All we needed were some clowns and an elephant!

First, a little background.... Last night, after a very long day of traveling and excitement at my nephew's Christening, we arrived home.  Mom and dad exhausted, the two little monkeys quite rejuvenated after a hour long power nap in the car.  So after feeding the kids dinner, we let them sit in their highchairs for a bit to digest and play with their toys, while mom and dad did the modern day equivalent of reading the paper... we cracked open our laptops and surfed the web.  A nice quiet Sunday night, right?..... so far, but it got so much better!  After a while and some serious grunting, my nose detected that my girl needed her diaper changed.  Drawing the shortest straw, I took care of my fatherly duties and afterward sat on the living room floor with her watching the Yankee game and some football highlights.  15 minutes go by and I smell "that smell" again so I pick her up thinking she doubled down on me and gave her butt a whiff.... nope "It's not her" I say to my wife who's in the dinning room, "It's probably him" she says of our boy who's still in his highchair and had been doing some grunting of his own.  So I place my daughter into the playpen and take on fatherly duties part 2... these straws have got to be rigged!  After changing him, I played with him for a little bit and then put him in with his sister to play. 

Now commence the circus!!  Next thing we know our darling little dancer is bopping and clappin' which makes her brother start cracking up at her with this infectious giggle, we're talking hysterics here!  She loves making him laugh and he thinks when she does this it's the funniest thing ever so she keeps going which only makes him laugh harder.  We honestly thought at a couple points he was crying he was laughing so hard.  You know your priorities in life are totally readjusted when the Yankees - Red Sox game is tied 4 to 4, bottom of the ninth, 2 on, 2 out and the Yankees could win the game and I'm completely locked in... to the playpen and my kids antics!  At one point he got himself laughing so hard he hit a whole new level of breathless sidesplitting belly laughing.  After a solid hour of this little show, in which mommy and daddy desperately wanted our little ones to finally wind down since it was way past their bedtime, we couldn't help but laugh and just let them go.  Finally... after I got out the video camera, the little gunshy munchkins decided that NOW was the time to wind down, thanks guys!  She more so than him, as she laid down in the playpen trying to get herself comfy, while he was still running amok around her.  So I pick up my daughter to rock her to sleep and I smell "that smell" yet again!... "I think she went again" I say, so I once again, butt to nose, I inhale... nope, smells fresh as a daisy.  "What the heck, she's clean... honey, where is that smell..........." as she's cradled in my arms I look her over and there it is, a marble size poo ball stuck to the end of her hair wisps on the side of her head!  "I don't believe it! "She's got poop in her hair!"

"What?? no way!" my wife chuckles as she comes over to us thinking I'm pulling her leg, but there it was clear as day.  After a good 3 minutes of laughing hysterically while, and much to her credit, my daughter still trying to drift off in my arms. We started to work on removing her "accessory".  I voted to just cut the thing out like you would dried gum, but seeing as the poor girl doesn't have much hair to begin with, we slowly worked to soften it up and get it out.  Up we marched to the bathroom to wash the poor tired girl's head, our little guy happily playing with his blocks in the playpen.  As soon as the water came on, her eyes shot open as if to say, "water?! bath!? I'm in!!", But instead of getting ready for a bath, I held her suspended in the air looking up at me, my wife shampooing and scrubbing her little melon.  She had this look on her face of confusion as I held her that way as if to say "why am I like this?? this isn't how we do bath time!  don't drop me!" but then I plucked her binky from out of her mouth and that huge ham and cheese smile lit up her face!  That smile never gets old! 

Finally after two good shampooings, her head was free of "that smell" and she was back to dozing in my arms.  My wife and I still laughing.  It was one of those nights where I wish there was a reality show camera crew in our house, because I think we would have gone back and watched it 100 times that night!  Around 11pm, the twins finally nestled in their beds, us still occasionally laughing as we thought back to the sight of a poo nugget bobbing in her hair, I couldn't help but think how much they leave out of the books.  Welcome to parenthood indeed!  :)