It was a truly momentous day for our three year old grandson, Eli; he was going to have his first haircut. He told me last week that he was going to get a haircut so he could look just like daddy.
It would also become a nostalgic day as we wistfully saw his long blond, beautiful curls cascading down his back surrendering to that passage of time from toddler to boyhood.
We got a Facetime call later that night to see his new cut and we begin telling him how handsome he looked. Seconds into the call, my son Aaron asked Eli if he had had another bathroom accident. Eli looked straight into the phone and clearly said, “I have a ‘Fucking Shit’, Mimi.”
I looked at my son Aaron, “What did he just say?”
Aaron laughed and looked at Eli, “Now, Eli we’ve talked about this. It’s not FU***** SH**; it’s Fuzzy Shirt; not FU***** SH**, it’s Fuzzy Shirt.”
Then, my son began to tell me about what had happened earlier in the day. When he arrived at the daycare to pick Eli up for the big moment, the boy looked up with those enormous blue eyes and said that he had to “go potty.” Heaps of praise fell on his little ears for being such a big boy until they reached the bathroom and his dad realized every toddler parent’s nightmare; he had already gone in his underwear.
Realizing that he had brought no extra clothes, Aaron disgustedly threw away the desecrated underwear and turned to find some type of cleaning elements. At this very moment, Eli, realizing his mistake and the consequences thereof, saw his opportunity of escape.
He ran from the bathroom through the daycare covered in said excrement with his dad in hot pursuit. When he was finally contained and cleaned, the decision was made that he would still get his haircut but would have to go commando.
Aaron told me that the daycare incident involved without question a super human poop which surely is what might have caused the profane utterances which might had been repeated numerous times in the heat of the moment. As his mother, I was very empathetic and we laughed together. I gave him sage mom advice, “Sometimes shit just happens.”
In full disclosure, I told him that payback is phenomenal recounting a time when at the same age, I had put him to bed for a nap with a paper diaper to fend off such an accident. Apparently, Aaron didn’t like the confinement of the diaper and instead of going to sleep, spent the next half hour picking the diaper apart piece by tiny piece with his tiny little fingers. When I went to check on him, he was out of the bed, standing there stark naked in a literal sea of white poopy diaper snow. The saying is true is this case, “like father like son.”
Without a doubt, kids keep us real, rub off our rough edges, and even sometimes bring us to frustrated tears; but as we look back with other parents and grandparents, we laugh as we have similar stories to share.
Kids also remind us of our humanity. We look at those little beings and see a mirror of ourselves. How many times have we felt naked and soiled, frustrated and needy in this life? The greatest miracle is that God looks down on our humanity and loves us because of it. He never expects us to be perfect and is eternally faithful when we fail or fall short.
Digging Life 