Just Another Day At The Pool

Meyer takes swim lessons every week, which she normally loves, but this week we got in the pool and I could tell that she wasn’t having it. I couldn’t figure out what her deal was but she was just not as into it as she normally was. Even though she is 99% potty trained, she still wears a swim diaper under her bathing suit in the pool so I was pretty confident that it wasn’t an issue with her having to pee that was holding her back. I started to wonder if the chlorine was hurting her eyes or if her bathing suit was uncomfortable? Then she started to tell me that she did have to go pee. I told her that it was fine and she was wearing a swim diaper and that she could go pee in it if she wanted to. She was adamant that she wanted to get out of the pool to go on the potty and started to cry telling me over and over that she had to go pee. Then it happened. The inevitable poop face. ‘OH NO!’ Then I remembered that she often says she has to go pee even though she actually means poop (we are working on that). ‘Shit!!!’ Literally. I grabbed her and ran out of the pool to the bathroom (both of us barefoot mind you) and even though the bathroom floors at the pool have that shower matting, I still felt like Britney Spears at the gas station restroom. But at this point, I didn’t really care. And of course this week was Safety Week, so the instructors encouraged the kids to wear their street clothes over their bathing suits in the pool so they would know what it felt like if they fell in the pool fully clothed. Which actually worked in my benefit since she had that extra layer to keep the poop in when she let it go in the pool. But as I was in the stall trying to get her undressed so she could finish on the potty, it was working very much against me. You try taking a pair of wet pants, then a wet bathing suit and then a swim diaper off a squirmy toddler who is trying not to finish pooping in her pants. Nightmare! When I finally got her undressed, it was another struggle trying to empty out her swim diaper in the potty (and not on me or on the floor) but still trying to get her on the potty at the same time. I’m pretty sure I had poop somewhere on me (what mom hasn’t had poop on them?) by the time I got her on the potty just in time for her to finish. Thank God no one else was in the bathroom at that time! Once she was done, she proudly announced as sweet as can be in her little high pitched voice that she was 'all done' and gave me a proud smile. Oh sure kid, you are happy now but I am standing here barefoot in the bathroom stall with poop somewhere on my hand and/or arm and wet toilet paper stuck to my leg. And now for the cleanup. Again, thank goodness no one else was in that bathroom as I cleaned myself off and put my half naked toddler (still as happy as can be) on the counter while I rinsed out her swim diaper and got her bathing suit back on. We rushed back out to the pool (I felt like I was gone so long that the class was probably over, everyone had left and the employees had locked up for the night) and slid back in the pool inconspicuously. Nothing to see here, folks!