Potty and Training

I’m in bed at 9:20. This is not due to rest or luxury. I was up at 7, made breakfast, changed a diaper, put the toddlers in their seats and served up eggs, toast and smoothy. I sat down, prayed, read some scripture to the kids and started eating. The twins were done eating before I got into my second sip of tea. They looked tired but I didn’t want to put them in bed just to find in five minutes they had done their morning potty and would have to get them up. They are nearing two and my son has been poop trained since nine months so it seemed to me a good idea this morning as it sometimes does to try to let the twins go on the potty. So I stripped and sat them and they made efforts but no success. I decide to give them water to support movement. The cap slips as I am putting it on and water spills everywhere. Then the two year old announces that he needs to go potty. So in a laps of judgment I strip him down and tell him to go get on the big potty. He doesn’t want to. He wants to use the little potty that the girls are using and when a toddler wants to go poop anywhere that is not the floor or his diaper and relatively looks like a toilet you oblige him. My son goes on to fill the little potty which is to small for his capacity. I was watching the girls like a hawk when my son announces that he is done and bends over to get wiped and my daughter phina copies her brother and bends herself. When she bends over I see that her bottom is covered in poop, smashed poop.  Immediately time goes in to warp speed.  I wipe the two year old, wipe the one year old but need a second wipe to complete. Then I’m searching for the rest of the smashed poop. I can’t find it. I look back at the potty that my son just filled and Phina is sucking on the edge of it. I scream, she stops, I find the smashed poop, wipe the smashed poop off the wood floor and the wall. I go to put a diaper on the poop smasher, she has pooped more and is putting it in her mouth. I scream. I clean her hand and face and bottom again. I go throw away the dirty wipes encasing poo. I come back with a diaper, she has pooped again! This time it’s all contained still on her bottom. I clean her again, I go to empty the potty filled by the boy. As I walk down the hallway to the bathroom I see that somehow in the time warp someone has found the time to run down the hallway and unroll the toilet paper. I then go about searching for dead after the massacre. One white rug fell victim, fortunately all the other shots fired were aimed at the hard wood and the walls. Phina runs past as I am scrubbing the rug and I can smell that she has yes, pooped again. All this time my son is moaning for me to put his shoes and his coat on and he has taken them off two times already after I have performed this task this morning.  I put his shoes on and tell him to do the coat himself. I put the twins in bed with new clothes and new diapers. I collapse back into bed. The kitchen is a mess. There are eggs on the floor and dishes on the table, dirty pan on the stove and toys and kids clothes everywhere. The toilet paper is still unrolled. I am still not confident that all the poop is gone and my son is driving a toy car on my chest and all over my body as I write. I wish I could say that chaos like this is a rare moment but really it is a pretty normal two hours of our life. I think it’s pretty normal for many moms and to them I salute. Keep marching mamas we serve a worthy cause even if that cause carries in themselves an unimaginable amount of poop.  And so then we come to Jesus… wait… what? Yes, children who are filled with unimaginable amounts of poop does make me think of Jesus because I’m one of his kids and yes I even surprise myself with how much poo I have inside of me. Of course the poo is a word picture for sin. I think it’s quite fitting. Poo stinks, it makes a mess, no one wants to be around it, it can ruin lives…. Ok maybe poo can’t ruin lives though it sure feels like it today. I really am a kid full of poo though. Somedays I think I’m done pooping  and then I make a whole new mess and I am even surprised by it. I don’t want to stay a mess though so just like Phina I bend over and ask my heavenly father to clean me up. He does, with grace and patience.  So I guess my kids poop is making me a tiny bit more like Jesus, teaching me to have patience and grace in the most stinky situations and that is something I can be thankful for. Thank you Jesus for messes that remind me of the biggest mess that you so graciously cleaned and are cleaning. Your sacrifice astounds me.