The Mess of All Messes

Being the mom of three small boys, I've had to deal with alot of messes. From messes from things like paint, crayons, lotion, vaseline, peanut butter, food coloring, and of course, all sorts of bodily fluids.

Some messes are just a pain to clean up, while other are just plain disgusting.

But, when it's your child who has thrown up or had an explosive diaper or a potty training accident, you deal with it.

Today, I had to deal with the worst kind of mess.

I put Bear(almost 3 years old) down for his nap around 1pm. I did hear him in his room for a little while, maybe 20 minutes or so, but he wasn't fussing and there weren't any loud booms, so I didn't go check on him.

At 3pm, I took the baby up to his room for his nap and decided to peek in on Bear. What I saw completely horrified me.

He was fast asleep in the middle of the floor...pants around his ankles, poop ALL over him. Face, hair, hands, shirt.

Then there were the walls. It looked like he had fingerpainted from one end of the wall to the other. The windows and his dresser weren't spared, either.

I stood there for a little while(felt like a few minutes, but due to the stench, I'm doubting it, it was probably just a few seconds), then decided that I would run a bath and then wake up Bear to clean him up, get him downstairs, and then deal with the mess in his room.

So, that's what I did. Cleaned him up, got him downstairs with big brother, and tried to clean up.

The only thing that I could use that would take the poop off the walls was a strong mixture of bleach and a little bit of hot water. It took some of the paint off the walls and has the knuckles of three of my fingers bright red, irritated, and bleeding a little. That's mostly my fault for not going for a search for gloves before I started this clean up project.

While I was in the middle of cleaning, Cub woke up. I really couldn't do much about it. No way can I trust all three boys alone downstairs if I'm not there with them for longer than just a few minutes. So, I was cleaning up shit and listening to a 10 month old shriek in the next room, cursing Hubby the whole time for being at the gym and being unreachable(no cell phones allowed due to the pervs who take pics of people in their workout gear).

Finally got the mess cleaned up and some laundry going. Calmed Cub down, took him downstairs with the big boys, then went back upstairs to clean myself up.

Came back downstairs and smelled poop again. Bear had pooped, reached down in his pull-up, and got some out. He then spread it on the toy box, the train table, and the wall.

My heart almost stopped.

Which to deal with first- the poopy child or the mess? I didn't want the other boys to get anywhere near it, but I didn't want Bear to get any more anywhere else.

I sat him on the time-out step and told him not to move. Guess he knew from the crazed look on my face and the insanity that had to be coming through in my voice that I meant it, because he didn't move a muscle.

This mess was a lot easier to clean up, I guess since it was still "fresh." Then, gave him another rinse off in the tub.

I thought motherhood had given me a strong stomach, but today tested my limits. I'm so thoroughly disgusted.

Hubby had better be bringing home dinner for everyone, because I don't think I can even think about food after the afternoon that I had.