Mission to Ground Control: We have peepee!

We had a wonderful weekend full of lots of company and candy, fun and food.

Tom's mom, Donna, arrived Friday and my Mom and sister, Liz, arrived Saturday right after Tom's sister, Maryellen, and her husband, Scot, came over. By Saturday evening, Tom's dad, Charles, and his wife, JM, arrived and we had a total of 10 people in our little 2 bedroom 1 bath house (if you include Nicky, which I always do). Needless to say, it was a bit crowded. We all had a big cookout dinner of barbecue chicken, potatoes, carrot salad, baked beans and broccoli.

After dinner we hurriedly took turns in the tiny bathroom and everyone got gussied up for Easter Vigil at the church. Tom was getting confirmed and it was happening at the special Easter Vigil service Saturday night. Tom left early to pick up his sponsor, Kris, and get dressed up in his robe for the ceremony. The rest of us fought over the bathroom and two bedrooms for a spot to get dressed in something like a bit of privacy. We were out the door right about 8:05pm, which was pretty close to what we'd hoped. Charles and JM were babysitting Nicky, and I don't think he probably even noticed when I left in all the hustle and bustle. From what I hear, he was a very good boy all evening.

Donna, Maryellen and Scot took one car and I rode with my Mom and Liz. We were just a little ways down the road when I realized I hadn't given anyone in the other car directions to the church, but I was pretty sure at least one of them had been there before and so they'd find it ok. (I hoped!) We didn't have anyone's cell number with us, so it was just going to have to work out anyway. Turns out I shouldn't have worried; by the time we got into the church, they were all sitting in the back row. We ended up sitting separately so that we could sit closer and see better, while Donna wanted to be close to the back to slip out easily if her back started hurting. We knew going in that it was supposed to be a longer than normal mass, but I don't know if we really fully understood what that really meant...

Now, for those of you with no Catholic experience, let me give you the normal rundown. First you have some singing, and then the priest comes in. Then you have the first reading, some singing, the second reading, some singing, the Gospel, the priest's sermon, Communion, and then you're pretty much done after a few news announcements and some more singing. At some point some baskets are handed around and there's a bunch of standing, sitting, kneeling, and praying, but I can't remember where all those come in.

Anyway, THIS mass started at 9pm. There was a LOT of singing, like in two languages sometimes, and there were SEVEN readings, then another reading called an Epistle and then the Gospel. And then the sermon, and THEN the baptisms (they do full immersion at this church) and THEN the confirmations, and THEN the Communion. To give you an idea, Communion came AFTER midnight! I think we probably were done around 1am and got home after 2am. By that time Donna was back at the house (I think they said they made it through the first three readings or so) and Charles, JM, Scot and Maryellen had all long since gone home and Donna was trying to stay awake till we got home. And she was sick! She'd thought it was allergies, but it turns out she'd had a cold or bronchitis starting.

Sunday we woke after only a few hours of sleep to play Easter Bunny for Nicky. It was fun for him to learn about peeps and chocolate, and he did a good job on his basket of treats. Then we had a nice breakfast and Donna worked on decorating Nicky's cake. At about 1pm Maryellen, Scot, Charles and JM came over and Tom picked up Kris. We had a cookout lunch and then Nicky had to lie down for a nap. Later, when he woke up, we had cake and presents. Nicky had a ball playing with his new toys.

Ahh, but wait! What about the title of this post?

Well, on Saturday, right after Tom left for church, Charles called me and said Nicky had pointed to his bellybutton and said "poopoo." I asked Nicky if he had a poopoo but he didn't. So I asked if he wanted to sit on the potty and he said "okay." We went to sit on the potty, and he didn't fidget quite as much as before, but he didn't poopoo, he went peepee in the potty! It was in his little potty, and he at first got a little on the rug, but after we adjusted him on the seat he went right in it. We celebrated with lots of praise and then announced it to everyone in the living room, where he then proceeded to do a pantless break dancing on the living room floor while laughing and so proud of himself while everyone cheered for him.

So that's twice now he's gone in the potty, one poopoo and one peepee. We're getting there!