The Old Man and the Sink

While shopping with my three-year-old the other day, it became quite apparent that he needed to find a restroom.  His version of the pee-pee dance is to crouch down slightly, as if he is halfway to a football huddle, grab his crotch firmly with both hands, and then run around in a circle over and over again.  How he does not notice this behavior in himself is beyond me, but then I guess we all do things that we are oblivious to ourselves, but are perfectly obvious to everyone else.

“Do you need to go potty?” I asked him.

“Yeah!  I need go potty!” he shouted to everyone in the supermarket.

So we went to the men’s room, where there was one stall and one urinal.  The stall was taken, but luckily the urinal was a low one, so Edward was able to use it without standing on his tippytoes and/or hosing down the wall, the floor, or his pants.  When he had finished, I decided that maybe I ought to go too, as long as we were in there, and so Edward took that time to go wash his hands.

Uh oh.  Problem.  The sink was of the type that required you to push down hard on the faucet in order to get any water out.  Edward had already covered his hands in liquid soap, and I was at the urinal.  The screaming began, and I gritted my teeth, praying that he could hold on for a few more seconds before either grabbing my leg with his gooey hands or breaking the sink off of the wall and throwing it at a stranger.  But before he could do either of those things, I heard the water start flowing, and I turned and saw that an elderly man had come in and turned the water on for my son.

I walked over to the sink and thanked the man for helping Edward, and he smiled and said slowly that he was happy to do it.  And then Edward said, as loudly as possible, “Daddy, I couldn’t turn the water on, but that nice BOY helped me!”

The man smiled even brighter and said to him, “Thank you for calling me ‘boy.’  You made my day.”

So I must remember, during the trying times, that my son is a bringer of more than destruction and noise.  He is a joy spreader.  And he makes my days too.  And always go potty before leaving for the store.