Song and Dance

We attended the last Blue Sky Concert in Decatur Square yesterday. Between going to it and going to the zoo with Kate and James this morning, it is becoming quite clear that it was a good idea to get the leash/harness we did to use on Elsa during our trip next month. I just can hardly keep up with her (and also keep up with all of our belongings) anymore. The girl is quick! Once again, I couldn't really eat my lunch, and she showed little interest in hers, but she had a grand time running around, hugging Doc Broc, and watching/listening to the band.

Unfortunately, Elsa somehow managed to fall asleep in the car between the Square and our house, which is probably only about two or three miles. I had not even realized she had conked out until we were on our street and I took note of how silent she was. As usual, I was unsuccessful in transferring her from the car to her crib, so I went ahead and changed her diaper and sang her a couple of songs before putting her down for her nap. Also as usual, because she had fallen asleep in the car, napping suddenly became much less desirable. Regardless, I let her chat away in her room for what probably ended up being about an hour before I heard her start crying some and saying, "All done sleep." So I gave up.

As soon as I walked through the door of her room, the stench of poop filled the air, and I commented that she must have a dirty diaper and perhaps that is why she did not want to sleep. Well, as I got closer to the crib, I became horror struck. My child had decided to take off her diaper, and poop was everywhere -- all over the sheet, her blanket, and her stuffed toys; on her dress; on the bumper pad; all over the crib rails; and on her face, hands, and in her hair. She even picked some of it up to show me as I got close. It was completely disgusting. (Kate told me I should take a picture and post it, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. So you all are spared.)

I truly did not even know where to begin, but then realized the obvious course of action was to go run a bubble bath before even trying to do anything with Elsa. So I started the bath and then came back and stripped her down. I then carried her, arms straight out in front of me, to the bathroom and plunked her down in the tub. The first bath was just to get all of the poop off of her. I had to give up my toothbrush just so I could scrub underneath her fingernails. The second bath was to really get her clean (and to go ahead and let her play with her toys while she was in there).

Once she was clean and dressed, I started in on the crib. First I scrubbed down the crib railing and wiped up the floor around the contaminated area. Then I stripped the crib and threw everything in the wash (prewash, regular wash, and an extra rinse!) and put the extra mattress pad (which I have never had to use until yesterday) and new sheet on the mattress. After all of that, I thought everything was good. Well, then a bit later I was getting her ready to go to our last music class of the semester, and as I was changing yet another poopy diaper, she decided to pee all over the changing table. She has not done this in a long time. So then I had to set to get her cleaned up all over again and replace everything on the changing table.

Thank God for music class, as I don't know if I would have made it through the rest of the afternoon with my child without some distraction. But after another brief shy spurt, Elsa opened up and was running around in class, chatting away, and giving other mommies hugs, so we had fun. Needless to say, though, by the end of the day I was definitely ready for a glass of wine!