Bug,  Super Dad,  Tis the Season

All’s fun and games until somebody poops in the pool

September 3, 2007 /

Hootie and the Blowfish

It has been Hot! Hot! Hot! here. Hotter than dog’s breath, as I like to say. It really feels like dog’s breath too because it is so humid all the time. When I was out in the sticks it was about 109, sometimes 115 but it seemed way more bearable than the 93 degrees in the shade of my hot humid house with no air conditioning.

I would kill for some air conditioning. I try and try to imagine that I am in Paris or that I am the sexy señorita slaving away in the kitchen while sweat drips down the tendrils of my curly hair slipping out of it’s romantically loose bun BUT my imagination is in need of some anti-freeze or something because it just poops out and starts panting.

How do I always forget that summer is like this? I used to say that summer was my favorite time of year but this year… I’m thinking I’m way more into Fall. Fall with it’s pumpkin pies and crisp apples. Give me your tweeds and wool sweaters. I think I should move to Sweden.

Anyway! This post is not about me belly aching about the heat. It is about our NEW NEATO FEATO DEETO BLOWUP KIDDIE POOL! Yes, I wheeled the stroller down the hot-enough-to-fry-an-egg-on sidewalk this morning, to our local hardware store and bought an eight dollar blow up pool! I think it is one of the best investments I have ever made.

Baby Bug and I nearly died of heat stroke getting it at 9:30 this morning but it was so worth it. When we got home, Baby Bug took a nap and I begged Toby to blow it up for us. I tried to blow it up myself but I almost passed out. I have the lung capacity of a mouse. I saw stars and everything.

It took Toby quite a lot of trickery to get it blown up too. Who knew you need a bike pump for these things? We don’t have a bike pump. But we do have a bugaboo stroller with a handy dandy mini pump for pumping up bugaboo tires. It wasn’t a good fit but with sharp knife (for reasons I’m not sure of) Toby managed to get the silly thing blown up just in time for Baby Bug to wake up.

I take that back. He managed to get it blown up while she ate lunch in her high chair. You should have seen her excitement as the pump made it’s whoosh whoosh whoosh sound. I’m sure she had no idea what this giant blue and red plastic expanding thing was but she knew it had something to do with Fun with a capital “F”. Whoosh Whoosh Whoosh went the pump. Swing swing swing went Baby Bug’s dangling legs under her high chair. She could barely eat she was so excited.

Finally, we got the thing blown up and out on the porch to fill with water. It was so great. Playing with water is always fun with a baby but playing with water in a kiddie pool on a super super super hot day is even better! I think the only thing that might have topped it (thinking of you Laurie) would have been eating popsicles while playing in the neato feato deeto kiddie pool with a baby on a super super super hot day.

me and bug filling up the new kiddie pool

We had a blast. The best part for me is that this little body of water somehow made the temperature on our patio drop a good ten degrees. I can’t say for sure since we have no thermometer but it sure felt like it. It’s amazing how much cooler you can feel when you have your feet submerged in cold water. Bad mood heat stroke instantly gone.

And then Baby Bug had to go and poop in the pool. Yeah. You knew that was coming. She wore her diaper and bathing suit for a good hour but then the diaper became the GIANT ABSORBING DIAPER and swelled up bigger than her. She looked like a queen bee with a giant abdomen.

I changed her out of the GIANT DIAPER and into a swim diaper and that worked for about three minutes until she decided she wanted to run in and out of the house and sit on the couch and leave giant wet butt prints all over the place. So we ended up taking the swim diaper off and just standing around asking each other what we should do. Get her dressed? Block off the patio and keep her from playing in the pool? Put her in another swim diaper? What to do… what to do!

While Toby and I stood around like clueless parents, it suddenly got very quiet and next thing we knew there was a silent toddler squatting in her new kiddie pool taking a poop as if it was her own private toilet. Nothing good ever comes from a silent toddler. And poop, ugh poop. I am quickly becoming immune to the horror of poop.

I scooped the poop out with a plastic bag and Toby dumped the contaminated water over the side of our patio into our neighbor’s garden below. We made jokes about the five second rule and the fact that our pooped in pool water is probably a hundred times cleaner than the beaches in Huntington. But the sad fact was, our super duper neato feato deeto kiddie pool fun was officially over.

wouldn't it be fun if Pounce jumped in?

Until tomorrow or something.

27 Comments

  • Lexi

    September 3, 2007 at 8:48 pm

    Aww, so cute…
    I also have a blow up pool (er, well, I did, until Daddy popped it), and I tell ya, an electric air pump (they sell them in the air mattress section) was the best investment I ever made!

  • Neil

    September 3, 2007 at 8:59 pm

    I found this post quite amusing, despite the fact that you used the word “poop” more times than I’ve ever read in any blog post.

  • Justyna

    September 3, 2007 at 9:19 pm

    I love your poop stories! They’re the ones i laugh at the most.
    We were in the kiddie pool today too, but for us it’s either outside or inside, can’t run in and out. Well we have a yard so it’s easier I’m sure. I could totally see her doing it though.

  • Laura (aka Laurie)

    September 4, 2007 at 12:41 am

    Mmmm… Popsicles. Mmmm….Pool. Mmmm… Popsicles in the Pool! That’s a good thing! I love how you fertilized your neighbor’s garden – very thoughtful.

  • jo

    September 4, 2007 at 1:45 am

    I love your funny stories!! :)
    And I love seeing how baby’s faces change, like my nephew’s when he was growing up (he’s about 4 now) and Baby Bug is looking prettier every month.

    I’m gonna have my own soon in Feb next yr, and I bet it’s gonna be an exciting journey!

  • snarflemarfle

    September 4, 2007 at 3:20 am

    How fun! (except the poop part)

    I should totally go buy a blow up pool for my son to use next summer. By then he should have his tubes out and we won’t have to worry about water in his ear (and poopy water in his ear would be REALLY bad!).

  • mar

    September 4, 2007 at 4:25 am

    Two words – swimming diaper! They’re called Little Swimmers or something like that, and they’re right by the regular diapers at the grocery store. They don’t wind up weighing 100 lbs., and, if you’re lucky, and she doesn’t poop in the swimming diaper, I was always able to dry them out and get a second use out of them!

    My daughter always called them her “swimmy soup diaper” – swimming suit diaper – for almost 2 years after she was potty trained, if you mentioned going swimming, she would run off looking for them!

    Another bit of hot day fun – a bucket of water and an old paint brush – my older kids still love “painting” rocks and steps and walkways with water!

  • lynne

    September 4, 2007 at 4:31 am

    Baby Bug looks so beautiful, happy and healthy. Sorry you are having such a hard time in the soaring heat. This year in the UK our summer has been a complete washout, too miserable to contemplate, with intensive flooding in the Midlands. Already their is a tang of a Autumn in the air. Hope I’m not rubbing it in while you swealter.

  • Angella

    September 4, 2007 at 5:45 am

    Kids love pools! Well, toddlers do (after looking at your Flickr photo) :)

    And it does seem to cool off the air too. The poop in the pool story will be a good one for when she’s older :)

  • Gramma

    September 4, 2007 at 7:06 am

    We’re off to breakfast with your grandpa and Darlene. It’s going to be hot again today, but we’ll be home by 9:30. A blow up pool is great…there’s probably room for you to sit and splash, too. Enjoy.

  • Sandra

    September 4, 2007 at 3:47 pm

    I was reading this and had to laugh out loud! Baby Bug is so cute! I haven’t got my Christopher in the water (he is now 9 months old) yet, and I swore I would do it at least once this summer – I was looking for a community pool, but maybe I should just get the blow up pool instead!

  • Madhouse Wife

    September 4, 2007 at 4:37 pm

    oh man, poop in the pool. my 3 1/2 year old pooped in the PUBLIC pool this summer. yes, he was THAT kid. thankfully, his trunks caught it, but still gross. i about died of embarrassment. but i completely potty trained him that same day (he’d had the potty part down).

  • Kuky

    September 4, 2007 at 5:51 pm

    Ha ha ha! Gross but funny. And I know probably not funny for you but it was funny to read. And I know the title of this post is “All’s fun and games until somebody poops in the pool” but I really didn’t think there was going to be actual real poop. Surprise surprise, real poop!

    And we used to have a plastic kiddie pool…for the dogs. But they cracked it one day by sitting on the side. Me thinks it’s time to get another one. And this time for a kiddie and not the dogs!

  • Jeana

    September 5, 2007 at 3:55 am

    Hi, SAJ/Josephine/Brenda! I’m glad you stopped by, because I followed you over here and I really enjoyed it. And no I don’t say that to everyone. I’ll be back!