Sauce

Last night was a typical night of parenthood. The Child had some sort of stomach bug and decided to expel as much of it as possible. Then he couldn't decide which bed to sleep in and absolutely needed a sip of water every hour on the hour. Needless to say, sleep was minimal, but the snuggles and deep snores (when he was sleeping) of a sick babe are precious to me. So are the random conversations that happen in the middle of the night.

The Child was laying in my bed, awake, a bit chatty, but we were drifting to sleep. Suddenly he told me he pooped his pants.

GREAT. (those moments are not so special).

I leaned over for a sniff and sure enough, off to the bathroom we went.

It was not much more than a smear, a shart if you will. Sitting on the potty we began the discussion of what had just happened in the underworld of his pull-up.

Me: Sweetie, don't feel bad. Did it just feel like a toot, but poo came out too?

Child: Poo came out too. That's ok.

Me: Yah, that's ok. Sometimes it happens.

Child: I tooted and then sweeeeeeshhhhhhhh out came some sauce.

Me: Uh huh.... I guess it could feel like sauce.

Child: It was a saucy poo. I tooted and I had a saucy poo.

Me: Nice. Thank you for sharing.

Even at 2am when all I want to do is sleep, I still love moments like these. These moments erase everything else, the thoughts of how much laundry is covered in expelled stomach contents, the thoughts of how little sleep we are both getting, and the thoughts of canceling the following days events. In these moments of pure toddler genius, I am grateful that I can laugh and love deeply. Do not misunderstand, there were moments of yelling as well, when I just couldn't bare to crawl out of bed for one more sip of water. What kind of night would it be if it didn't include barf, poo, laughing, snuggling, crying and yelling?

I think those things could sum up parenthood, in no particular order.