We now return you to your regularly scheduled insanity

Yesterday, the extended family all cleared out, the left-over cookies and candies were tossed, and the Ansari's tried to regroup in the wake of 9 days of Christmas and a 12 person household reduced to the normal 6. Though it was one of the best, most lovely family gatherings in quite some time, Omar and I both sighed a little sigh of relief as we looked forward an evening of calm and relative quiet.

As the boys chewed down some very un-vegetarian corndogs, Omar asked "Where's Leo?" This is not an unusual question around here. When you have 4 kids a large home, the helicoptering well-known to the first born is long gone.

Omar started upstairs to check out Leo while I discussed further highlights and lowlights with the kids. This was soon interrupted by "Oh GOD! Honey! I need help!"

Now, it wasn't said with the tone of terror I would expect with something truly tragic. I knew the child was neither dead nor was Omar in need of my MD skills. Oh, Oh no. It was worse.

Leo, apparently, had not yet lost the christmas spirit. He decided to unwrap his own little bundle of joy... namely, the poopy diaper I had just relieved him of 20 minutes earlier. He had pulled it out of the diaper pail, and if I recreated the CSI-like scene properly, unleashed the madness in the hallway. It appears there were multiple fumbles on the path of great happiness to the kitchen. It appeared he was on his way to share his finding with all of us. He clearly needed a little added support from the wall as he rounded the corner, and the texture was too enjoyable to keep in one hand.

When I entered the scene, Omar was standing with said child, a look of stinkified horror on his face, presenting Leo to me like a grusome offering I wanted nothing to do with. He poo-covered hands were outstretched towards me as he gave me one of those "I wanna hug ya" smiles. I was given the choice of the child or the carpet. I should have known better... I chose child, and then realized Omar (despite many otherwise wonderful skills) is hopeless at cleaning a carpet. So I got to do both.

Thankfully, the current "cool color" palette of paint and carpet includes shades of brown and yellow that I have always referred to as "baby poop brown." Who knew how helpful that would be?

Our brand of peace and quite needs some serious re-branding...