The Trenches of Motherhood

This morning I found myself in the trenches of motherhood and I'm grateful that I survived and can now laugh about it. Let me explain. Colin had to be at work early this morning for the annual Engineer/Corps Day picnic. Addison has a spring holiday today and is out of school, so Colin asked me if I could take her to my mom's so that he could leave the house early. Colin left around 6:45 a.m. and I heard Addison wake up around 7:20 and was in her bed playing and talking. Since she wasn't fussing, I laid in bed a few more minutes and let her play while I listened over the monitor. Around 7:45, she started calling "mama" and was getting louder and louder in the time it took me to get up and walk back to her room.

When I rounded the corner to her door, she was saying, "mama--diaper!" She was bare bottomed holding her diaper in her hands (tabs still in tact) and had a substance all over her hands, on her cheek, and down her leg. Yep--you guessed it--that diaper was not empty! She had used the bathroom in her diaper and decided she would take care of it herself. She slid the diaper down her legs, which is how she got poo on her hands and legs. Luckily, she managed to keep all the yuck on her and in the diaper and there was no sign of poo anywhere in her bed. I had to run her to the bathroom and start cleaning her up, I washed her hands thoroughly, and then had to Clorox the changing pad and everything that she touched. She laid back on the bed with her arms relaxed behind her head this whole time like it was no big deal. Colin had told me when he left this morning to try not to go into labor today since it wasn't a good day for him. After the way my morning started off, I called and told him I didn't know if I would be able to keep that promise.

With all of that said, Addison is becoming rather consistent with telling us that she needs to use the potty during the day. She has been using the potty at school, at my mom's, and tells us she needs to go at home, but rarely actually goes. I didn't want to push potty training with her right now with a new baby on the way, but because of her interest and this morning's episode--I think I may be underestimating her. My mom and I decided that we would start working with her once school gets out in May, so that we won't have to worry about her having accidents at school. We'll see how that goes!

She has become very nurturing with her baby dolls lately and wants to feed them, diaper them, and rock them. She says she's going to help mama with Landry the same way. I think it's sweet until I see her slamming the baby doll down on the concrete. Uh-oh--anyone have a helmet for Landry that we can borrow?