Yep, it's Monday

OK, even though I have a great fear that my friends will oust me and my children will be forever banned from future playdates, I will let you all in on today's incident. Deeeeep breath, here goes...

Collin had a dentist appointment this morning and afterward I decided to take him and Ainsley to lunch at McDonald's, kind of as a treat and also so they could work off some of their energy playing. They were having the BEST time playing that they've ever had at the McDonald's play gym and I was thinking to myself how we really should go there more often.

I had given the 10 minute warning and they continued playing. Just as I was about to give the 5 minute warning, Collin comes out of the exit of the BIG slide saying, "Mommy, Ainsley took her pants off up there!!"

OH. MY. GOSH.

I asked where she was and where her pants were and all I got was, "Up there!" I asked Collin if he could PLEASE go get them for me. It was at that point that I learned the dirty truth. "But Mommy, she's POOPY." My heart sank to my toes, and my blood ran cold through my body.

No, no, NO!!! I tried to stay cool, but it really seemed like everyone in the place was staring at me. AND, it was 12:30 so there were lots of families having lunch there! I started calling for Ainsley to come down. About 30 seconds later, she came scooting down the slide, with no shorts OR pull-up, with her index finger extended. And what was on that finger? You probably guessed it - a big glob of poop. Sigh.

As discreetly as I could manage, I pulled her shirt down - thankfully it was a long one - and grabbed a tissue from my purse to wipe the poop off of her finger. It would've been really handy to have her bag so that I could at least put a new pair of shorts on her. Yes, it certainly would have had I not left her bag in the car!!! Well, about this time, a little girl came out from the play area with her hand over her nose saying, "Oooooh it STINKS up there!" I was having an awful time deciding what on earth to do - total panic mode. I deeply apologized to the mother who was sitting next to me, scooped Ainsely up and walked to the counter to let the dear people of McDonald's know what had just taken place in their lovely playgym. The guy behind the counter was amazingly nice about it and said he would get their maintenance guy (I'm so sorry maintenance guy, whoever you are!!!) to take care of it. And just like that, I left. Didn't even stay to retrieve the shorts. It just wasn't worth it. What else could I have done, short of making an announcement to the entire dining area and climbing to the top of the playgym, can of disinfectant in hand to clean the place? Which by the way, I TOTALLY would clean it up - after hours with noone else in sight. Oh, the horror.

So where does this leave me? Well, mortified, deeply embarassed, moreso than I have ever been in my entire life! I'm searching message boards and parenting websites in hopes that I can find some information that will help me discourage Little Miss Ainsley from playing in her poop (this is not the first time she has found it fun to do so, just the first time in a public place!!)

So, my friends, I do hope that you will not hold this poop incident against me or my sweet Ainsley. The only good that I can see came out of this is now I have an answer to that elusive question, "What was your most embarassing moment?" when it's asked of me during a MOPS ice-breaker game.