Tales of Li'l Foot

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the bathtub, Kaboom strikes again!

Last week, on Thursday night I was giving Li’l Foot a bath.  I had put her on the potty, she didn’t do anything.  She rarely will do something on the potty if the bathtub water is running.  She’s too excited about going in the bath to think about anything other than getting in the bathtub.  So things were going swimmingly.  I had her head shampooed and rinsed out.  I cleaned her face with a clean wash clothe.  I added soap to that wash clothe and cleaned up the rest of her body.  Only surface dirt really, nothing caked on or anything.

She was minding her own business, splashing about in the bathtub.  She was doing “butt bombs” as we learned they are called while we were on vacation in Hawaii, which is where she would stand up and then kick her legs out from underneath her and drop to the bathtub bottom with a thud and a splash onto her tushy!  (Note: butt bombs can also be done on the bed, only with less of a splashing effect, and more with the hopefullly she doesn’t fall off the bed onto her nose, which would actually make it a “nose-bomb”…plus nose bombs just doesn’t have quite the same ring as butt bombs!)  Anyway…I figured she was having fun.  The toilet next to me and the bathtub hadn’t been cleaned in about 2 weeks, so it could use a little gulp of “Kaboom” and a swizzle of the toilet brush.  What on earth made me think this was a good idea?  Why, after the last incident involving Kaboom, did I ever think I should be allowed to multitask during the bath time routine?  These are questions I still can’t answer.  But here’s what happened.

She was doing her “butt bombs”, I was cleaning the potty, when I heard her say “poopie”.  But it was very off the cuff, kind of like she just said it in passing.  Kind of like, it’s a word she knows how to say, and she said it for the sake of saying it and for no other reason.  One would think that if someone is going to say the word “poopie” it would be with authority and would coincide with a look on said person’s face that spoke for itself.  Like a furrowed brow or shifty eyes, a downward smirk on one side of the face or the other.  None of these things accompanied her word usage, so I didn’t think anything of it.  And she’s famous for using the word “poopie” for when she wants to get out of the bathtub but I’m not done with her in the bathtub yet.  She usually only does that little trick when she’s crabby and it’s past her bedtime for whatever reason.  She’s also famous for using the owrd “poopie” and all it was, was that she had to toot but she didn’t know that, so when I put her on the potty, she emits a toot and that’s the end of it.  Since she’s famous for these things, I figured she just said the word and because she went on with her business she had maybe tooted and was fine.  Rule number 1: never assume anything about a potty training toddler! EVER!

She continued to do her “butt bombs” and I had just picked up the bottle of Kaboom to confirm the amount of time you let it sit in the bowl when all of a sudden there was kind of a loud rumble from the bottom of the bathtub.

Bubbles ensued…

Two logs of what looked like oversized tootsie rolls floated to the surface…

And bobbed around in the split second it took for me to lay her towel on the ground and snag her from her now less than clean bathtub.  I couldn’t put her ON the potty because I’m sure she had a film of poopie residue on her body, and she was still wet from being in the bath tub.  The water in the bathtub, was going down as fast as it could, but not fast enough.  Li’l Foot gets cold waiting for the water to go down the drain.  She gets whiny.  I get whiny.  Cleaning has to be done before she can re-enter the bathtub.  It’s just more than one mother and child should have to deal with more than once in life!

I can only come to one conclusion.  “Butt bombs”?  Maybe when done in the bath tub are kind of like an enima?  Perhaps “butt bombs” in the bath tub should be outlawed.  Yes, from now on, there is a rule against “butt bombs” in the bathtub.  And also a rule against sleaning the toilet during bath time.  I know I made that promise last time we had a Kaboom incident, but this time…I’m serious!  No more!

I can only think, how am I so lucky?  How can I possibly be this lucky to be bathing Li’l Foot AND try cleaning the toilet with Kaboom and have Li’l Foot’s tushy go KABOOM…BOTH TIMES!!!