Potty Talk

It's no secret that Owen is chatty. But we may have entered a new phase of chattiness that goes where no man should go. The Women's Room. Perhaps it is time that Owen only goes with Jim to the restroom. But see, that won't work because he already goes with Jim when we are all together, but it's the times when only I am around that are the issue.

Yesterday, for instance, while waiting for Natalie's dance class to end, we had to go...no doubt about it, and no way we could wait. The bathroom empty and totally silent. Until a minute after we entered a stall, we hear someone enter. Not the first time this has happened, but I'm not sure it's ever played out quite this way. Owen is always curious when he hears someone else enter the bathroom.

She goes into the stall right next to ours. Silly woman. So, Owen being Owen, he shouts out into the quiet, "Hey! Who's in there?!" I hear a chuckle. He continues, "Hey, who is over there? What's your name??" There is a pause and I'm thinking to myself, Just don't make contact. Say nothing. Say nothing.... But she says, "Umm...my name is Susan?"

And there we go, we're now entering into full-fledged conversation now, I know.

O: "Hi Susan!! What are you doing over there?"

(At this point I have stopped my discreet "shush"ing and I'm saying out loud, "We do NOT have to make conversation in the restroom!"

Susan: "Well...using the restroom...."

O: "Susan, I have a Silver Surfer man from McDonalds! I'm four. How old are you?"

You get the idea...

And as I rush to get him out of there, he does a quick head duck as he walks by and shouts out, "Hey Susan - I saw you!" Lovely.

We ended up being too slow at the sink, so we got to meet Susan - a very pregnant lady who is probably now rethinking that plan. I apologized, and she just laughed. So now the whole episode is no doubt cemented in Owen's mind as a really good idea, because it is always good to get a laugh and a smile. I swear I would send him into the men's room on his own to spare myself the embarrassment if that thought didn't make me shudder to think of the conversations he could have in there.