Do you know what the last three things were that you pulled out of your washer yesterday? I do. A pocket knife, a screw driver and a diaper – yes, a diaper. If you’re a mom and you’ve never washed a diaper, well, you haven’t been initiated yet. For those of you who raised your babies with this never happening… get off my blog. It isn’t for you. This is for the moms that feel hopeless during various parts of the day and completely blissful during other parts. This blog is for every mom who walks around for the rest of the day after leaving HEB with a buddy sticker displaying a number stuck to your butt because your daughter wanted to share her stickers with you and you don’t see it until you’re taking a shower that night. (At least it was a 10.) For the moms who stay up at night wondering if they did everything right or if they could have done better.
Now, back to the washer – I opened it and my knees lost all strength as I slid onto the washroom floor, leaning against the washer. NOOOOO! SIGH. In real life I actually said a couple of cuss words and then yelled no with the sigh. After a trip to the urgent care the day before and day two with a sick kid at home coughing strep throat all over the freaking place, the last thing I needed was this. I peered back over, blinking uncontrollably hoping that would make it go away. Nope. Still there. If you’ve done this then you know what I saw: small specks of an icky, sticky, gooey, gel-like substance all over the place. This crap was stuck to every single article of clothing that was in the washer. I sat back down and googled “accidentally washed diaper with clothes” and to my surprise, this happens to a number of us so don’t feel bad. But, I mean, the fact that my kid doesn’t even wear diapers anymore made the matter worse. Where in the hell had this diaper come from? I’ll tell you where. It came from the evil bear that wears a diaper and sleeps with her. Baby Benny. He must have thrown it into the washer as I was washing her bedding just to have something to laugh about because just as i was about to begin the clean up process, there he was, on top of the pile of dirty clothes, diaper-less. Little Bastard.
Some moms on the net said it would be best to take the load of clothes outside and shake each one of them, picking off what you couldn’t shake off. Pff. Others said to rewash, then shake, then dry, then pick the stuff off with your hand. Really? Who has time for that? One mom said just to throw those clothes in the dryer with a low heat setting until all that crap dried up and fell off all on its own. All you’d have to clean was the lent catcher a couple of times. I liked her and her ‘little effort for the best result’ attitude.
In case you were wondering – that worked perfect. One shirt had attracted much more of the gross stuff so it still had a bit remaining on it after washing and drying, but we’ll just try to rewash that one. I also had to run the washer on a rinse cycle, but afterwards the gunk inside was gone. Thank you Jesus!
I thought this diaper incident had ruined my day. I was walking around with that crap in my hair just from moving the clothes from the washer to the dryer. (Dear heavenly Father I promise to never judge another mother on what could be her worst day ever) Some of the gunk had fallen from the clothes onto the floor and it was stuck to my feet… gross. I decided just to leave it there. Hopefully since the kids always track in dirt, they’d be able to track that crap outside. I’d spend the rest of the day yelling “GO OUT THE SIDE DOOR!!”
Little did I know Abbie had a different plan for the day. I heard “It’s ok Mommy.” How could three little words from a tiny four-year old be so comforting? (Mental note to self: Accidents happen and kids need to hear that it’s ok too) “Let’s go play! Did you know it was your birthday today, Mommy and I made you a cake? Come see!” It didn’t matter that it wasn’t really my birthday or that her cake was invisible. It didn’t matter that I had stickers stuck to my butt or remains from a washed diaper in my hair. It didn’t matter to her that my make-up was a day old and that I’d been in sweats all day. She needed me at that very moment and truth be told, I needed her too. (another thanks to God) I needed to see that sweet smile and hear her laughter followed by, “Hear that Mommy? I’m laughing because you’re funny?” It wiped away everything that had caused stress, made it just disappear. Gosh, I love that kid. She reminded me that screwed up things happen in life sometimes, but if we just focus on the good things and make the best of each situation, then we’ll be ok. Nothing else really matters. We went on to have a good day – even had a little photo shoot. I hope you enjoy because we laughed so hard that we had tears and couldn’t breathe.
In This With Chris 