I am enjoying my children being little. I get quite depressed when I think of them growing up, but I do get a tad excited when I think of things being somewhat easier when they reach certain milestones. For instance, Noah and Berkeley can totally feed themselves. That is nice because I can put their food in front of them and they can eat. Simple, except for the messes that come along with it. Noah can get himself dressed and both of them can put their shoes on. Things are getting easier. Mostly. I was VERY excited when Berkeley took it upon herself to begin to potty train. That was the highlight of my mothering career. Now, they are both in underwear so (for once) I will only have ONE in diapers when this baby is born! Yea!! Although, there have been many joys of having two potty trained, there has been many sorrows…No one ever told me that once they were “trained”, there would be situations that needed to be addressed. First, being one of a family of all girls, I was not aware of the types of situations boys brought to the table. I MADE my husband deal with the whole “standing while peeing/aiming/shaking/etc” area because how the heck was I supposed to know all that?!?! And, even though he was properly taught (well I’m assuming it was “properly taught” because my husband can handle this just fine), I have yet to see this not be a MESS almost every time he uses the toilet. Noah is a dreamer, you see he will drift off to his own land quite often. I’m not sure exactly what he’s thinking most of the time, but it’s often that he falls into a trance and you lose him. This tends to happen precisely when concentration is needed to aim and pee. I have begun to daily clean areas of our toilet that I didn’t know existed… Another thing that I hadn’t thought of is the issue of wiping. Suddenly, this is a situation to be addressed. Let me tell you a story, one that just recently happened.

I was sitting on the couch folding laundry when I heard my precious ones in the bathroom. I recognize the noises, the roll of toilet paper being strung, the toilet flushing, the lid opening and closing. I knew exactly what they were doing. I yelled my warning for them to exit the room and continued to hear these warning signals. I yelled again and heard giggling. I yelled a third time and to my surprise, I heard my 2 year old reply, “No, Mom! I’m wiping brother’s butt!!!!” I think it took me a whole 2 seconds to get in that bathroom. Oh, I will forever have that picture in my mind. Without going into the kind of detail that may make some sick, I will say that both children needed a bath, the rug was heavily washed, and the WHOLE bathroom had to be wiped down with bleach. It is amazing how much of a mess a little poop, 2 toddlers, and maybe 5 minutes can do.

So, as you can see, having potty trained children is something I felt would be easy, however, I have been proven wrong. I guess it is safe to say that your children’s ability to grow up and do things on their own is not always easy! I will just have to endure these growing pains. One day those issues won’t be issues and I will probably be saddened by this (or at least this is what people say), so I will try to savor every moment and enjoy my little ones’ growing pains!