It's That Time Again

I hate transitions.

This applies both to my own life and to all the little transitions my kids have to go through on the path to becoming little people. Packing up our house and moving somewhere else in the world every two to three years is always extremely difficult for me. Finding new doctors, new schools, and new friends while you leave all your old ones behind sucks. When the time came for my kids to transition from one nap to two or switch from bottle to cup it was bearable but still a challenge for a girl who doesn't like change. However, there is one transition that I dread more than any other as a mother... potty-training.

I ask myself, "Why would you dread potty-training?! You've been changing diapers every single day for over five and a half years! Sometimes for two kids at a time. Don't you dream of the day when you can stop buying diapers and wiping someone else's butt?"

Of course I'm looking forward to a diaper-free existence. But I have potty-trained two children already, and I know the third time around will not be any more pleasant than the last two. Like all transitions, the end result is worth it, but the process of getting there is painful enough to make me yearn to keep things the way they are.

Brandon has been exhibiting signs of potty-training readiness for months, and I have been blatantly ignoring them. I just cannot talk myself into beginning this months-long adventure into nagging, accidents, and public toilets. I don't want to see the inside of every grocery store restroom in a 25-mile radius while trying to minimize the amount of contact three kids have with germ-infested door handles, sinks, trash cans, and toilet seats. I don't want to start carrying a change of clothing around in the car again because my toddler has graduated from spilling everything in sight only to begin peeing all over himself.

I just don't want to. But I will. Because my little man is ready. In fact, he's wearing big-boy underwear right this very minute. And I'm trying really hard to convince myself that the only reason I've been avoiding this transition is because it's highly inconvenient--and not because this is Brandon's very last transition from baby to kid. That's making this transition almost as painful as all those public restrooms are going to be. Almost.