poo happens

On Sunday morning we put Kapria down for a much-needed nap (remember, she was up half the night screaming, running from her bed, and jumping up and down in a fit). Trav and I decided to take a quick nap, too, since we were both exhausted from our late night escapades.

Kapria cried in the other room. "One more, Mommy! One more!"

She'll fall asleep soon, I told myself.
After about twenty minutes of off and on crying, it got pretty quiet. After about 20 more minutes I hear, "I poopy, Mommy!"

This is the typical boy-who-cried-wolf statement at our house. When Kapria is supposed to be going to sleep in her bed, she will call out to tell me she pooped. Invariably, I will check, because:
a. if she is poopy, she won't go to sleep until her diaper is changed, and
b. if she is poopy, I don't want her sitting in it any longer, because she is famous for getting bad, bad, bad diaper rashes.

She likes that I check because it usually means two more songs and a little more rocking. But of all the times she has cried poopy, she has not once been poopy. (Well, maybe once...but it's few and far between.)

So I ignored her cry and tried to go back to sleep.

About ten minutes later, I hear her still talking in her bed, and I decide it has been long enough. My nap is over, and apparently Kapria's is too.

When I open the door to her room, a powerful stench greets me.
So does the vision of a poopy diaper sitting on Kapria's pillow.

She looks up at me with big, surprised eyes, as if she is as shocked by what has happened as I am. She holds out her brown gooey hands and says, "I poopy, Mommy."

I thought we had skipped this phase, I think. I read Mariah's poop story and thought it would never happen with Kapria. I heard other friends tell about this, but thought, Not my daughter. She wouldn't smear poo all over her bed. She wouldn't play in it. No, I won't have to deal with that mess, thank goodness.

Ha ha.

Ha ha ha ha.

HA. HA. HA. HA.

******************

Epilogue

My awesome husband cleaned up the entire playpen, poo smears and all. This is a feat, as he admittedly has a weak stomach and pukes over anything like this. I'm proud to say he didn't get sick at all. He cleaned the room and playpen, then sprayed all surfaces with lysol. Then he opened the windows to vent, turned the fans on hi, and shut the door.

I bathed Kapria, who seemed quite disgusted with the poo on her hands. I only hope she was disgusted enough not to do it again.

Lessons Learned:

1. A playpen is a worse place to have this happen than a crib. At least with a crib, you don't have mesh to clean.
2. Always put a sheet down no matter where your child is sleeping. Forgoing the sheet on your playpen mattress is not an option.
3. Poo happens. You can either laugh about it or laugh about it.