On Sunday we put on our, ahem, Sunday best and headed off to attend the baptismal ceremony of our niece, Michaela. Since we’d never been to this church before I was hoping that we’d be able to blend into the crowd, but that was not to be. In fact, I’m pretty sure just about everyone in attendance went home and talked about Annie. Oops.
Annie is newly potty trained, so taking her in public is still a fairly nerve wracking experience. Despite this, she has been terrific. She’s gone to dance class, gymnastics, and even Disneyland without having a single accident. That’s not to say it’s been a seamless transition. She’s afraid of how loud public toilets are (so you’d better hope no one flushes in the adjoining stall when she’s on the throne), she is curious about everything in the bathroom and wants to touch it all, and there was one dinner when she asked to go the potty three freaking times in the space of fifteen minutes. In general, though, she’s been doing awesome, and Heather and I do our best to praise her when she goes to the potty in public. It’s working, too. Girlfriend is proud of herself when she goes.
To make sure everything went smoothly bathroom-wise at the church, we immediately staked out where the bathroom was and told Annie to let us know the second she had to go potty. We then found my family and sat with them.
It was a large gathering for the ceremony, with maybe a hundred friends and family and fifteen babies/kids to be baptized. About ten minutes into the ceremony Annie leaned over to Heather and said, “I have to go potty,” so Heather scooped her up and hustled off to the bathroom.
A few minutes passed and the church grew very quiet as the priest prayed. Some people bowed their heads, others teared up, and it was a very solemn moment. It was at that exact moment that Heather returned with Annie and Annie proudly shouted:
“I JUST WENT POTTY!!!!”
As Annie’s voice echoed throughout the church my face turned bright red and each second seemed to take an hour to pass. I was about to scoop Annie up and sprint out of there when everyone started to laugh, the priest included. Phew.
Annie was well behaved the rest of the ceremony (although she did ask me why Michaela was taking a bath). Afterward we took a family photo outside the church, which was great because we haven’t taken too many with the whole Spohr clan.
“Psst. Dada, I just went potty!”
On the drive home Annie kept saying “I just went to the potty!” and didn’t quite understand why she wasn’t getting the same reaction. The kid loves to make people laugh. Here’s hoping, though, that from now on she gets her laughs in places that are a little more appropriate.
stephs says:
Ha. I did the same thing as a kid. People STILL come up to me and remind me of when I screamed out at Christmas Mass “I wanna see baby Jesus!”
Also, for your other post, my son often just repeats everything he hears. The other day he repeated something with a lot of big words and then added “and I have no idea what that is.” Dontcha love kids?
Kris says:
Ah, yes, the curiosity of public bathrooms. When my youngest was new to being potty trained, my three kids and I went out to lunch with an older, childless friend we don’t see very often. My son visited the potty *7* times in 45 minutes. Fun times.
The novelty of public bathrooms does wear off…eventually.
Connie says:
OMG, I’m dying! I am laughing so hard just hearing this. If I was in that church I would have laughed so hard I cried. Probably wasn’t how you guys were feeling but I can just see it. Annie is too funny.
Erin @ One Particular Kitchen says:
Ah, yes. When my little boy was 3 he announced on a crowded elevator that he had a new Cookie Monster lunchbox “BECAUSE I WENT POOP ON THE POTTY!”
Good, good times.
Mari says:
So funny
twingles says:
LMAO – baptisms are always interesting because of all the kids there. My niece and nephew were 6 when my DD was baptized and I swear I thought they were going to dive into the baptismal font.
Stacy says:
Mike, this sounds SO familiar! My son, Lukas, was about 2 1/2 and he went up to the children’s sermon one Saturday in church. The pastor was illustrating with a cup and a pitcher of “my cup runneth over.” He started with over filling a cup from a pitcher and eventually graduated to a garden hose.
After the sermon was over, Lukas took off at a dead sprint down the aisle and as he passed my parents and me, he shouts out, “I gotta go potty!!!”
My dad just about fell out of his chair trying to catch up with him and the entire church just burst out laughing… Lukas is 10 now and one of the pastors who was preaching that day still remembers that.
Tara says:
HAHA! Classic! Annie will love hearing this story when she’s a teenager!
Laura says:
When my cousin got married, her husband’s niece (3 years old at the time) was their flower girl. In the middle of the pastor’s prayer, she suddenly yelled “mom, I need to go pee!”. It was very cute
Auntie_M says:
Awesome!!! Best church story ever!!!