At home at Blackburn Hollow

But doth suffer a sea-change.
Into something rich and strange.

Shakespeare From The Tempest
(But I know it from Lori Anderson)

Blackburn Hollow has experienced a sea-change.

We have borne the dark night of the dirty diaper and emerged nearly seven years later with three children who actually know how to use a toilet. Simultaneously and no less ceremonially, we have sent Gama downstairs where she too can use her own toilet.

In the midst of my manic attempt to get my mother into her basement apartment and out of our bedroom, I almost failed to notice that Anna Frances had been put to bed in her “big girl” Tinker Bell panties instead of being switched into a diaper. I also almost failed to notice that Anna Frances had woken the next day dry, dressed herself and used the potty without prompting. This is no small step. In our home diapers have had a place at the table for almost 7 years! At one point we had three children all in store-brand disposables. It was, as many of you know, a major investment. It was a way of life. It was almost always on the grocery list. But it appears we have sailed the stormy seas frothing with copous quantities of baby waste and landed on the shores of a dry, self-sufficient tomorrow. (Can you hear that sign of relief through all the melodrama?)