“Playdate” Is a Relative Term

My kids and I love to go on playdates or host playdates with other moms and kids. As a matter of fact, every day Joshua asks me “Who’s coming over?” If I answer in the negative, he quickly follows up with “Where’re we going? If I again answer in the negative, great sadness ensues. He really is a social butterfly, and I guess he gets it from me. I love hanging out with my mom friends and having adult conversation. I also love seeing my kids make friends of their own.

So it was with great excitement last Thursday that we drove over to my friend Andrea’s house. Her son Mitchell is 2 1/2 and he and Joshua get along great. Mitchell is a really good talker and reminds me alot of where Joshua was verbally when he was his age. So they can communicate pretty well and it is cute to watch them interact! However, there was not much interacting going on once Joshua discovered some of Mitchell’s new Christmas toys. This was the first time we’d been to their house since Christmas and Joshua quickly became zombified playing with Mitchell’s new multi-level car race track thingy. His social skills flew right out the window as he concentrated on watching the cars go around and around. Andrea and I were sitting in the kitchen (she was making us pancakes for dinner! Yum!) when Joshua yelled in a panicked voice.”Mommy!! I accidentally went pee-pee!”

I jumped up from the kitchen table and ran over and sure enough, he’d gotten so wrapped up in playing with the race track that he wet himself. His pants were soaked and there was a spot on Andrea’s carpet. I was mortified! I honestly can’t remember the last time Joshua had a pee-pee accident and I’d stopped carrying around extra clothes for him months ago. After properly shaming Joshua like any good mother would do, and apologizing to Andrea repeatedly, we borrowed a pair of pants from Mitchell and Joshua went commando. After I got him changed I asked Andrea for something I could use to clean the carpet. “Oh, I already got it.” she responded. Did I mention that Andrea is pregnant? There’s nothing like the guilt that comes from your pregnant friend having to get down on her hands and knees to clean your kid’s pee off her carpet!

The kids went back to playing (Sophie fortunately was being much easier to handle than usual!) and soon the pancakes were ready so we all sat down to eat. They were sooo good! Joshua ate two as fast as he could so he could get back to the blessed race track. Andrea and I each had two and decided we’d like another (she’s pregnant, I have no excuse! I’m just a glutton!) so she got up to make some more. Meanwhile Sophie and Mitchell had finished and went back to playing. I was sitting on the kitchen floor with Sophie when Joshua tore himself away from the toys and came to sit on my lap. “My tummy hurts!” he complained. I have honestly never known Joshua to complain of a tummy ache before (he’s more of a gagger) so I was a little concerned. “Did you eat too fast?” I said? “I think so!” he groaned

I took he and Sophie into the next room to be closer to the bathroom. At this point he was in tears holding his stomach and I was really worried. I thought he felt warm so I set him down and got up to ask Andrea for a thermometer.

Which is when he started puking.

I let out a little yelp and grabbed him to make a run for the bathroom, but I immediately tripped over Andrea’s dog, Joey! So I think I screamed again, but somehow I managed to keep myself and the still-hurling Joshua from falling flat on our faces. We finally made it to the bathroom but it was pretty much too late; by the time I got the toilet seat raised he was done puking. SO he got puke on the living room floor, on the DOG, in the hallway, on the bathroom floor, on TOP of the toilet seat, on my pants and sweater, and on his shirt and Mitchell’s pants, but not actually in the toilet.

A vision of Sophie walking through puke popped into my head so I went to grab her and pulled her into the bathroom with us. Meanwhile Andrea, the pregnant woman, was now down on her hands and knees scrubbing my kid’s puke off her carpet. I wanted to die! She was also trying to keep Mitchell and the dog out of it just as I was trying to keep Sophie out of it. There was a lot of yelling going on “Sophie, stop! Sophie, No! Sophie, stay here!” and apparently Mitchell was doing impressions of me yelling at Sophie the next day to his dad! Oy! The next few minutes were a blur. I know there was a lot of cleaning up of puke and keeping kids and dog out of puke going on but that’s about it!

I quarantined Joshua buck-naked from the waist down in the bathroom and ran out to the car to make sure I didn’t have any extra clothes for him. I didn’t want to have to borrow another pair of Mitchell’s pants! I mean geez I felt we’d done enough. Fortunately I found a pair I’d gotten at a thrift store a few weeks earlier and forgotten about. They were way too big but they’d get him home. I ran in and quickly got the kids ready to go. “You don’t have to leave!” Andrea said kindly. “You can eat your pancake!”

“Somehow I’m just not hungry anymore!” I replied. I just wanted to beat it before Joshua decided to spread excrement all over her house as well. I apologized about 100 times. “Next time you guys come over, just send Mitchell in without a diaper and give him some syrup of ipecac or something and we’ll call it even,” I offered. I seriously was so mortified I could barely look her in the eye!

It was really, really, cold that day, and when we got home, Joshua’s too-big pants fell down as he walked up to our porch. I cracked up at his little white bare buns sticking out from beneath his coat. I was glad to have something to laugh about!

This Saturday we’ve been invited back to Andrea’s for pizza with the whole family. I am so glad she invited us back! I am going to bring 4 changes of clothes for Joshua – I think I am going to make him wear plastic underpants and a bath towel as a bib, just to be safe! Oh and I’m bringing a new bottle of carpet cleaner. Maybe I should just make a “Playdate Emergency HAZMAT Kit” to keep in my car!

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Daily Affirmations with Joshua

Yesterday my wise sage of a son, who is almost four years old, said to me after laying a ginormous deuce in the potty (as he gave me an affirming pat on the shoulder), “That was a big poop! But you’re not a pee-pee or a poop. You’re just my Mama.”

Thanks, kid! I am glad we cleared that up. I’ll keep that in mind next time my self-esteem takes a dive.

Happy Blog Hopping to my fellow Weekend Blog Hoppers!

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Review: Pampers Stages

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A few weeks ago the good folks at Pampers asked me if I would be willing to review their Stages line, and I was oh-so-happy to do so, since they sent me diapers and wipes to try! I was already a fan of Pampers Swaddlers, for baby’s first stage. They were my absolute favorite when both of my babies were little. But Emily will be doing her own review of those when her new baby (of undetermined sex) is born. So, let me move on to the pack of Pampers Cruisers and accompanying Swipers wipes I tried out on Sophie’s little buns! Cruisers and Swipers are designed for bigger, more active babies whose dirty diapers and diaper changes may be a little more, um, complicated because of both their new mobility and all the new table food they are eating. So, my Sophie was the perfect product-tester. She is always on the go, is very wiggly on the changing table, and her poops are definitely more grown-up these days. Yikes! I had tried Cruisers before and liked them, and now I like them even more! They are so great for a baby who is going places. The sides and leg cuffs are super-stretchy and move with Sophie. She never has any trouble with the Cruisers chafing her or getting “out of position”. They really do the job in their primary role of poop-and-pee absorption too! They are my favorite diapers to put on Sophie at night, because recently she has been soaking herself at night several times a week, and the Cruisers keep her drier overnight than any other diaper I have tried. Also, let me say that Cruisers are very sturdy. Never have I had any of the tabs rip off of these in my hand. This is a big pet peeve of mine. No matter how hard I tug, those tabs stay on! Yay!

I had never tried or heard of the Swipers wipes before, so I was very curious about them. I am a little bit picky about wipes, and I was really pleased with the Swipers. They have a nice texture that is soft so it’s comfy for the baby but it also grips a bit to help get those dirty baby buns really clean. Their thickness is just right, and so is the moisture level. One things I hate is a wipe that’s too dry, but I also hate a wipe that is dripping wet! The Swipers came in a lovely pop-up tub and the first wipe had the same wetness as the wipe at the bottom of the tub. I hate it when you get to the bottom of the tub and your hand takes a bath in wipe-juice. Nothing of that sort occurred with the Swipers. They were really consistent through and through. Another thing I liked about them was their scent. They are “lightly scented” and they smell very pleasant. I hate it when wipes are STRONGLY scented and then that scent mixed with poo is worse than the actual poo itself!

So, anyways, I have a lot of pet peeves about diapers & wipes, and I am happy to say Pampers Cruisers & Swipers were just right for my tastes and my baby’s needs! I was so impressed with this Stage, I already purchased some of the next Pampers Stage – the Easy-Ups diapers – since they are on sale this week at CVS (buy $20 worth of Procter & Gamble products, get 5 ECBs back) and I had a COUPON! I also had a coupon for a free Pampers Stages Kan-doo product with the purchase of the Easy-Ups so I got some of the Kan-doo flushable wipes as well, which Joshua can use for his big boy potty action.

You can learn more about Pampers Stages at Pampers.com. Go getcha some this week at CVS! Thanks to the Pampers peeps for letting me give their diapers and wipes a whirl!

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