My Little Poo-Flinging Monkey

- March 30, 2011

So after my first day at work, we decided to head to my favorite vegan cafe, Native Foods, for a celebratory dinner. I had a great broccoli curry salad, Lily made a mess of her seitan "chicken" nuggets & dip and Matt had a spicy "meatball" pizza, I enjoyed a nice glass of Sauvignon Blanc and we all shared a cardamon rose cupcake for dessert. It was pretty much perfect. When we got home, we intended to give Lily her bath, put her to bed and settle in to catch up on Jersey Shore before an early bedtime for us. Lily had other plans... plans like taking a big old poop in the bathtub.

I suppose I should be grateful, and I am, that this is the first time she's done this but I'm less grateful that she threw a fistful of the offending poop at me to really get my attention. I guess this is the last time I bring a book into the bathroom.

The clean-up was truly disgusting but luckily when I went through my vegan/green conversion last Fall, I kept a single bottle of bleach cleaner as a safety net. Although I really try to avoid using bleach on areas that Lily will touch, I think this was an appropriate exception.

The melodramatic (read, Italian) part of me wanted to see this as some sort of symbolic revolt against my return to work full-time- some sort of cosmic literal shitting on my attempt to be a good mom in the best way that I can right now, whatever that means. Luckily, Lily is a super goofball and looking at her puzzled expression as she tried to catch her poop in the tub reminded me that sometimes shit happens, and there's not a whole lot more to read into it.

As for my first day at HLF, as they call it, it went well. I intended to keep my head down for a few days and get the lay of the land before really mingling but that plan went out the window when I ended up attending a meeting and was introduced as "Tom's daughter." It made me feel a little bit like I was there for Take Your Daughter to Work Day or something. But I'm hoping that once people know me a little bit better, I'm just "Vanessa from Legal" instead. Matt and I ran into each other in the hallway once and we played it cool, just like we were back in high school. :)