Sunday, January 19, 2014

When Nature Calls

I was having an enjoyable, rather ordinary day with the kids.  Actually, it felt a bit extraordinary because it was a very good morning.  The sky was clear, the kids were playing pretty well together, and I had decided to turn off all technology for the day.  I wanted to be present.  I wanted to be fully in the moments with my kids.

We eventually wandered outside.  Those of you with boys know that a fully indoor day is just simply not an option.  I mean, for everyone's sanity.  So Toby hopped on his scooter and Silas was on his bike and we meandered to the mail box.  I tried, with every ounce of my being, to not rush the children and just enjoy the journey.

All of a sudden, Toby wanted to catch my attention.  "Mommy, mommy, MOMMY, MOMMY" with the urgency that only a toddler can employ.  When I finally looked we literally watched as the most spectacular rainbow started to unfold in the sky.  At first it was just a little tiny rainbow reaching upwards from the horizon.  Then it grew, and grew and became brighter.  Soon it filled the WHOLE entire sky.  It was a full arch. It was literally astonishing.

And the boys, they were completely enraptured.  Toby was funny to watch "A rainbow!!!! I have it!!" He said, reaching for it.  "I eat it..." he said.  (Interesting).  I said to him "God put that in the sky, isn't it beautiful?"  Then rather matter of factly, he stated "Thank you God."

Precious.  Totally, and completely precious.


As it started to disappear, we carried on and I was still in la-la land of perfect mommyhood.  I had marvelously deep thoughts about how great it was being a mom, seeing things through the eyes of a child, how poetic and spiritual that moment was etc etc.

We ventured into the woods, as my boys love to do.  "Let's go exploring!"  Silas loves to say- even though what he means is walking 15 steps into the treed area lining our complex.  "Sure!" I was in a wonderful mood now.  As far as we could go, we bush-whacked and at our furthest distance...it happened.

Toby said "Poop Mommy."

Huh?  I mean, I took him to the potty before we left, he shouldn't need to go.  But all you moms out there who are in the trenches of potty training know that, well, there isn't much time warning with these things.  I breathed a sigh of relief thinking "Oh, I put him in a pull-up before we left."  Double check...nope.  Underwear.  At this point we were too far away from home, and I had no other option.

"Want to poop in the forest Toby"
"Yup!"

Down go the pants and there, in the visible distance from the housing units in our complex, my son poops.  But you see, there were many mistakes I made in this process.  His shoes were still on.  His coat was hanging too low, and I had no means of wiping.  My 7 months pregnant self is huffing and puffing, bending and lifting, trying to scour the forest for leaves to wipe my child's coat and now shoes and socks, legs and butt.  I become crazy mom "Don't move!  Don't touch!  STAY AWAY SILAS."  Toby's moaning "Owwww leaves pokey" when I hurriedly wipe him. Silas is all up our grill wanting to see the action and asking rapid-fire questions.  By this point, I'm literally out of breath- my pregnant belly allows for very little in the way of bending motion and the sheer effort of trying to pull pants down, stabilize, wipe, and re-apply pants OVER shoes was literally too much.

Pretty-rainbow-moment has now become stinky-poopy-son moment.  By this point it is cold and getting dark, Silas is insistent that we bury the poop, since that is obviously my priority at this time.  Toby's coat is disgusting.  Toby wants to see the territory he has marked, "see it Mommy, see it SEE IT", again- insistent toddler.  I realize we've left the dinner too long, and the child-sized vehicles un-manned.  I have to pee.  Silas doesn't want to ride his bike, he wants the scooter, but Toby's bum is too saturated from ineffective wiping to ride any sort of bike.  I'm trying to carry/cattle prod the two boys back home while trying to avoid the massive traffic jam that becomes our complex at 5 pm.

Slight disaster.   

And this my friends, is exactly how motherhood goes.  Moments of sheer beauty, poetry and precious memories.  Followed close in hand with sweat-inducing, mess-making, bodily function encounters...mini disaster.  

Rainbows and poop.  Just another day.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...