, Kara and I finally convinced Bentley to let Jake have a pair of underwear to hold while we changed him. Usually when we have Jake all dressed he'll agree to put the underwear back in the drawer.

The past few days have gotten tougher. Jake now takes three pairs of underwear out. He must think we are so clueless that we need multiple hints about what his wishes are. He holds the pairs tight in his little fists while we try to get his sleeper off and his shirt on. It's not easy.

Thursday night Jake stole Bentley's night-time pull-up before Bentley could put it on. Bentley was furious. Then Jake was furious when we took it away. Kara finally got out another pull-up to calm Jake down. She suggested we let Jake wear it over his diaper, but Jake's no fool and he knew that wasn't right.


This is not a kid you want to mess with.

The grandbabies are off to Idaho next week, but when they come back I've promised Jake he can have a go at potty training. (His mom isn't on board with this plan yet.)