Growing as a parent

Two years & one month ago, on Aug 20th, 2008, I started this blog.  That day I wrote about the Poopy Side of Mommyhood after an incident where I went to get Jasmine up from her nap and found her covered in her own excrement.  Today I had a flashback experience.

We had finished breakfast; I moved Acacia from her high chair to her play pen and got Eden & Jasmine started with school work at the kitchen table.  I threw something in the trash and noticed an aroma.  It smelled like a dirty diaper but since I had just opened the trash I assumed that it was coming from that.  Jasmine started singing an "Acacia is stinky" song.  I was busy trying to get Eden's school work organized in my folder and didn't think enough of it to stop.  Jasmine sang again, "Eeww..Acacia poooped."  and so I glanced over my shoulder to where Acacia's play pen sits.  There was my baby standing naked with poop all over the rail of the Pack n Play, and, upon closer inspection, all around her mouth which made her look like she had gotten into a chocolate bar.  Two pacifiers sat in there looking as if she had been using them to "dip" into her abandoned diaper.  I screeched and grabbed her up and wisked her away to the bathroom where (to her chagrin) I sprayed her down with the shower hose and washed her off as well as I could with handfuls of soap.  Once she was clean, I secured her in her crib and went about the business of cleaning the pen.  I had to call Russ because I was out of Clorox and couldn't imagine considering anything truly clean until it was thouroughly wiped down with bleach.  I took the Pack n Play outside & sprayed it down with a hose.  The sheet was put in the laundry and the toys & pacifiers were thrown in a bucket of water.  When Russ arrived I wiped down the bucket items and then refilled the bucket with bleach water and let them soak.  Now everything is back to normal.  Nearly all evidence of the incident has been eradicated...but the memory will continue on.

The funny thing is that in the midst of the chaos I reflected on the time that has passed since I started this blog and how it was my Jasmine who sat covered in her own poop just two short years ago and the thing is...I realize just how much I've grown as a mother in such a short amount of time.  Cleaning up my child's waste has become just another part of the job.  I've already been there, done that.  Last time the whole day just overwhelmed me; this time I cleaned up the mess all the while helping Eden with her homework, chatting with the neighbor, and getting things ready for lunch.  It may have added a bit of extra drama to the day but really it was barely a blip on my multi-tasking mommy radar.  And I gotta say that that is a good feeling.

I like being able to see improvements in myself.  I used to wonder if I could handle all the chaos that comes with having several children.  I'd look at other families and think that I don't have what it takes...that I am too lazy.  But the children come one at a time and grow up one day at a time and I've found that I have grown with them just as I hoped I would.  I have grown accustomed to keeping busy.  I have gotten used to the noise & the movement & the constant demands on my time.  (I have gotten up over three times just while writing this last paragraph!)  I have changed...mostly from necessity... but changed nonetheless and I know that this is what new moms, moms-to-be & moms-of-one need to know:  You will be fine.  We parent one day at a time...so enjoy the stage you're in--even on the poopy days--and before you know it, a poopy day will just be another sweet day you get to spend with your precious children and you, too, will realize that you're doing just fine.