ALY ALLEN | THE BLOG

if you've been following along, you know about how i left my church , and the mini-panic attack  that i had over it all... the first church that we started attending, after making the decision that we'd start looking, was my best-friend-since-7th-grade's church about 30 minutes away, where her husband is a pastor. that's where they met and fell in love. it's a pretty cute little story :) so, we had been going to this new church for a few months, and september was slowly creeping up on us. if you remember, last november, i took a "maternity leave" of sorts, from serving in the choir and worship team at our "old" church. i was planning to come back in september 2012 [just this past week, actually] and pick up where i'd left off. as september started approaching faster and faster i knew i had to look it in the eyes and deal with the some things that were totally unavoidable. i had to officially leave our church. i had to have that convers...

so i thought i'd share a few things i learned during my year long potty training experience. i say year-long because i tried last July and it was just not working. ever since then, while we weren't actively potty-training, i kept talking with her about how she really needs to start going in the potty soon and how big girls don't wear diapers and how she can go to preschool if she goes in the potty, etc. but i never got up the courage to really buckle down and try again. her third birthday seemed like the perfect milestone, benchmark, whatever you want to call it. besides, for the past few months she'd been telling me that she'd start going in the potty in may, when she turned three. so i held her to it: her third birthday came, and we started going in the potty the next day. and as i shared with you monday , it totally stuck! i can say that because we're a week later and she goes in the potty every single time , let's me know she has to g...

oh hey... thought i'd pop in to let you know that this darling girl is POTTY TRAINED!?! like, 100% totally and completely potty trained. i have found myself at least 30 times saying "thank You Lord" & "praise You Jesus" in complete awe. meaning, i have no idea how it happened... it just did. all Him, not me. we went from this [the very first day] where she's crying for a diaper!?! to loving her big-girl status.  undies-wearing, potty-going, prize-getting is very fun :) she even wore undies to her birthday party. we brought her little potty in the car  [still hasn't warmed up to the big potty, at home or in public, but that will come] best part is, i figured we'd do daytime and nighttime all at once and it totally worked! 4 out of 5 nights have been completely dry. to say i am relieved and thankful and excited is a HUGE understatement. [read my last experience with trying to potty train when she wa...