Lost a Baby, Gained a Bathroom....

My little boy is growing up.... you know how I know? Not because I can follow a calendar which said his second birthday was yesterday, but because of the little changes taking place in my house. I didn't notice it while it was happening, but today as I got ready in my bathroom, it hit me.

Get this.... my trashcan is actually on the floor! I know that may sound like a given, but for the last almost 4 years that pupper has lived on top of the hideous square cabinet over my toilet. You know the kind... those huge boxes that hold all your important stuff, like medicines that expired with VHS tapes.... that cabinet. But, luckily it was there to hold my trashcan so that my little ones weren't emptying it across the bathroom floor. But, I realized today as I threw my Q-Tip away that it was on the floor. Sometime in the past few weeks, someone put it on the floor and it stayed there! That means no little hands got in it! Knock on wood (or wood-looking plastic desktop.)

Another thing I realized this morning is that our toilet paper is reachable. I would say it is on the roll where it is supposed to be, but that isn't true because sometime during the last few years when the toilet paper had to be hidden from my children, we lost the little center holder oner bit. So, it will never be on the roll again. But, it can now sit on the sink. No more days of going to the bathroom only to realize post wee that the toilet paper was on top of that same nefarious cabinet as the trash can. Or worse, hidden under Mark's sink. One then had to look for alternatives like drip drying (which usually allowed me to read another chapter of my book) or grab Kleenex, or worse... waddle over to the TP in a crunched, half seated position. But alas, those days are no more. My son hasn't unrolled fresh toilet paper in a long enough time that we can actually set the roll somewhere near the potty and feel confident that it will remain in tact.

I realize some parents out there are probably shaking their head (and not just from the image of me crab scuttling across the bathroom looking for toilet paper) but because they don't hide their trashcans or toilet paper rolls. They taught their kid "no." Well lah-dee-dah for you. I tried to teach my kids no, and it somehow got lost in translation. My version of "no" was heard as "not right now, but as soon as I get in the shower and get shampoo on my hair so that I can't possibly jump out right away and it will buy you time to spread the contents of my trash and the entire roll of toilet paper all over the second floor of our house." So, we hid things... and now I have this great reminder of the fact that my baby boy is growing up, and in some respect so are we. If only I could find my toilet paper holder oner thingy.