The Bear and His Afternoon “Doo-doos”

Oct 15, 2009 | Baby Photos, Stories

One lovely thing about being in a new country is enjoying the differences in words and their meanings from one place to the next. Pants in America = underpants in Britain. Fanny pack in America = not a nice thing to say in Britain.

And “Doo-doos,” as in poop, in America is another word for a nap in South Africa. I don’t know yet whether ‘cuss’ is a word commonly used in South Africa, but I had a wee experience the other day that almost made me do so.  Hopefully you can have a laugh at my expense.

We’ve had this issue for a while where the Bear (our 13 month old) will wake up much earlier than he normally does because he is so wet he has soaked through his nappy (diaper) and his clothes. A lot of times his sheets are wet too. We were thinking about perhaps starting to double up diapers at night, or to look somewhere for some night-time ones, but we didn’t have it figured out yet. Lots on the list when you’re settling in to a new country. So the stage is set!

A few days ago we tried a different brand of nappies called ‘Cuddlers’ and glory, hallelujah, the Bear slept through the night and didn’t wake us up! We were up before he was. When Mark went in to get him, his clothes were as dry as parmesan cheese when you leave it out too long. I decided Cuddlers were the super diapers I’d been looking for. Hello, sweet friend. It’s nice to finally meet you.

The day went along as usual. Bear had some milk before his afternoon nap, then I took him in and laid him down. After a wee while he was still awake, but happy. I left him since he was happy, but eventually he got UNhappy. I thought perhaps it was annoyance with the washer and dryer noises and that he would settle down, but the grumbling continued.

Eventually, I went in to see if he’d perhaps done a dirty doodle, (since he hadn’t yet that day and I pay attention to these things!) and at first I thought he had, but it was not so, friend! His diaper seemed a little wet but sometimes it’s hard to tell how wet diapers are because they’re so darn good at feeling dry these days. I decided he was being a cheeky monkey and laid him back down.  He chilled out but still didn’t go to sleep. Finally when I was terribly tired of the grumbling, I went back in and brought him out to lie on the couch for a while in hopes of settling him down for a doo-doos. Still…not a chance he was gonna fall asleep.

Then suddenly I realised – hey! He’s wet! His jeans and his top are wet. Dern! So I went to change him and was highly disappointed with what I thought were the magic diapers I’d always dreamed of. Newoutfitnewnappynoproblem. By this time it was too late for the nap, so I gave up and turned the dryer back on and started another load of laundry while the Bear played on his bed for a little while. I went back and picked him up to bring him out to his toys, and realised…Dern! He is wet again!  How is this possible?  I looked all around to try to figure it out. His bed was wet, his bodysuit was wet, his lil’ trackpants… his blanket…what had happened, yo? No bottles lingering about…no leaks in the ceiling (yeah, I checked)… so finally I checked the new nappy. And what did I discover, pray tell? The Bear’s teeter totter, sticking out the side of the nappy had happily moistened everything in its path, except the nappy itself.

SOOO… after another fresh bodysuit, t-shirt, and trousers the Bear skipped his nap and hit the toybox, while I started my third load of laundry. Goodie.

It dawned on me as trousers number three were being scooched up around and into place – yeah this is frustrating, but my attitude is still my choice. I can laugh or cuss, and get on with it. Fortunately, I’m not too much of a cusser, so I decided to smile and chuckle at the mishap. Hopefully now you can too!