Some days just don’t go as planned. You have a whole to-do list to get through, three doctors appointments and a birthday party all in the same day and somehow you think you can do it all. Today started out that way, filled with plans after having a productive streak. Flash forward a few hours and there I am, sitting on the floor at 4:30pm feeding ice cream to a fully naked baby. 

Maybe I need to back up a little. Around Pesach my husband and I had an inclination that our baby was ready to start potty training. So two months later, we’re finally starting. 

Potty training as two busy parents means that we rolled up the carpet hastily, then pushed it off one more day. This morning we kept our baby without a diaper and cheered her on when she peed on the floor. I carried her to the toilet repeatedly where we blew bubbles, sang songs, ran the water and tried every way possible to get her to use the toilet. She sat happily and didn’t immediately scream to get off. We slowly learned her rhythms and tried to anticipate when she would need to use it again. Even though we were 20 minutes off, it was valuable data we gathered and we’ll slowly get the hang of it. The first few days of this process are a lot- being constantly vigilant, watching any signs the baby shows, and making sure to never miss that all-exciting floor pee. 

As the day went on, the meetings, the emails and as the never-ending to-do list items were checked and then immediately unchecked, some things slipped through the cracks. Mainly changing our baby out of one soiled outfit into another and over the course of the day she eventually ended up without clothing. Thus landing me at 4:30 pm with a fully naked baby, trying to convince her to eat anything, which is how I ended up feeding her the last of the Chunky Monkey. At least we mopped the floors two days ago.