The incident at the Chick-fil-A

Today I was going to tell you about our trip to the zoo yesterday. But, that will have to wait until tomorrow. Today, I have to tell you about the incident at the Chick-fil-A. Today was to be the first day this week that was not ALL about the kids. Today I wanted to go to the gym, needed to go to the grocery store, fold laundry, etc. We got off to a late start today because when I went to put some clothes away in Pressley's closet, I decided (apparently) that cleaning out her closet and segregating hand-me-downs to go to various friends, etc. had to be done this instant. So, we didn't leave the house to go to the gym until almost 11. This meant we were going to have to eat lunch on the go instead of at home as I'd planned.

After we left the gym, we headed to Chick-fil-A. This CFA has a playground, so the kids wanted to sit outside next to the jungle gym. I was ok with that. After I had given out all the food, fixed sandwiches how they like them, divided up the fruit cup giving P the apples and grapes and E the strawberries and oranges, I was about to open my sandwich.... But, no. Pressley said she had to go. I asked if it could wait, but instead of a verbal answer, there was clutching. That would be a no, I suppose. We all went trotting off to the potty after I had asked the nice lady at the table next to us to please intervene if someone tried to clear our table.

Let's backtrack a sec. Pressley learned a new skill yesterday: climbing onto the potty and holding on without any help. Yesterday, I was thrilled with this new development. Today, Pressley insisted that she could do it all by MYself! I was happy to let her hone her new skill, so I stepped into the stall next to hers to get her some toilet paper. Meanwhile, without my knowledge, she had locked her stall door and hopped up on the potty. Just while I was contemplating how I would get the toilet paper to her through a locked door, I saw the pee. It was pooling on the floor inside the stall and creeping toward me - not as slowly as you might think. Apparently the child really had to go. Unfortunately, none of it (not one drop, I tell you) went into the potty. Some of it went onto her panties and pants, but the vast majority went onto the floor. I used paper towels and I used paper towels to try to get it up, but MAN, there was a lot of it.

We finally had to move to another stall to try to clean Pressley up. Luckily, I had the spare clothes in my purse, but I could not for the life of me figure out how to make the change in a public restroom. (The whole procedure was complicated by the fact that her crocs were also full of pee, so I had to figure out how to clean those up. Happily, they are easier to clean than most other shoes.) Should you ever have to do this in the future - and I hope you don't - the trick is to have the child stand on a paper towel, naked from the waist down, while you clean her shoes with the wipes you so fortunately have in your purse. Then, clean her feet with more wipes. Finally, put on the dry panties and pants while she is still standing on the paper towel. Last, put the yucky-but-not-as-yucky-as-tennis-shoes-would-have-been-crocs back on the child. Have both children wash their hands like they've never washed them before and then go report to the manage that, despite your best efforts at self help, there is a need for a clean up on ailse 9 (so to speak). Then cringe when said manager asks in front of customers if accident was number 1 or number 2.

At last we could return to our lunch - you know - after we had all lost our appetites. We managed to have a lovely meal with a storm brewin' overhead and even managed to have a little bit of time for the kids to play on the playground before we were off to the grocery store. Thank goodness the grocery store went off without incident. Well, at least with no out-of-the-ordinary incidents like at the Chick-Fil-A.