My Favorite Part of Me

I've shared how blogging has opened up this other side of me and the joy I find in typing out my story/journey then releasing it to whoever. There has been something both therapeutic and enlightening in this. Well, I've only recently been opening myself up to other blogs. One of my favorites is Momastery, not because I think she says anything profound or just downright truthful, although she often does to me, but because I feel like what she is sharing is honest. Only in my adult life have I come to appreciate and understand the value of honesty. We always say we want honesty and we want someone honest in our lives. But do we really? What I've witnessed is that more often than not we want someone to make us feel cozy and warm on the inside. We want someone to wipe away the bad things in life and paint pretty pictures. We want someone to help us cope with brutalities. Well unfortunately honesty sometimes is the opposite of cozy and warm and the picture isn't always pretty.But I think as we mature we begin to understand this more and more. So, I find myself gravitating towards honesty. I like when a person can share without fear that she isn't always the best mother or wife, that she sometimes neglects her husband or children in search of her own solace, that she is confused to the point of insanity and can't tell you which way is up. Am I saying these are good things, NO, but they are honest things. Only in our honest moments can we begin to address what is happening around us, embrace the present, and begin to live for the future. I say all this to say that in one of Glennon Doyle Melton's posts on Momastery she said something that stuck out to me.

"This morning I was prepping the kids’ lunches and dancing in the kitchen to the Grateful Dead. I was happy. I am always happy when I’m about to take the kids to camp.

And I sang this part really loud: “first one’s named sweet Anne Marie, she’s my heart’s delight.” I love that line. Heart’s Delight! Anne Marie! And I started thinking about what a precious name Anne Marie is and how much I just LOVE everyone in the whole world named Anne Marie. And then I said a prayer for all the Anne Maries in the world. That they’d have a few brilliant moments today in which they’d feel wildly and completely loved.

That whole Grateful Dead/Anne Marie thing took about five minutes. That five minutes made me so happy. There was a THERE there. Because that was my soul, there dancing and praying for all the Anne Marie’s in the world. I love that wild, nonsensical part of me. I need some time to get back in touch with her- to invite her front and center again because I want HER to lead me through this life. I choose HER- even if she makes no sense to the world at all."

The link to the full  post is here: Momastery: Goodbye Internet.

To me what stood out is the part highlighted in yellow and it made me question my favorite part of myself. I don't think I ever stopped to realize what I love about myself. Now that I have I would definitely have to say my honesty. Over the past years I have struggled with learning to balance being honest with being humble and sensitive. I'm still learning but I can honestly say that I love this part of me. People always say they know they can count on me to be honest. This part of myself is challenging and I don't think I even fully understand it. But it's also the part of me that I want to always remain and to to shine brightly for the world to see. I think we should all find that part of ourselves that we love and want to be front and center in all that we do. So thanks Glennon for helping me connect with my favorite part of me.

Potty Training....What do I do

One of the things I learned fast as a first time mom was to trust my instinct. It has served me well and kept my stress levels somewhat low. Well there comes a time in life when you run into a wall or stumbling block. Basically something that challenges the world as you understand it. My latest wall has been potty training. What the heck am I supposed to do to get this kid that absolutely loves running around in his stinky diaper to realize and learn that he must now go to a potty. Oh and when I say loves to run around in his stinky diaper I mean just that. My son for whatever reason hates diaper changes. We have to fight with him and chase him down to change his diaper. So this potty training thing. Where do you start? When do you start? How do you start? I had absolutely no clue. I asked around and read a few items here and there. Every one is doing and saying something different. It's like each person has her own scientific experiment going as to how to potty train. Shall I share some of the advice I've gotten....

1. Take off his diaper and let him run around naked. He'll go to the potty because he won't just use it anywhere. 

WRONG. I was told similar advise for house training the dog that they won't go in their crate. WRONG AGAIN. It must be me because with the dog and with the cub they both did exactly what I was told they wouldn't.

 2. Get him a potty and familiarize him with it, let him play with it and understand that it is specifically for him.

Sounds OK right. Well in my case the potty turned into the cub's lounge chair. I kid you not. He took the potty and dragged it into the living room and plopped it in front of the TV. End result-we had to get him to understand that the potty is not that kind of chair.

3. Take him to the potty whenever you go. He will learn from you.

This I felt I can do so every time I went to the potty I would say "Tony, mommy is going to use the pot pot. Do you want to come and use your pot pot too?" Of course he did and I would sit him on his potty then I would proceed to the grown up potty. End result-the cub now tries to wipe mommy and wants to assist ME in pottying.  

Now none of these are weird or bad advice....well maybe the naked thing. That one was weird. Other than that though I think my experiences have just been comical. We have only been "officially" potty training for a little while now and have had some success.
1. The cub no longer thinks the pot pot is a lounge chair and actually attempts to potty.2. The cub has used his pot pot several times now. Not on his own of course. We have been managing to catch him when he actually had to go.

I'm begining to see that this is a definitely a process. I expected it to take time but truly other than that I didn't know what to expect. I still don't honestly. Oh how I wish my instinct would kick in and I come up with some miraculous solution.