Angel on High

The Bugs of Potty Training

For the last few months I've been ready to potty train Daniel, but I couldn't stick to it because it hurt my back too much to bend over the toilet while I was pregnant. I got home from the hospital with Benjamin on Saturday and Monday morning I pulled out the training pants for Daniel. Jim questioned my timing and my sanity; I was just so glad to be able to finally bend over.

With this new potty training quest, I needed some kind of incentive for Daniel. My babysitter took him to the toy store to choose something exciting. He came home with a box of plastic insects. After each successful potty, he would go to the box of insects and pick out the scariest looking bug he could find. Ick.

A Box, A Bag, and a Boy

James needed one of my shoe boxes for a project at school. I reluctantly gave it to him. I liked my box. He knew that I liked my box and decided to make me a new box out of wood scraps from the garage. When the box was finished, it just didn't seem right to put my shoes in it. I looked around and wondered what we should put in this little box. Earlier that week, I had found a bag full of leaves and such in James' school bag. I asked him what it was. His reply, "Oh, those. Just stuff I found on the mountain that I liked." I looked again into the bag. I tenderly sifted through the leaves in the bag, impressed that James noticed them and thought they were special. I couldn't help but feel thankful that he noticed them. His "collection" showed me a side of his little boy heart that I didn't know was there. I decided they were the perfect things to fill this new box.