While there, I noticed a great price on two Pentium III machines, which I purchased for my next two daughters. (I had long ago promised them that when they stopped wetting the bed, I would buy them computers–but I had neglected my promise and they reminded me of it just a few days before the sale.)

While configuring the computers, my oldest son (3), who is mostly potty-trained, but still wets at night, asked me why they got computers.

“They get them because they stopped wetting the bed,” I said.

He thought about it for a minute, I could see the wheels turning in his head. “When I am dry, do I get a computer?”

I stopped working on the PC and looked into his eyes–a man’s word should always be given with eye contact. “When you are dry for a year, you can have your own computer.”

He didn’t know (and still doesn’t) the concept of “a year”. He deliberately woke himself the next night and ran to the bathroom. When he climbed back into bed, he mumbled, “Want my own computer…”

The next day, he proclaimed himself dry and eligible for a computer! I tried, again, to explain the “year” concept. He didn’t get it. So, we compromised. “I will build you a computer,” I said in my “Imperial Daddy” voice, “and every day that you are dry, you may use it.”

He looked at the computer I was configuring with glowing eyes and said, “Huh.” (His way of saying, “Yes, it is certain, it is a fact.”

There was a slight pause and then he looked at me with a big smile and said, “I want my computer to be blue.”

Keep strong with the training too. It will come! He sounds like mine then one day it just kicked in.