Poops, I Did It Again

I have shared before about Rylee’s desire to potty outside. I thought it was her animal phase, which has lasted over a year now. One day while my mom and I were talking in my driveway, my mom suddenly gasped. I whirled around to see what was happening, and Rylee was squatting in the yard, pants down at her ankles, saying, “I’m just gonna take a little poop.”

I rushed over and whipped up her pants before she could make anything happen, wondering what on earth would have provoked her to do this. I tried to explain to her that little girls don’t pull down their pants and potty outside.

Another time she and I were playing outside when she said, “Oh, I have to poop.”

“Go ahead, then.”

She looks around the yard and says, “Where?”

“Inside, you goof!”

I’m not sure where she gets it, the desire to poop outside. It’s a strange phase, perplexing, one I can’t trace back to a single source…until yesterday.

The first swim of the season! The weather was just okay, but the pool looked so inviting, so we put on our bathing suits and dove in. We hadn’t been out there 15 minutes when Rylee announced that she had to poop. I have to add that Rylee has done this every year, multiple times throughout the swimming season.

“Oh, Rylee. Are you sure?” She was dancing around, holding her bottom, so I knew the answer. It’s such a pain to pull down a wet bathing suit, and even harder trying to pull it back up. Furthermore, I didn’t want her going inside wet because I was afraid she would slip on the hardwood floor, so I had an idea.

“Rylee, come over here to the grass.” I tried to pull her bathing suit over far enough so that her backside was exposed (all of you ladies who never wanted to take off your bathing suit to pee can relate to this obstacle). I had tugged all the way over and told her to squat. I had many things running through my mind: how are we going to wipe? What will I use to scoop it up when she’s finished?

I guess the pressure was too much for her as well, so she quickly stood up and said, “Nevermind.”

We jumped back into the pool, but soon after, she declared that she really had to go.

Defeated, I dried her off and sent her into the house to poop. When she came back, it took us five minutes to pull the wet bathing suit back up into its proper position. But finally, we found success and jumped back into the pool.

In the end, Rylee was relieved, and I didn’t have to scoop any poop.