Bye Bye Genie!

I guess everyone was right: when they're ready, they're ready. It doesn't surprise me that my two were ready at the exact same time. They both took their first steps on the very same day (actually in the very same moment). They've done pretty much everything -- and now potty training -- completely together in unison. I wouldn't go so far as to say that they are fully 100% "potty trained," and I'm sure we're in for many bumps in the road in the days/weeks/months/years to come, but in the past week we've gone from fully-diaper-wearing-boys to fully-underpants-wearing-boys. I knew it was for real when this morning I took my two underpants-wearing-boys out to the post office and to do our grocery shopping -- out and about for over 2 hours -- with no accidents whatsoever. Not even any near-misses or close-calls. We're getting rid of the Diaper Genie. I just put it in the trash (it was broken anyway, and we had refused to get a new one so we were just using it despite it being broken). I'm so happy to have that nasty smelly ugly white plastic thing out of our house and out of our life. We've been living with it for the past 2.5 years and I'm happy it is now gone for good. But at the same time... I must admit... it does feel a bit bitter-sweet to watch my boys discover their new-found independence. It's all good, of course. But it is also just another milestone in a whole string of them as we watch our cute little baby boys turn into gorgeous self-confident young men.

In the post office this morning Owen announced to a 20-something-looking guy who just happened to be in line with us: "I'm wearing underpants!" I watched as the guy took it in stride, gave Owen a high-five and said, "Awesome Little Dude!" I was proud -- for sure -- but all I could think was, "where did my tiny drooling little baby go???" As Braydon says, I don't know how we're going to get through the next 18 years... not because of how tough K & O are to deal with (although God knows sometimes they sure are)... but rather, because of how extreme these joy-pride-adoration-pure-love emotions in parenting them are for us.