A Wet Anniversary, and a Sticky One, Too

As Easter approaches, I can’t help but think about what we were doing a year ago.

***

In the couple of weeks leading up to Easter last year, Baby A started taking off her diaper, asking to sit on the potty. After taking a few days to mentally prepare myself for the adventure ahead, we officially bid farewell to diapers on the Saturday before Easter.

I remember taking pictures in the living room, the girls in their beautiful smocked dresses…as nervous as a cat. I wanted to savor the unveiling of the Easter baskets…but I was anxious to get my babe back into knit pants as quickly as possible!

All in all, potty training went very well. Baby A only had two real accidents, both of which fell on Easter day.

A year later, I can still say those couple of weeks after Easter were some of the most stressful in my parenting career to date. The responsibility for reading Baby A’s cues was so incredibly constant. And allowing the newness of the potty experience to run its course was nothing short of exhausting.

This year, Hubby’s spring break falls the week after Easter. I’m so incredibly thankful to be looking forward to a week of zoo trips, a visit to the orchard, and a treat at the dairy barn…what should be a relatively relaxing, relatively stress-free time.

I’ll have my travel potty in my bag, and an extra pair of undies, just in case…but there is no tightness in my chest as I think about those precautions.

***

There is one additional anniversary that occurred to me last week…that of the girls’ first jelly bean.

I generally limit the girls’ sugar intake. I don’t mind them having a cookie here or there – particularly if it’s homemade – but my babies seem much too young for the evils of sugar candy.

Still, I’m quite the jelly bean aficionado. Last year, I decided I’d let the girls try one. Yes, one. Actually, they each had ¼ of a jelly bean. I was so scared of the choking hazard, that was all I could muster!

This year, I decided I’d give the girls a couple of jelly beans as a special treat one day. I carefully chose four yummy flavors, and cut them in half. I served them along with a few pretzels for an afternoon snack.

I told the girls they needed to chew the jelly beans very, very carefully, one at a time. They really seemed to enjoy their first taste, and they really took their time to chew it. I decided it was OK to turn my back to them while I fixed them cups of water.

And what did I find not 10 seconds later??? A lump of goo in Baby A’s hair, closely resembling pine sap (with which I became acquainted last Memorial Day weekend…anniversary post to come in a few weeks, I’m sure).

It was surely the Food Pyramid God, reigning down on my poor decision to allow my girls candy.

We’ll see if this lesson is still fresh in my mind next Easter…or if, at four years old, the girls will have worked up to eating a whole jelly bean.