A week in the life--toilet training and church planting (beware of graphic content)

This past week has been the initiation of potty training--I used the "Toilet Training In A Day" method (from the book Toilet Training in Less Than A Day, by Nathan Azrin and Richard Foxx)this time as recommended by my mom and a fellow pastor's wife. I must admit my mom recommended it with Anna, but I thought is sounded inhumane, or at least something to do with animals, not toddlers. Well, in May when I asked my friend about how she trained her three boys (her youngest is completely trained at 2 1/2), she told me this was the way to do it. I spent a good part of a year and a half before Anna was completely trained, so considering that people say boys take longer, I figured anything that would save time would be welcome the second time around!

I will admit upfront that Micah's first introduction to the potty was months ago having an older sister, but he has never used it for its intended purpose until last week. Well, Tuesday evening, I was doubtful and dreary after day one, with pee all over my kitchen floor, and in Micah's pants, and on me, but some trickles fell in the toilet on several occasions, so we continued. Micah was a mess, I was a mess, but I still mopped my kitchen floor the next day, because thinking about what it had seen made me not want to step on it, much less the prayer meeting crowd coming that night! No matter that it was pooped and peed on all of that day too!! I kept the mop out, the paper towels out, the wipes out, etc. Micah helped me clean up as much as possible and we actually had more stuff in the potty that day!

So, along came Sunday--I brought the potty to church. We have such a laidback, informal church that my dear elder's wife set up a little area at the back of our "sanctuary" where we placed Micah's potty. Just as service was beginning Micah declared "I need go potty." Well, he did the deed promptly right in his potty and then shouted out "I pee, I pee!" Everyone smiled and some cheered, as Mark commenced ever so suavely to share scripture. Only in church planting!! Thank goodness I had a helper with singing so I could attend to carrying the pee down the hall to flush it in the toilet :). I am humbled weekly by the combination of being a mother and church planting wife--have I mentioned that?? Micah happily went again during our children's corner, but this time I missed singing the last song completely as we traipsed down the hall. This week every morning has begun with Micah opening our bedroom door and announcing "I need go potty."

Today, exactly one week later, Micah had one accident, was dry through his 3 hour nap, and initiated his own pottying standing up before bath time! I don't think he learned this all in a day, but the skills were taught all in a day, I will say that. He is doing awesome, still likely to have accidents I am sure, but learning more quickly than I expected. I will certainly continue to take the potty with us when we go out--my stops at every public facility within a mile radius of my home in the suburbs with Anna would never yield as many or as adequate places here in this more rural area where we live in PA.

Mark and I enjoyed a splendid date night on Friday that was a nice reprieve from all this excitement. It was on Raystown Lake, so we went walking around, enjoyed the sunset and the warm summer evening, and just talked. So nice. We went to our favorite dairy for ice cream :). We also had a very relaxing Monday at Tatman Run, also part of Raystown Lake. The water was not too cold for a change and the warm breeze and sunshine were positively therapeutic. I love to be outside.

I still had the potty with me, and we had two extra stops as well as a delay going swimming with Micah (for #2 at our picnic pavilion), but we had a blast!! Just the fact that Micah told us he needed to go and went in his potty made me glad!! We had no need to rush, in fact, we stopped at a farm market to get fresh berries, plums and sweet corn to supplement lunch and supper at the lake! Anna was so impressed that we stayed for supper, but of course she was hoping we could hop back in the water afterwards. No chance, it was 6 pm, so we were off for home. The kids fell asleep on the way back, so I got to read a book in the car (a rarity these days). What gifts from God--that Micah is catching on quickly, that we have a loving and supportive church family, that I have another opportunity to learn humility in my perfectionism, that we took the time to relax and enjoy each other and our family in the sunshine. Just a week in the life, but it is all part of the journey.