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One Body, One Mind
drop-in centre canada
(Mar.11.10)
There is nothing like a seasonal gastrointestinal disorder to bring a family together. Suddenly you all function as one. Giant, spewing, bum-hole emptying body of one. You are of one mind, and one toilet, as the other has no flushing power and is only used for deposits of the number one variety.
Luckily we passed the virus around with enough of a window that there was no waiting at the door. Trust me that would have been impossible. We were marooned on our island of poo, surviving on the BRAT diet. The diaper pail glowed in the dark, a beacon at the back door.
I was sitting at the table, discussing survival strategies with my husband, my normally pale faced visage tinted with a greenish hue. My 18-month-old daughter came shuffling across the kitchen, to take her position. Now firmly attached to my leg with her monkey-vice precision, she looked up at me as my stomach let out a rumbling roar.
“Uh-oh!” she commented.
I’m pretty sure that I haven’t read on BabyCenter.ca the approximate age at which your child knows when you have to go to the potty. Her cognitive development is coming along just fine. That, and she knows. She was the first to get the flu.
We didn’t let anyone near us or our house until it was over. My son spent most of a day shivering under a blanket, one eye poking out like a submarine portal, inspecting the world outside his 3X3 chair space. The next day he was cured. “I want to go to swimming!” (Swimming is stupidly scheduled for 9 a.m.) The sun is shining, everyone is back to their normal selves, only happier, as their guts are intact. I smile and think to myself, we’re closer for it. The family that craps together, stays together.
Still, I mentally make a note to fix the other toilet.
Erin MacNair is a mother, freelance writer and metalsmith, residing in Vancouver with her family. She blogs at www.themomoirproject.com, and is published in other mother-centered magazines.
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