Crappy Day

So I have to tell you about the day after Ephraim's birthday. It started out innocently enough. We were having fun playing around in the morning, helping Grandma Heiner get ready to go home.

I had gotten the boys ready and was just getting out of the shower when Ephraim came to the bathroom telling me, "Potty! Potty!"

Ephraim has been interested in using the potty, but has never actually done anything while sitting there. He just makes a "ppssssss!" noise while smiling at me. Cute, but somewhat frustrating. So I didn't really thing his request was very urgent.

But as I started to get dressed, Ephraim started to try to pull his clothes off, all while saying, "potty!". So I decided to humor him and took off his pants and diaper and set him on the potty. Within 20 seconds, Jacob came in the bathroom saying, "Mommy, I need to go potty NOW!".

So what's a mom to do? I figured Ephraim didn't really need to go, so I took him off the potty and put Jacob on the potty.  You can see where this is headed, right? Actually it is worse than you think!

While I was helping Jacob with the TP, Ephraim wandered back in the bathroom. It was then that I noticed he had a little something on his tush. I immediately cried, "Oh no, Ephraim is starting to go potty!" So I took Jacob off the potty and put Ephraim on.

No big deal, right? Jacob was done anyway... or so I thought! He starts in with "I still need to go some more!" At this point I am in a panic. So I call for my mom to come take Jacob downstairs (he won't go down by himself) so he can finish going potty and I can take care of Ephraim.

I thought the disaster was averted. WRONG!
I just about lost it when I looked down the hallway...

What neither my mom or I knew was that Ephraim had already pooped in the hallway. That wouldn't be SO bad, but then my mom inadvertently stepped on it with her shoe when she came to get Jacob.... and tracked the mess down the hallway, through my kitchen and down the stairs.

I will admit it... I freaked out. There may have been some yelling, screaming and general hysteria. It wasn't my mom's fault, it wasn't really Ephraim's fault.... and I like to think that I was doing the best I could.

We got the mess cleaned up and then went out for lunch to give everyone a break. I was disappointed that Ephraim probably WOULD have used the potty, but instead everything got all messed up.

So mom and I cleaned up the house and then decided that we should all go out to eat lunch since we were having such a crappy day (or at least I was... I don't know if the boys were quite as traumatized.)

Spending some time away from the house was helpful. We all relaxed a bit before we had to say goodbye to grandma.

I was afraid Ephraim would not want to get back on the potty, but later in the day (before his bath and with his face covered in cake and chocolate ice cream) he did ask to go potty again.

So I guess that's progress, even if all he did was tell me "ppsssssssss!" and smile.