For Posterity

I tried to find if I have ever blogged about Amiya's favorite art medium: feces. That's right. She loves, loves, loves to play with her poop. It hasn't happened in a long time, but it happened yesterday and truly she was making the most of it.

She's been potty trained for a long time except for nighttime. Usually for her nap we put her to bed with big girl underwear and plastic pants on top just in case. Since Kev's been here she's been having a lot of accidents (thankfully mostly pee), so yesterday I put her down for her nap with a pull-up on. She pooped, took it off and started to play with it. I sat on the couch nursing Kevalin and reading a library book, completely unaware of the Maplethorpesque artwork happening in her room. I caught a whif of something foul and smelled Kev. Nope. Smelled the library book. Nope. Smelled my armpits. Nope. Fear began to set in. Set Kev down and walked slowly to Amiya's room. The smell became stronger and stronger. I figured I was in for a doozy of a pull-up and only hoped it hadn't leaked out the sides and onto the sheets (washed three times this week already). If only. If only it were "that bad."

I walked into her room to find Amiya covered with her "medium" from top to bottom, the sheets, quilt and pillow shams smeared, the headboard and wall behind her bed frescoed and, perhaps in her crowning touch, the letters A, M and I perfectly formed on the side of her dresser. She was getting ready to make the letter Y when I walked in. I couldn't believe it. On the one hand, I was livid with her as we've been over this before and she knows that poop is not to be played with. On the other hand, pretty damn proud of her for getting those letters in the right order and so perfectly formed. Usually her A has a flat top but this one was pointy and perfect. It crossed my mind to take a picture - not necessarily for your viewing pleasure but more for her Prom night. But, I couldn't stand the idea of our hard drive having feces artwork on it forever.

One cold shower later, one very, very severe scolding from Mommy (the likes of which she had never seen before) and one promise of a spanking if she ever does that again, a contrite Amiya sat in her old crib waiting to see what would happen next. Daddy came home then and Mommy was excused to clear her brain. Daddy handled it all very well and today is a new day.

It's a bit of a learning moment for everyone. Amiya has learned, quite emphatically, that playing with poop will get her in a lot of trouble. We assumed she knew that, but you know what they say about assuming things.... We learned that even if we thought we were giving her special attention right now, it isn't nearly enough for what she needs and we've got to step up to the plate.