One day, shortly after I arrived for a short visit to see my husband in West Texas, my son had a huge blowout. It wasn't just a blowout. It looked like he took a mudbath, smearing poo from his toes to his neck. His smile was radiant, and he babbled excitedly, kicking his legs and depositing smears of said poo onto his carseat cover. He seemed very proud of his accomplishment. Given the little guy's attitude at the moment and the way he was so happy, I really think he had attempted to remove the poo from his diaper in an attempt to relieve me of some of my duties. Unfortunately, as many parents have learned with "helpful" children, it did not work out so...helpfully.
I kind of freaked out. You know the scene. Baby smiling in the carrier, big kids circling with grimaces on their face; Mom shrieking at first sight of the chaos, and bringing Dad running in to investigate who has been injured. I'm sure there was a "Holy, crap!" muttered in there somewhere.
To say the least, I began a frantic search through the diaper bag for wipes. No such luck. I had left the whole lot at home, four hours away, sitting on the bed waiting for me to pack them. Now, in most cases, the sensible thing to do would have been to strip the baby and plop him in the tub, but this child was plastered with poop. I can not believe that he could have even eaten enough to make that much poo. It was an excessive amount. So, we did the next best thing and gave him the precursor birdbath in the carseat swipe down.
It took two washcloths. Yes, I said two. Only two. A job that could have taken half a box of wipes only needed two washcloths. Now, needless to say, we still gave the child a good scrub down in the tub, and I had to wash the carseat and cover thoroughly...but two cloths? That was the moment I realized that I was a little dense. Ok...so I already knew that I was dense, but atleast I can admit it, right? Why had I been buying baby wipes? I already used cloth diapers, and every other day found me fishing disposable wipes out of the laundry. Tons of disposable wipes. It became apparent that I could be flinging the wipes in the washer with the diapers on wash day, and saving an extra $3 a week on baby wipes. So, I decided to spend my weeks worth of wipe money on a pack of terry cloth washrags, instead. Problem(s) solved. Or so I thought.
It quickly became a very irritating hassle to have to wet the washcloths every time I needed to change a diaper. I despise hassle. I avoid hassle like the plague. Hassle IS a plague! But guess what? I have a really smart husband that comes up with the best ideas ever!
Spray bottle to the rescue! It's filled up with mainly water, but a few drops of Johnson and Johnson's No More Tears and a tiny bit of Tea Tree Oil made baby's butt smell savory! Waaaay more savory than the poopoo mache mold he made before!
