Underwear vs Panties

Oh yes, I know, such a wild title huh? I promise this is a tame post.

Kale has been "potty training" at school now for several months. As far as he is concerned, he has to stand in front of the potty with his pants down so that he can then FINALLY get to wash his hands. Please realize, washing hands for a two year old is just another way to say: PLAY IN WATER! At school, he refuses to sit on the toilet. So, he has his turn standing every 30-45 minutes throughout the day. For this, we are supposed to supply Pull-Ups (which by the way are more expensive than diapers). I have a hard time biting that bullet given that in the course of several months my child is YET to do anything in a potty.

So, its safe to say, at most, we are just flirting with the idea of potty training at our house. Kale has his own mini potty, which he thinks is great fun to sit on WHEN FULLY CLOTHED. Its even better to stand on when he gets to wash his hands. Have I mentioned that when anyone in our house visits the bathroom, Kale thinks it within good reason that he should get to play in the water, ahem...wash his hands? He is also eager to flush the toilet for you. He just wants no part of actually using or sitting on the toilet.

Yesterday, in a moment of either mental greatness or complete mental failure, I introduced Kale to the fact that he has underwear. Not only does he have underwear, but he has underwear featuring Cars, THOMAS, and all kinds of other very boyish things. Ah, it was love at first site.

I should note here: I am not inhibited around my child. He sees me in all manners of dress and has since birth. Thus, this is how he knows that mommy wears panties.

Back to love at first site. Oh, what great joy it was to sit and watch as his mommy pulled out themed underwear after underwear. Then, of course, he had to mimic the whole thing and show me the cars, trains, etc on each pair. We had a momemt (.0083 seconds) of conversation about how he has to use the potty to get to wear the underwear. Since he needed a diaper change, I decided that might be a good time to let him try on a pair and maybe find some pride in wearing big boy underwear. And oh my dear Lord, look the heck out when I told him I needed to take them back off of him so we could put on his diaper. When he realized he might lose the battle to keep them on, he literally ran from me. He stopped in his tracks when I mentioned that a spanking in underwear would hurt more than when he is wearing a diaper. Yeah, don't tell me that my kid doesn't understand EVERY FREAKING thing we say because I am not buying that bull for one moment! I am scared by how much he understands! So, we returned to his room and Underwear Removal Battle 2 began. Mommy won. Sort of. After I got his diaper on, the Thomas underwear went on over the diaper. But hey, at least I got the diaper on him before a mess was made. It was at this point that he decided to once again go through his big boy underwear collection. It was also at this point that he let me know that he understood exactly what he was holding: panties.

Ep might get me for this one. (Sorry babe!) Ep has always had a thing about boy's wearing underwear! In Ep's world, boys do not ever EVER ever wear panties. Not even when they are two....

I busted out laughing because I knew where we were going. I knew the verbal battle that would soon begin. I was oh so right. Ep heard him call them panties one time before hanging his head. I had to laugh again. I then promised that I had tried really hard to repeat the word underwear and never refer to them as panties. Yet, our child outsmarted us. More importantly, without even really trying, he found a way to jab at his daddy at the ripe age of two! So, the remainder of the day, when Kale referred to his panties....Ep was right behind him saying underwear and praising Kale big time when he repeated the word underwear. In all fairness, our son got an equal dose of stubborness from each side of his family. He put it to good use yesterday by refusing to budge on saying panties. I have no doubt in my mind that if I showed Kale a pair of his underwear right now, he would call them panties.

Nevermind the fact that yesterday, we let our two year old run around the house in a pair of diaper packed underwear. I don't know what it looks like for a teenage boy to "stuff his pants" but I am pretty sure I got a good visual on a miniature version of it yesterday.

And of course, like any good mom would, I took the opportunity to capture my little man exploring his new underwear stash....