“You’ve been accepted into Law School!”
“I’m giving you a raise.”
“The job is yours if you want it.”
“Congratulations, you passed the Bar exam!”
Hearing or reading each of these announcements understandably made me happy. These were goals I had worked hard over the course of many years to achieve.
But none of the joys I hoped for or expected can rival the magical phrase that recently delighted my heart: “Mommy, I pooped on the potty!”
YES!!!!
Like the realization that I’d taught Anna what the parts of her face were called and where they were, this milestone brought a surprising amount of glee to our household. I had to shake my head, laughing once again at the changes in my priorities and way of thinking.
Needless to say, we are excited at the prospect of soon saying “goodbye” to diapers – besides slowing things down, saving that $20 per box will be awesome!
Now we’ve just gotta figure out how to keep the ball rolling….because that same phrase that brings such excitement to our household can also bring terror in a different context.
Recently, I was wandering up and down aisles in the consignment store, browsing at adorable children’s clothing, when I felt a tug at my hand and heard a small voice say, “Mommy, I pooped.” This time, instead of a look of pride on Anna’s face, there was one of fright and dismay. She looked like a deer caught in headlights.
“It’s okay, honey,” I responded….and then froze. She wasn’t in a diaper. She was in Dora the Explorer big girl underwear.
Dum-dum-DUM.
To make matters worse, the store is a small one with no public restroom or changing area. And my car was being repaired at the time, so we had walked to the store.
Lovely, just lovely. As Woody says in Toy Story: “Think think think!!”
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| Photo Credit: Disney/Pixar via costumecity.wordpress.com |
Since there was no nearby bathroom and I doubted Anna could walk very far before the situation worsened, we had to improvise. Thankfully, I had the diaper bag. So, we asked the cashier to hold our selections and then left the store and headed across the parking lot to the grass on the other side. We moved down the side of the building away from the window so the cashier wouldn’t see us. There, hoping nobody would pull into the lot at just that moment, I changed her, threw the yucky stuff (including Dora) into an empty wipes bag that I was really grateful for at the time, and that was that.
After all, it takes a lot more than that to stop me from shopping!
I was proud of myself for not freaking out, because I didn’t want my Pie to feel badly about having an accident. But it just goes to show how the feeling induced by a phrase can vary dramatically depending on the situation!
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