My parents left to go back to Arkansas last week, and go figure the exact day they were traveling back I have an incident happen at home that made me wish they were there...
Thursday morning, I come out of my room from finishing feeding and pumping Jay. I thought the other kids were just playing with each other on the stairs, but as I go outside my door I am greeted by them I see brown stuff all over their face and hands. Going down the hallway I see these nuggets and more and more come in sight as I get to the stairs. Then I see Ellie's pull-up lying on the stairs, poop smashed into the carpet down the hallway and up and down the stairs, and pretty pictures made with poop on the walls. Look at my two boys, and not only are they covered in this foul crap but they are sitting eating it as well. Such a proud parent moment...
I was so mad. I didn't know where to start, or who to start cleaning up first. I get the kids cleaned up put a baby gate up on the stairs so the two little boys couldn't get up. Ellie is then standing on the first stair trying to climb over the gate, and I wouldn't let her. She then proceeds to take her pull-up off once again when my back is turned and pee on that first step off the stairs. This had me break out in tears. It was still morning and yet I was done with that day.
Thankfully my visiting teacher and neighbor was home that day, so I called her up in tears to take the three older kids to the park across the street while I cleaned the house. Meanwhile, during all this the baby is crying upstairs wanting to be held. Thankfully as I was cleaning up my cousin knocks at the door. She was able to hold baby Jay while I cleaned, and then allow me to shower after it was all done. Bless her and my visiting teacher that day.
Saturday we woke up to rain. We planned on going to the Mesa Lehi Days Rodeo, a fun event Jared went to growing up and we have gone every year since living here. We get there and get settled, as we are trying to feed the kids, it starts to rain, HARD! Thankfully Jared came prepared, and had a tarp to drape over our bus of a stroller...
The kids didn't really like the tarp because the couldn't see anything. After about ten to fifteen minutes of hard rain, it stopped. Both Jared and I had a side of us that was wet, because we both didn't quite fit under the umbrella. We were mostly using it by the stroller as Evan would stick his head out. The grass was flooded with water. Thankfully we wore our lawn mowing shoes, because they became soaking wet and muddy. It was a fun adventure that had both Jared and I smiling and laughing the whole time. However because it was so wet the kids couldn't really get out and play and it was nap time already. We decided to pick up some more of the famous barbecue served and head back home.
Later that afternoon/evening I wanted to take Ellie to go see the movie Frozen. We had been watching YouTube clips of the music for weeks now and she always cried when I turned it off. We arranged for some of the other other cousins and their moms to come with us. We brought snacks and popcorn to make it a special fun time. Ellie loved the movie, her favorite song is "Let it go" and she has even started singing it by herself, it is cute to hear.
On Sunday I woke up to feed Jay and then proceed into my routine of getting the other kids up and fed.I finish feeding them downstairs and by that time Jay is ready to eat again. So I put a show on the TV and head upstairs. As I am finishing up feeding Jay both Jared and I hear the kids playing downstairs. Jared turns to me in bed and says " I'll go down and play with them in a sec." A couple minutes later, in the upstairs hallway, we hear Ellie say "Eww.." "Nothing good could come from that word," Jared and I said to one another and Jared immediately hopped out of bed, I soon followed. Once again Ellie had taken off her poopy pull-up and the twins proceeded to play with it on the stairs and write with it on the walls. I stood and looked at Jared and said, "Your turn." He says, "I ... no ... I just ... nuh uh ... nope. Can't handle this." This time I wasn't mad, I was laughing, because I found Jared's reaction to all of this humorous because I had already gone through the other emotions for this situation.
After the crappy situation was once again taken care of, Jared was more determined then ever to help get Ellie potty trained. We took her to the potty every fifteen to thirty minutes. Finally at the end of the day we had her sitting on her potty in front of the TV, watching music videos of "Frozen" and the movie "Once Upon a Potty." After about forty-five minutes of this we had a success! She was excited to see our excitement, as well as to get a sticker and a treat. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new era ...
If we've convinced you to never come to this house again, we wouldn't blame you. That said, with this many little ones, you'd better believe I've become very good at cleaning things THOROUGHLY. In any case, we're very glad that Ellie is showing signs that she's ready to be potty trained. We can't wait to go through this with the boys ...
I know how frustrated and overwhelmed you were in the moment but as I read about all that happened i couldn't help but laugh out loud. It is always funnier after the fact. Continue to carry with humor.
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