Belgium v. Italy in the Labor Day Poop Flag Throwdown

A perusal of posts over the course of my little blog's history will show that two of the most common themes have been poop and flags. At long last, these two CloudEight favorites came together delightfully this Labor Day weekend while we were at a restaurant at Navy Pier having a bit of touristy fun. I had just finished parading all three kids to the bathroom for a much-needed hand-scrubbing, and, in Owen's case, a pee-break, when Owen, upon returning to the table, declared that he now had to poop. Deanna, thankfully, took him this time as my patience was beginning to wear a bit. Upon finishing his business, he summoned Deanna into the stall and informed her that he was trying to determine whether the poop he had just made looked more like the flag of Italy or the flag of Belgium. While I wasn't there to observe, I can imagine that she, although seldom lacking for words, simply stared in disbelief. Undeterred, he continued his one man debate, ultimately concluding that because the poop had more of a squarish-quality to it, it looked more like the Belgian flag (which, for you non-flag-o-philes out there, is indeed shorter and thus more square in shape than your average flag, for reasons only the Belgians probably know). Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on whether you are reading this post shortly before having a meal), we weren't able to capture the subject poop-flag for posting here. It should be noted that the flag of Italy is vertical green, white and red stripes, while the Belgian flag is vertical black, yellow and red stripes. According to a post-incident interview I conducted with Owen, it was not the color of the poop that inspired his debate, but rather its "stripey" qualities. His ability to produce squarish poop beyond this one incident is undocumented, so no need to suggest medical intervention as of yet, although an ability to crank out "squarish, stripey" poop may serve him well should he decide to become a performance artist, especially if he starts working with food coloring.

In other news, rather than take the end of summer lying down, we spent this Labor Day Weekend sucking the marrow out of it, engaging in an orgy of activity designed to fatten us up on summer memories for the long, hard winter ahead. On successive days, we went to Navy Pier (for the afore-mentioned touristy and bathroom fun), Arlington Park Racetrack (never too young to get the kids hooked on playing the ponies - Owen picked several winners!), and to Cantigny Park for a Labor Day picnic (featured attraction here is gardens and climbing on the 10 or so army tanks they have on the grounds around the 1st Infantry Division museum).