Messes and More

A long time ago we had a dog named Fred.  He was a good dog, but really disgusting in many ways - he ate the insides out of diapers and had to have 15 teeth pulled because they were so rotten and one time he pooped into a floor vent in our house.  Earlier this week, I had the unpleasant task of remembering Fred by cleaning up an accident that was very similar to the "poop in the vent" incident.  Gwen, who is completely pee trained is struggling in the potty department when going #2.  She pooped her pants in the middle of lunch - so I cleaned her off and left her without underwear thinking it was almost nap time anyway.  Not even 10 minutes later, I see her in the family room pooping again....and it's runny.  Puddling at her feet, running down her legs.  Oh.  My.  Word.  And so, as I was cleaning up her mess again, I was reminded of Fred!  Then, she announced that she needed to go more.  I put her on the potty, she did her thing and then proudly exclaimed, "Me did it!"  But I couldn't even be happy for her.  How 'bout the other two "misses"???

Other than cleaning up after Gwen, this has been a pretty quiet week.  Kyle and Ben went to their grandparent's to visit and Joel and Gretta are at camp.  They slowly start trickling in later today and by tomorrow afternoon, everyone will be home.  Sunday was an emotional day for me.  When we dropped Gretta off at camp, she was not feeling well.  Actually, she was trying to decide if she felt well enough to even stay.  I knew how badly she wanted to be there - with two school friends in her cabin, even.  The counselors were great and really encouraged her to stay - telling her that she could sleep at the nurse's station for the first night and that they just knew she would be feeling great by the next day.  After a long and tearful deliberation, she decided to stay.  It broke my heart to leave her when she was crying.  It reminded me of leaving my kids at the church nursery when they are crying.  It about rips my heart out!  And, no matter how big they get, I guess it will always be the same.  I heard an interesting saying:  A mother is only as happy as her saddest child.  So true!  The good news is that I haven't heard from camp.  They said they would call if she was not well within 24 hours.  So at this point, no news is good news.