March 1, 2005

• Birth of a nickname

  
  

   

  
  

  I was busy at the computer last night (friggin tax returns!) and was vaguely aware of my wife and grandson doing some activity over on the bed.  The level of noise and commotion escalated to the point that I looked over to see what was going on.  It was just a diaper change; something they both had been through a few hundred times.  This one, however, was not going so well.  Grandson was exceptionally squirmy and the diaper was exceptionally….well… in need of change.  So, I offered to help.  My challenge was to contain grandson generally on his back and stay out of the way of the dirty diaper.  It was one of those times when you are doing something that you’ve done so many times that you usually just go absently through the motions, but this time everything was going wrong.  The dog walked in and was way too interested in the dirty diaper so, had to be ushered out of the room; there were not enough cleaning supplies of the right sorts, and so on.  In the furor of the moment I let Grandson stand on the floor while we waited on grandma to get another round of clean wash cloths.  I turned, she turned, he stumbled, and a quick grab saved the day.  However, the athletic rescue resulted in a streak of diaper goo across the top of Grandson’s forehead.  With a shreak from grandma and an “ewwww” from me, grandma went into emergency mode to get everything cleaned and disinfected.  As I quietly watched the cleanup operation, I was struck with the realization that we have witnessed the birth of a nickname.  My only problem was that I didn’t have sense enough to keep it to myself; “You know, honey, that we’re going to have to call him Shithead from now on”…

  • 9:20 am
  • 5 Comments