A Lesson on Multi-Tasking

I don’t know if I can attribute this to “mommy instincts,” pure luck, or truly an act of God making me look, but this morning I happened to glance at the baby monitor at the exact time my toddler had shoved his hand down the back of his pants. I was half-dressed, in the middle of my morning rush to get ready for work, when I sprinted into his room.

The day care teacher had told my husband and me on several occasions that our tenacious toddler had taken to actually showing her the evidence of when he needed his diaper changed- by proudly waiving his soiled hands in her direction. We would respond with puzzlement because he’d never done this at home and chalked it up to she must just take too long to change his dirty diaper…

At this time of life, our son is still at the stage where he can hang out in his crib for about a half hour during the week-day mornings, Disney’s Puppy Dog Pal’s on the TV, and a sippy cup of milk to keep him company until mama is ready to go. Today was the day he decided his mama was not moving fast enough. As nature would have it, his #2’s usually happen to occur between that small amount of time during the weekday mornings when tasks are frantic. This mama is used to all the poo. This mama is NOT used to cleaning it off his hands before he rubs his eyes, runs his fingers through his hair, cuddles the stuffed Nemo he sleeps with, or touches any of the other countless surfaces around him.

Time wouldn’t allow for a bath, so baby wipes cleaned off the visible fecal matter until I could get him in a clean diaper and get his hands under warm soapy water. I was shirtless still, hair wet- unbrushed, and struggling.  To save time, I thought, “why not bring him to the bedroom so I could finish the rest of my getting-ready-in-five-minutes-routine?” All the while, contorting around trying to keep semi-poopy toddler hands from touching all the things, while I let the water run in the sink to get hot.

Would you believe I still got to work on time today?