The grossest Post I've ever had to write...

I should be doing SO many other things right now, but this seems like more fun. Or less work. However you see it. We slept in late today, but I was up late last night and so were the kids. Ardyn is playing with her Talking Dora Pool, which has still been a huge hit. She is now saying "En La Piscina" (in the Pool) which is too cute.

Potty Training is going surprisingly well. She has only had two accidents in her training pants in three days, and both of those were yesterday. She wears the training pants from the time she wakes up until the time she gets ready for bed, but we do put on Pull ups when we leave the house, and also at naptime. She wears her regular nighttime diaper to bed still. Yesterday I was really busy in the kitchen (and everywhere really) so we set the timer to remind us that it was time to try to go potty. It got to the point where she would say "I hear the timer, I hear it! I got potty!" and would be running to the bathroom. What I am really noticing is that she is able to hold it, and has better control over her muscles already. As soon as she sits down, she goes. She has also been better today at letting Daddy take her to the potty. She previously would let him take her but would sit and not go, which was an issue.

There has been one downside to potty training, which I really really hesitate to tell you. Really. As in until this exact moment I haven't told ANYONE. Not one single person. Because it's embarassing, although there isn't anything that I really did "wrong" it is something that I never once expected and it NEVER crossed my mind. Prepare. Yourself. Weak stomach and newly nauseaous pregnant persons.... walk away now.

Because Ardyn is not wearing diapers anymore, I don't have to wash cloth diapers as often as I once did. When it was just Ardyn in cloth, I washed every 3-5 days, depending on how busy I was, and how many diapers she went through. Now that I have two in cloth (had?) I was washing every 2-3 days, usually every two. So I was used to having two full diaper pails in about 2 days, and then I would know it was time to wash. Well, there's plenty going on around here. Evan has been gone to work during the day, and to band practice or gigs for 5 of the last 7 nights, so it's been all me and the kids. And we have been shopping once, gotten groceries once, been swimming and gone for 11 hours straight, and all kinds of other things this past week. And the diaper pail wasn't filling up, because suddenly I only had one wearing diapers, except for Ardyn's 1 diaper per night. SO although I had plenty of diapers left and neither pail was full, last night I was like "You know, it's time to wash diapers, I haven't done that in a while...?"

Well. I got the pail downstairs and put on my rubber diaper gloves per usual. I started sorting through the diapers. All of Marek's Diapers can go right in. I just snap out the inserts in the goodmamas and fitteds, and pull the inserts out of the overnight BG's. When I got to the very bottom of the second pail, there were two poopy diapers in there that apparently belonged to Ardyn (I can just tell) and because they were the oldest in the pail, I was like, Oh boy, it's been (quick calculation, remembering the very hot day that I was outside hanging diapers on the line...) four-five days since I washed diapers.... and so this diaper is probably 4-5 days old. It's gonna stain I betcha. So I was all prepared to soak that one on it's own.... and I opened it up to pull out the wipes inside... and.

Oh. My. God. Maggots. The entire inside of the diaper is crawling with the vile squirmy fat things. I almost died. Right there. After composing myself and my gag reflex, I did what any insane person would do and proceeded to rinse, rinse, rinse and soak soak soak. When the diaper was completely free of ANYTHING vile and questionable, I put it in the washing machine. Then a cold prewash. Then TWO extra long hot washes with double rinses. The first with detergent and Oxyboost, the Second with detergent and a SHITLOAD of vinegar. Then finally I was convinced that the diapers were clean. Seriously, this is the most terrible, incredible, upsetting thing that has ever happened to me in almost two years of cloth diapering. Through BOTH kids. The worst. Something I had NEVER even thought of.

At first I was terrified that maybe she had WORMS, but there had been several other diapers since then, and a few pullups, that had no issues. And looking back, I recall that that diaper was changed by Evan, and that the lid to the diaper pail was left open on occasion, and that there was this one lazy giant fly that had gotten in the house and we were swatting at. So I got online and did a google search and wouldn't you know, TONS of people who cloth diaper who have gotten maggots in their diaper pail? And every single one of them as freaked out and shocked as me. Now, I know that I could have thrown the diaper away. But to be honest, I didn't even contemplate that, because I knew that it could be cleaned. And even right now I still can't believe it. Seriously. And I am not even gonig to let this post import to facebook, because I think I can only handle my regular blog friends reading this. I know that everyone else will say "See! This is why you should NOT cloth Diaper." but I happen to know from research that even people who do not cloth diaper (especially people who do not cloth diaper) get maggots in their diaper pail. But those people with disposables never have to unwrap and sift through their pail and risk finding them. Not to mention all the unmentionable creatures crawling through disposables in a garbage dump. Ewwww.

So, there it is, my dirty little secret.

When I think back, I also realize that it has been a heat index of 100+ every day for the past week, with temps between 92 and 94 every day. So 4 day old diapers and 100 degree heat, not a good combo. From this point forward, the diaper pail lid stays closed. I will be the diaper pail lid nazi. I will also continue to wash on a 2-3 day basis, even though I have plenty of diapers and being that anal about washing was never a thing of mine in the past. Although my research tells me that in that high of heat, it takes less than 24 hours for fly eggs to hatch. Ugh.

Is anyone still with me? Holy crap, right? Do you now think that I live in like total filth? That my children should be removed from my home? I shouldn't joke, but that does seriously creep me out. I can't believe I just wrote this. On the internet. Forever. It will be here. Oh well. There are plenty of other posts out there like this one, I googled it so I know!

On to more pleasant things. As I was finishing that terrible saga, Ardyn pooped in the potty! YAY! She was so proud! She got a sticker for our wall chart and two diary free Oatmeal Cookies with milk.

So, before the above horrifical incident, I had a REALLY rough day. We had been at my In-laws the whole day before. I took the kids over to go swimming. It was 107 degrees on the deck. (the thermometer said that) and the pool was 91 degrees. It was a great day for swimming, but unbearably hot outside the water. Of course, you can't take two kids in diapers in the van in their carseats and suits... they have to be in clothes. This is because swim diapers aren't designed to contain pee... just poos. So we had a bag for each kid. Ardyn's rolling backpack had her swimsuit, swim hat, swim diaper, coverup, towel, sunscreen, and a lifetime supply of training pants... her water shoes, a pull up for naptime and the ride home, and also a spare change of clothes and her dog for naptime. Marek's had his swim trunks, swim diaper, swim hat, towel, water shoes, and his cloth diapers, cloth wipes, wetbag, and a spare change of clothes. Add to this my own bag with a change of clothes (I wore my suit with my coverup) and my sunscreen, towel, hairbrush, comb, and camera. Then my purse, and the travel swing, and Marek's activity gym/mat. So when I got to the farm in the 100 degree heat, it took me SEVEN trips to unload the van. Then to get into the house I have to go through THREE DOORS and TWO PORCHES. Then I get the kids inside. I get Ardyn all stripped. We sit on the potty. I coat her wish sunscreen. Swim Diaper. Swim Suit. Water Shoes (deck is hot and could have splinters) and then her hat. At this time (thank GOD) My sister arrives and takes Ardyn off my hands and outside to swim. SO I get Marek out of his carseat. Stripped down. Sunscreen. Swim Diaper. Swim Trunks. Swim Shoes (just cuz they are so cute and tiny.) and then his bucket hat. Then I get myself ready. Then I get all of our towels, the camera, the sunscreen, and head out to the pool (through another door that has TWO doors) and to the deck. Marek and I get in the pool. Then (after all of my unloading and preparing) Evan arrives with two guys from the band and we all swim. Of course 10 minutes after getting in the water, Marek gets hungry, so I get to climb out and feed him on the deck. Then he falls asleep in his swing for the next like 3 hours. We had a great time. But after the swimming, we have to get everyone back in their clothes, get all the wet stuff packed up. Then Ardyn goes down for her nap. Then right as she is waking up and we were thinking we would go home, I realize that SHE needs to eat, and there is a Hell-Bad looking storm rolling in. SO She and Grandma Susan sit down and Susan feeds her supper (Relieving me, I am so happy!) and Marek and I sit out on the porch and watch the clouds roll in. I take a load out to the van so that I have less to take out if It rains all night, and when I am closing the van door, out of the corner of my eye I see the most BEAUTIFUL Deer statue I have ever seen, under the pear trees in front of the van. I can't BELIEVE that I didn't see that when I pulled in. I thought "when did they get a deer statue?" and then sure as shit, it turned it's head and I almost had a heart attack. It scared the bejeezus out of me. Then it ran away. Then the next time I looked outside, it was there again, so I took some pictures.

So the bad storm rolls through. it rains. it pours. It's incredibly windy. There is the most lightening (cloud to ground) that I can recall ever seeing in my 30 years. The power flickers. it browns out. My sister calls twice. My mom calls twice. Evan calls once. it's a big storm. Poor Evan is at home trying to get showered to go to his gig. Poor Liz is trying to get showered to go watch the gig. My parents were going to go order their new kitchen countertops and decided the weather was too bad. It was just one of those situations. So we didn't leave there until 8:30. I was so tired. It had been such a long day. In the heat. Dragging around both kids and all our gear. I was so glad to have my sister there, and Evan's parents.... and Lisa stopped by, and Evan and the guys, and Great Grandma Mona and Great Aunt Marlene. Thank god for helpers. I was able to relax in the pool a while. But on the way home I realize that Evan told me we were out of toilet paper. For one guy, not as big of a deal... he'll just do a shake-shake... but with me and a potty training toddler. It's something we need to get. So I decided that we should just head to Wal-Mart right then and there and get it done. the kids were loaded up. I didn't want to go ANYWHERE the next day. SO off to Wal-Mart we went. And got Toilet paper and totes to pack clothes in. (Marek's about to move up a size!) By the time we got home and we all got to sleep, it was midnight. Talk about a long day.

Then yesterday (Sunday) I had to spend the day in the kitchen because I had tons of food prep to do (and I am still not done!) I had 6 pounds of ground beef, a whole chicken, a pack of pork chops, and a pack of chicken breasts that needed attention. I had Broccoli Salad to make. a Dozen Eggs to Hard Boil. Squash and Carrots to wash, peel, chop, steam, puree, and freeze. I also had a head of lettuce to chop for salads. I worked on all that and made Paprika Breaded Pork Chops with Buttered Egg Noodles and salads for lunch. Then I made Meatloaf (with pureed carrots hidden inside) and Sweet Potatoes and Rice for supper. I ran the dishwasher like twice. I had a whole bucket full of compost by the end of the day. Ardyn was potty training. Marek was doing a pretty good job of hanging out. But I was frustrated because Evan was recouperating from the night before, on the couch all day. And then he had to leave to go drop off the trailer of gear. And then when he came back, he opened the door to our room and I was napping with both kids (miracle) and he woke Ardyn and I both up, and that was the end of our nap. And to make it even worse, he woke us up to tell me that he was going to see a MOVIE that night. Argh. I could have screamed. So, long and frustrating day, ended with a surprise in the diaper pail. Hope that never happens again as long as I live.