Paying Attention to Crap: What Potty Training Revealed About Me

For a long time I hadn’t really understood what the big deal was about potty training. It was simple! At least it was for my first child. But when we were a month into training my second-born and still having regular accidents, I could see how potty training earned it’s reputation as “dreaded.”

As I reflected on this particular experience of potty training, I learned several things about myself. They weren’t new discoveries – more like patterns I’d already known about myself that surfaced in a new context.

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Moments

“Moments”: Our Word for 2016

At the start of each new year, we like to choose one word. A guide or theme for the year, so to speak. Something to give us focus in the ebb and flow of life.

Our word for 2015 was “Strengthen.” We wanted to become stronger; we also needed strength. In retrospect, it was a hard, dark year marked by the unexpected presence of Post Partum Depression, but we did receive all the strength we needed to get through it.

For 2016, we are choosing the word, “Moments.”
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Waiting

Learning to Wait Well

The first thing I said to Tim this morning was “I’m done waiting.  I’m going to go about my day however I want and this baby can come whenever.”  It’s not entirely true, of course, because as long as this belly is about to burst, I’ll still be waiting.  But I certainly do not want to live today in the same fevered pitch of anticipation that we lived in yesterday.  You see, yesterday, we were so excited and hopeful that we had packed all our bags (PJs and all), only to make it to the end of the day completely exhausted and have to unpack some things to settle in for the night.  The upside, I suppose, was that we both had really good sleeps.
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