When Diaper Meets Washing Machine

In case you have ever wondered what happens, I will share. It sure isn't pretty. In fact it is downright bizarre. Before I get any further ahead of myself, let me back up a minute here and fill you in on how this scenario came to be in the first place. Well, it all started at 2 AM when Sam started yelling and I dutifully stumbled down the hall to see what the Earth Shattering Problem was. (In actuality the problem was more sleep shattering than earth shattering.)

Well, for once he did have a real identifiable problem -- he had gotten sick EVERYWHERE, totally unlike him. I will spare you those gory details. So, I stripped him, the bed, and eventually even myself and then put on fresh sheets, pajamas, and a diaper. (The diaper was for him, not for me by the way.) In my zombie-like trance I schlepped downstairs, put the whole sorry lot in the washing machine, and trudged back upstairs to his room for more cleaning that you would rather not hear about in detail. In my middle-of-the-night stupor I unwittingly threw his old diaper into the washing machine along with all of the other yucky stuff. I didn't realize it until the next day when I went to switch the clothes from the washer to the dryer.

At first I saw all of this stuff in the washer that looked like chipped ice, honest to God. First I wondered if the machine had really run or not. I had no idea what the stuff was. I touched it, but it wasn't cold. What the heck was it? I started pulling the wet clothes out and found the fullest diaper I have ever seen in my life, and I have seen some pretty full ones in my time! I still had no idea what the heck was going on until Daddy Mac arrived on the scene and announced that the "ice crystals" were in fact little pieces of gel from the diaper. Meanwhile the diaper was still completely intact! Bizarre-o! (I made up that phrase myself and did not steal it from Rachel Ray.) I had no idea that diapers were so complex!

We couldn't figure out how to get rid of the gel pieces, so we took all of the wet clothes outside and shook them out. Then I ran the wash all over again from the get-go for good measure, which thankfully got us back to Situation Normal one wash-rinse-spin cycle later. Phew! So that is what happens "When Diaper Meets Washing Machine." I don't recommend the experiment, but it does make for a rather unique blog entry, doesn't it?