Thursday, April 17, 2008

The Giant Teething Ring

After dinner tonight, I asked Ginger if she could keep an eye on Big for a few minutes while I cleaned the kitchen. Ginger, normally a great babysitter, started playing with Bud (also appreciated) and got distracted from her assigned task. Pen headed to the bathroom a few minutes later for a squirt of Purell (I know you must be aware of what comes next) and found Big sucking on the toilet seat.  

I know it seems like I am reporting this rather calmly, without even an exclamation point at the end of the big shocker, but those of you who know me know that I am a bit of a germophobe.  So, in my mind it's more like this: "SUCKING ON THE TOILET SEAT (GASP!)"  The cursed bathroom door won't shut all the way, so it was probably bound to happen sooner or later.  Of course he had to choose the day before I normally clean the bathrooms to try out the giant teething ring instead of the day after.  

I do derive some comfort, however, from the knowledge that my youngest sister, Auntie Art, used to drink out of the toilet and seems to have suffered no ill effects.  I don't blame her.  I mean, using the reasoning of a toddler....what else are those little cups covering the bolts at the base of the toilet for?  They're just perfect for dipping.

When Big tried to give me a kiss at bedtime I gave him my cheek.  Maybe I'm a bad mom, but when I saw his lips heading toward mine I just couldn't do it.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, honey, I am having the hardest time not laughing out loud and waking up Mavis and the baby! I can just picture this scene. How did the girls react? Disgusted, or did they get the giggles like me?

The Laundry Queen said...

Pen was quite disgusted. Ginger shrugged it off with an "oops" and an "oh, well" a la Rophone. We were all laughing about it just a few moments after it happened, although my laugh was a bit more rueful than the rest.

t0moo said...

When T3 was a baby, my wife put him on the bathroom floor to run the bathwater and T3 pulled out the toilet brush from its cup and drank the liquid that drained from the brush to the bottom of the cup. There were panicked calls to the poison hotline, but he seems to be no worse for wear. But if doesn't turn out to be over 6' tall, I'm going to blame this incident.

Besides, Mythbusters (which T3 loves), found that toilet seats are generally cleaner than other areas of the bathroom.

And not that I expect you to change from your germophobe ways, but if you google

mythbuster toilet germ

There's a lot discussion about how your desk and keyboard are a lot dirtier than the toilet seat.

Most notably:

http://digg.com/general_sciences/Licking_Your_Toilet_Seat_Is_Healthier_Than_Typing_On_Your_Keyboard

Just trying to make you feel better.

The Laundry Queen said...

t0moo--I appreciate all the effort you put forth with research and links, but the story about T3 is really all I needed. That's the stuff of nightmares!

t0moo said...

I mentioned this story over dinner and my wife swears that she doesn't remember it. There's a history of blocking out memories of traumatic incidents in her family.