Below: A story about what life is ACTUALLY like most times.
I was talking on the phone with Katie the other evening. I was explaining that Grace was going through
a challenging phase. Then I got off the phone, and a few minutes later had to
call Katie back to explain to her exactly what “challenging” had just looked like. This is basically what I told her.
I had taken Grace to the bathroom every 20 minutes for the
last hour. She did not once use the
toilet. We went outside. I was on the phone. A few minutes later, I see that while she is
sitting outside under the neighbors front steps, she has mud all over her upper
lip. How strange. Then I watched her pick up a plastic orange
cup filled with dirt, bring it to her mouth and back down to her lap, and then
begin chewing on something.
“Grace! Are you eating dirt?!?!”
“No, I’m drinking it.
And watching TV. It’s my water.”
And sure enough, she was ingesting soil. I grabbed her out of the dirt because what is
cute at 9 months is not cute at 32. On
the way out of the dirt, I noticed she was also sitting in mud and had a bum
covered in mud, but only in the spot where she would have just wet her pants.
Pee mud.
Awesome.
So, Katie, that’s what I mean when I say challenging.
