Christin's Big Day

Sweet Christin with Mommy on the Fourth of July. (Her mouth full of candy, I think!)

Well, the time has come.

For several months now, I've known that the time was coming to potty train Christin. "It's all right," I told myself. "We have to get settled again after coming back from the States." And that is certainly true. Potty training is not something you want to do when the child has had a lot of other types of transition to process.

Life has been stable now for a few weeks (BUSY--but stable), so that's no longer an issue. I was also thinking, "Well, when our friends from Clifton leave, then I'll be ready." And, time has slipped by so quickly, and our friends are leaving tomorrow morning! Couple this with the fact that there are only a few diapers left in my cupboard, and it's evident to me that the time has come to tackle this significant task.

So, tomorrow morning my dear friend Amy is keeping my other girls while I take Christin through the basics of potty training. We'll start like the other girls did--practicing pulling down and up the training pants. (May I remind you that these are the same training pants that Amy had shipped to me from the States in 2006?? Isn't that funny! The package she originally sent got marked--for some VERY strange reason--as a terrorist threat and returned to her, so she sent them twice! I still get a chuckle out of that one, pink cotton training pants a threat to national security! HA!) We'll have treats and stickers, lots of great beverages and salty snacks, and a whole day together without her sisters to undertake this important training.

Christin is quite verbal and seems to understand the whole concept pretty well; tonight she was chanting a little ditty about "I sit on the potty seat! I sit on the potty seat!" and so we shall see if her physical body can cooperate with the knowledge she has on this topic already. I showed her the training panties and she's so excited to be a big girl and wear them tomorrow morning!

This week has plenty of events scheduled, but I don't have to leave the house until Wednesday afternoon, so we'll have two solid days to get things going. Let's all hope and pray that she'll do well with the training! I do have some pull-ups on hand for sleeping times, but we'll be aiming for daytime dryness in these next few days/weeks. I'm ready for anything--Clara Anne trained so easily and relatively quickly; but Chloe's process was drawn out over an entire year (I'm not even kidding) before she was fully trained, day and night, accident free. So I have no expectations for Christin, we'll just wait and see how it goes.

On another note, it was SUCH a blessing to have our friends from Clifton here this week. I didn't get to spend such a lot of time with them, but we did have them here for a few meals and we so enjoyed our time together. We feel so encouraged! Thanks to all of you who sent gifts, cards and pictures along with them, we'll be enjoying those things for months to come! The girls went wild over the things that were just for them and are having such fun with the crafts and Polly Pockets already. We had a great final time together today; ate Santa Fe chicken salad with homemade chips and homemade salsa, and the Pioneer Woman's chocolate sheet cake for dessert with some great coffee to go with it. I love hosting people, can you tell? Doesn't that make a few of you out there want to come and visit?! :) You're welcome anytime!

Well, tomorrow is a big day. I'd better get some rest! Good night!