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.

at the baptism
“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.