Sweet Cheeks

Fans, you may recall that parent-teacher conferences were this week at KinderCare. At Joe's conference, we learned all is proceeding apace, but also what must come to pass before he can move on to the next of the preschool rooms.

At our KinderCare there are three preschool rooms: Pre-A, Pre-B, and Pre-C. Now pay attention, Fans, because things get tricky right off the bat. You begin in Pre-C if you are not potty trained. Then, once you are, you move on to Pre-A and then to Pre-B. The primary difference between Pre-A and Pre-B, is that in Pre-B, they begin to work on writing and reading.

The primary focus in Pre-C is, we are told, potty training. Mr. Adam, we are also told, is quite literally in the bathroom with one or more children upwards of 75% of his day. This means fewer hours remaining for group time and such and, we suspect, perhaps more ruffian-like ways outside the bathroom. There is no method to the madness; Mr. Adam takes the parents' lead on the potty training front. Thus, parents must lead, particularly if they hope to leave Pre-C, which we do, Fans. We do.

And so, we are taking the bull by the horns. We will be taking Joe to the potty every hour and a half. We have secured a toy so fabulous and dazzling it may only be used when on the potty.* We have ordered underwear with trucks on some, and animals and days of the week on others. We have been cautioned to have many pairs on hand and so we have ordered 20 pairs. However, we weren't sure of size so we ordered two different sizes and thus, we have 40 pairs of underwear winging their way to us!** Little Gym is over in two more Saturdays. The following Saturday, Julie will be out of town. Which means the following Saturday (June 25) is our planned Go For No Underwear Launch. We cannot make him go of course, but we figure we can set the stage and that is what we are endeavoring to do.

Tonight, we took go to the potty. He wailed, about just what it was hard to say. He did, however, want that book once he'd spied it. And so he settled in, and sat on the potty for nearly five minutes. You already realize of course that nothing happened because this post didn't begin with an all-caps sentence relaying what Joe had done in the potty. But just you wait, Fans, just you wait! (But use the facilities if you need to because we may be waiting a while.)

After this sold sitting action, Joe went diaperless and spent some time outside watching the progress on a neighbor's new roof, and surveying the grounds, when this picture was snapped.

*One of those electronic books manufactured by V-Tech with which Joe was so entranced when Julie first gave it to him three months ago, she didn't quite no what to make of it so she put it on top of the TV cabinet that very night.

**Julie thought she would just go to Target and buy some underwear, but Sara, who has already successfully travelled the potty-training-a-boy path, and a longtime Joe Fan, and thus familiar with his physique, alerted Julie to the fact that your linebacker sizes are not in abundance at Target. So we went to the Gap, which we know to make the best socks, as well.