Sophie is Potty-Trained and Other Exciting Things Happen

If you don't find the details of potty-training and bathtime a roaring good read, then perhaps you might skip reading this post, for such things make up the fabric of my life, and it is here that I write about them.

We'll begin with Monday, the day on which two exciting things happened. The first was getting out to jog. I jogged exactly 9 1/2 minutes. My goal for next week is 10 minutes.

The second and truly exciting thing was the beginning of Sophie's potty training. I decided that if I had to purchase formula for Patie, and I do, then I absolutely was not going to buy diapers for Sophie.

I'll spare you the blow by blow details, but will include a couple of funny incidents. Like on day 2 when I was helping Bradford practice his trombone and I heard Sophie's announcement of "I dee-id it, I dee-id it." Oh dear, what exactly did she do? I raced upstairs expecting anything but what I found--she had sat on the potty and did her serious business All By Herself. Whew. and Wow!

Another time I had neglected to remind her that she might have to go, and we were trying out wearing undies. I was again practicing with Bradford, and I looked up when Sophie told me she was wet. She was indeed, but Sadie already had a towel and was cleaning up the puddle.

At the time of this writing, she's more than halfway to fully trained. Of course potty-training takes up a lot of mental and emotional energy, and not a little time, so some things were left undone this week, like baths for the baby. How dirty can a baby get, anyway? But not giving Patie baths ended up being a costly mistake.

Because we ended up in the pediatric ER in Atlanta. And what got us there was a hair. A hair wrapped around her toe so tightly that I could not get it off. Of all the silly, random things to happen to me in my life, this is one of the top. Nearly 8 hours of my life dedicated to dealing with a stray hair.

In other news, Kilby took the boys on a 5 or 6 mile hike. This was unlike any hike they had ever been on, because she made it a Lord of the Rings hike. She cooked chicken (which they told her was better than KFC), baked biscuits (which they said were almost as good as Grandma Thompson's), and took apples, cheese, and Apricot Nectar (in lieu of Elvish drink). They hiked in 2 1/2 to 3 miles, and then they ate lunch and she read to them. Is that not the coolest thing? They are going to remember that hike and picnic for the rest of their lives.

OH MY GOODNESS I ALMOST FORGOT. The funniest part of the ER trip was getting food for Bradford. Yes, Bradford came with me. Mostly to help me and keep me company, but also to make it easier for Kilby to watch the other 5. I was expecting a quickish trip to the Urgent Care, and I took along a granola bar for BLT and almonds for me. But then we were sent to the ER, and after an hour or so of watching the cool moving ball sculpture and the movie alternately, he was getting hungry. Walked with Bradford and Patie down to the Coffee Shop, but all they had there were fancy salads and crescent rolls sandwiches, and since Mark and I got food poisoning from similar fare 2 trips ago to that very hospital, I was hesitant for him to eat it. I said as much to a man in line there, and we discussed the cafeteria food, and whether it was good, and if they took credit cards, and what it all came down to is he handed me his business card (he was a hospital employee and had a badge on) and whisked Bradford to the cafeteria and purchased his meal for him.

Later Bradford was talking about Mr. Wagner (the benevolent man of the previous paragraph) and said that Mr. Wagner gave me his phone number so that I could annoy him if he stole Bradford.