Nighttime lotion and story #2 (you'll understand this when you read it)

John and I believe in the power of nighttime lotion. We lather the kids in it before bed.

Part of this is because we think it works. The other part is that because over the course of 15 months, we got approximately 20 nights of uninterrupted sleep, and when you're on sleep deprivation for that long, you start doing weird things. One of those 20, glorious nights, we'd doused the boys in nighttime lotion before bed. Thus marked the beginning of our superstition.

Last night, I started a new tradition with our beloved lotion. I started putting lotion on their face too, because their face was dry, yes, but more because I thought, genius! Let's get this lotion as close to their olfactory senses as possible and then it will be even more powerful! I told you, we really believe in nighttime lotion, but even more so, we believe in everyone in our house getting a full night's sleep. We did this tonight with the true power of superstition on our heels, having tried it last night and been rewarded with 9 - that's right - 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep.

Tonight, after the Ford assembly line dinner we moved the boys to the Ford assembly line diaper change. On the second dirty diaper, John said, "Really. These boys are doing some work tonight," while I lotioned Sully's face. And then, I noticed a little pink in Sully's cheeks.

"Uh oh." I said.

"What?" John said as he finished wiping Sully's toosh and reached for the Desitin.

"I think he's pooping," I said, looking at Sully's half-lotioned, now red face. I quickly glanced down at his toosh while John scrambled with the wipes.

"Ummmmmm....."

I'm really not good in these situations. I was born with sloth-like reflexes. Sully was now not only red in the face, he was grunting, and John was still scrambling to get a new diaper under his toosh. Totally avoiding the obvious, I continued to lotion Sully's face.

By some miracle of the Gods, Sully didn't poop. Apparently, he felt like grunting for a while. But I knew I wasn't in the clear. I'd acted like a coward (listen folks, I can do baby puke with the best of them, but poopy carpet, I'm just not someone you want with you on the front lines).

"Really?" John said, pulling the velcro tabs across Sully's clean diaper. "You're making a masterpiece on his cheeks with lotion and you couldn't stop to grab a diaper?"

"Ummmm," I said.

And John shook his head.

(I'll let you know how tonight works out with the olfactory senses and all - we could be on to something).