Sunday, August 5

By jove, I think he's got it!! At least he's got it if he's not "too busy". I'm referring to David's potty training, of course!! We had a great day on Saturday! We even ventured out to the grocery store in our big boy underwear. Of course, we had to stop half way through our shopping to go teetee. But the grocery store we go to is fairly new and the bathroom is clean. We didn't have any accidents at all on Saturday.
Tim and I actually had a date Saturday night. We found a baby sitter on sittercity.com. She will be a senior this fall and is an education major. Tim and I went to dinner with some friends. We ate at a Portuguese restaurant called Atasca in Cambridge. It was a neat experience. Our "hosts" for dinner are from Portugal, so we got their recommendations for wine, appetizers, and the main course. We had a red wine to drink that was not too dry, so I enjoyed it. We had sardines, seafood croquettes with black eyed peas, squid, and clams for the appetizers. My main course was delicious!! It was a cod dish - broiled in garlis and olive oil and served with smashed red potatoes. This is a traditional Portuguese dish. The red potatoes are smashed first, and then baked. Tim had a beef dish which was also very good. We dined with friends from Brazil, Portugal, France, India, and Mass. Dinner was at 8:00, and Tim and I were the first to arrive - on time, even! The "hosts" were 20 minutes late!! We tried explaining that we are typically the ones to arrive late at home. Maybe we're really European instead of American. It was a 3 hour meal and very enjoyable. Especially since it's the first time Tim and I have been anywhere alone since May. We did think of all our T&D friends, since they also met Sat night.

Sunday we got up and went to the Vineyard church that meets in Somerville (about 10 min away). The church immediately made a good impression with a parking attendant and special parking for first time visitors and people with children under 5. The attendant told us where to take the kids. The preschool kids were in one building, and the older kids were in the same building as the worship service to begin. Both locations had someone to check the kids in and give us a numbered pass for collecting them at the end. The worship service was very contemporary - it began with one song "Blessed be the Name" and then went straight in to the sermon. The pastor was good, he had notes for us to fill in as the sermon went along. It was the conclusion of a sermon series on miracles. It was definitely a seeker-type service. After the sermon, a member of the prayer team came forward and said that they had been praying during the service and felt called to pray for . . . and listed several situations. Then they invited anyone who wanted prayer to meet with a member of the prayer team in the back and the band began to play. We sang several more songs, and then they took up the offering, had a benediction, and the service was over. There was no Sunday school for adults, but the welcome packet did list the days and times that small groups met - there were 3 or 4 pages worth of groups! The kids had Sunday school during the worship service, and both enjoyed it! It was the biggest group of kids we've seen on a Sunday morning. Jamie and Rachel both want to go back again, so we probably will. David enjoyed himself so much that he used his pull up instead of the potty.
We went to the pool this afternoon- to get out of the house so Tim could have some study time. I met a lady from Lousiana who has moved to the area with her family for her husband to go to school. David played with her daughter while she and I talked about Mass winters.
Tonight we went to Frank & Susan's house for dinner. We had pizza and ice cream in a very relaxed atmosphere. The kids all played well together. David went to the bathroom there, but then also had an accident. He said he didn't come tell mommy he had to go because he was "too busy". Oh well! He's still doing way better than I was afraid he'd be doing.