Poopy Patrol

Potty! This is a common theme in our house these days. Little bean is on the verge of being a new member of the potty pros. By verge I mean, every once in a while, we score, the aim is spot on and BAM!!! Into the toilet it goes.  The rest of the time, like today, not so much. 

Today. Ahhhh I do so love a good story.  Today, little bean was incredibly upset at the prospect of putting on a new diaper. "No Dipe, No dipe!" How can any mom not cave under that sort of pressure. So, ok, no dipe but tell mommy if you need to use the potty. OK. Book? Sure, no problem. Lets read a book together.  Halfway through "new hat" (which means the new cat in the hat book we got from Nana and Grampa) little bean decides a change is in order so marches over to choose a new book.  Ahhhh, a moment to catch my breath as the book case does the entertaining for a moment. 

Oh wait, what's this? "Uh-Oh" a puddle.  Yep, little bean peed and it didn't just hit the floor. Oh no, it got on toys, feet, toy box, it was a MESS! Ahh well, par for the course right? Every single parent in the history of potty training parents has endured a puddle. No big deal, just hold tight little bean and we will wipe it away.  You can sit on the potty in the mean time.  As I book it to the cleaning cabinet to grab my ever present disinfectant and clean up the soggy mess, little bean decided to venture off and find a new adventure.  In the bathroom (our kiddo potty was sitting on the floor in the bedroom so as to make it easy access). It took me 2.4 seconds to realize I better go investigate the quiet. I find little bean waving into the toilet saying bye-bye. Holy Canoli!!!! Kiddo just hopped up on the real potty and pooped in there. Wowser! As I step in for a closer investigation and to cheer little bean on...yep, you guessed it. That warm, squishy sensation under my foot was not a welcome feeling.  Oh there was poop in the potty for sure but not before it landed on the floor to! AAAHHHHhhhhhhhh, gross. So, I plop bean onto the potty once again and start frantically grabbing for wipes to unstick my stuck foot and I look down to notice that I am not alone in my squishy toed adventure.  Oh no, little bean has POOP everywhere from the waist down! Awesome. 

Into the bathtub we go (sadly we were in the half bath and had to venture through a bedroom and down the hall to the main bathroom but with some fancy footed heal stepping and me carrying little bean out in front of me like a toxic waste specimen we made it without incident) and we proceeded to clean the poopy mess.  If time, grace and precision were being scored we totally would have won at least bronze if pooping were an Olympic event.  Lesson learned, make sure business is totally complete before beginning operation clean up.

Lets hope for a less poopy adventure on our next potty break!

Best of luck to all of my potty training comrades.

Making Margaritas

After an excessively hot week there is nothing better then sitting on the couch listening to a thunderstorm outside. I'm sure you're all thinking..."fool, get off the computer!" Not to worry, it's only a random crack from time to time, in the distance, and raining gently. When things get hairy I'll shut her down. Promise.  In the meantime, I've been doing a bit of reminiscing.

Moving. It isn't something most people jump up and down at the thought of.  If they are anything like me, they drag their feet until the very last minute, scrambling to get boxes from every store in town and shoving things into garbage bags and plastic totes without labels so upon arrival it is a complete cluster F@#&!  Yeah...that's more my style.  The reminiscing has to do with previous moves.  The most recent being when I was pregnant with little bean.  Not extremely pregnant, probably about four months, just about the time where the sickness and horrifying first trimester disaster is supposed to be over. Unless you're me of course and it lasts through your entire pregnancy. Let me just tell you, stress, anxiety and pregnancy are not a pretty mix! So, I employed the help of everybody I could and I have recently learned that in my haste to move, twice, I lost many things that I loved and many things that are important - read: Important Identifying Documents! Yikes!!!! Not good. That being said, I work best under pressure and cleared out a ton of crap I never actually needed.  Couldn't have done this without the help of friends and family, that's for sure.

I am suddenly finding myself at the point of moving once again. It's an exciting move and one little bean and I will be able to approach with joy and good feelings attached.  I get to sort through the crap slowly and make sure I actually know where the important documents are stashed.  I won't have a belly sticking out a mile in front of me or fear from being 10 feet away from a toilet or other hole worthy of tossing my cookies into.  I won't break a sweat at the thought of carrying a bag of socks to the car. I have never moved with a toddler before and doing a little reading has assured me that little bean will adjust and cope well...I always believe everything I read.  I am sure I won't encounter any meltdowns or near disasters over a misplaced "bubby" aka, bunny or specific book or even a crayon for that matter!   Nope, this is the way it should be done...unless of course you can hire movers to do it for you. That just might be the way it should be done. Who knows.

Prior to the pregnant moves I've had my fair share of packing and unpacking and repacking.  I once dated someone that said he wouldn't own anything he couldn't pack within three minutes and leave.  Yep...that relationship didn't last very long! There was also the guy I once lived with that when I moved across the country and left him behind he mailed me a bunch of my stuff including my stereo without any cords and one shoe from each pair I owned. I walked around lopsided for a LONG time! Seriously though, I wasn't cold-hearted or cruel, I just knew where I didn't want to be.  Generally it wasn't with some loser that could even think of sending someone one of each of their shoes because really if that's the way he approaches life he's probably just not a very good seed.  Regardless of that fact, looking back it is a really funny story and somewhat creative.  It has also been something that has built character and the often used catch phrase..."I'll chalk that one up to life experience." Lots of life experience happens when you move.

When you're ready to leave your parents home and start exploring the world as a teenager it's like it should have happened yesterday and you can't leave fast enough.  When you are ready to embark on adventures later in life it is with caution and curiosity and sure footing.  Your ducks tend to be in a straighter row so to speak so that when you are handed some lemons in life you can find some limes and tequila and make a delicious margarita instead of panicking.  (I don't know...do you put lemon in a margarita? Whatever...you can make it however you want, if you have the time to make one life can't be that bad.)  Boxes upon boxes of chaos could cause anxiety in anybody and surely will have me panicking a little but this time I know where I'm going and I know where I've been so the right now just feels right.  I will continue to write from an Itty-Bitty living space and I can imagine the stories of packing disasters and misplaced Elmo will entertain for weeks to come but I can assure you that each pair of my shoes will remain joined at the feet.