Miracles do happen: somehow Justin went from refusing to enter a bathroom to being apparently completely toilet trained in just two days. His dad and I are still stunned. We have no idea how the light bulb went off, but he’s on a roll, and we’re just treading carefully to make sure we don’t spoil it. Could this really be it? After all this time? And with kindergarten only a month away? Unreal.

In other news…Chris and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary a couple weeks ago by going out for bowling and dinner with two other couples. This was actually a big deal — a high percentage of my friends are single moms, so it’s rare that Chris has another male to talk to when we socialize. (It was also a big deal just being out together without the kids: usually Chris stays home while I go out to save my sanity.) The conversation mostly revolved around child-rearing, of course, but it was still a great stress reliever.

It was an even better stress reliever when I played racquetball with Laura later that week. I hadn’t played in almost 10 years, but I’d been feeling the urge to pound on something, so I figured it was better to do that on a court than at home. And boy, did it feel good to smash that little ball around. I’d forgotten how much I like that game. Hopefully we can make it a regular routine.