If this was HBO, the following post would be proceeded with something like… may contain adult content. But really not, it’s just about poop and about what may be the proudest moment I had with my boy Max.

Setting some background: during his NICU stay, he started getting milk fed to him through his feeding tube, and it was really important that he pooped it out, to make sure all his innards were working properly. In fact, that’s an issue that remains important throughout your life. Max’s stool become common enough conversation that I decided to nickname the act of pooping as “making a Mr. Stinks.” Just to break up the monotony.

Because, everyday, we’d keep check on him, and every phone call, we’d ask the nurse… “Has he had any stools!?” and sometimes they’d be like, “Yeah, a little” or “There was some smear in his diaper” or “No, so we’re probably going to give him a suppository later.”

Anyway, monitoring this stool thing was one of the many big deals and situations we kept a close eye on all the time.

Well, one night, May 26th to be exact, we were up at the NICU, and Max had yet to make to a Mr. Stinks that day.  Not majorly concerning, but the more Stinks the better. We showed up so Max could have time for his time of skin-to-skin Kangaroo care with Keri.

This is usually when I would sit next to them singing songs or reading books and he’d lay peacefully and you knew he loved it because all of his vitals would be dead on perfect.

So, the hour was up and the nurse was putting Max back in his incubator. Then she said something along the lines of, “I smell something…”

Artist’s Rendering:

Immediately, I reached for the phone as if I was about to snap a photo of the Loch Ness Monster. Well, it nearly damn well was.

She opened his diaper, and there in all it’s pea-green glory, a giant Mr. Stinks…

And not only was it just there, more was coming out, right then! My boy was doing it, and he was doing it right!

It was my single proudest moment as a father.

The nurse was like, “Ooh” and Keri was smiling, but then she looked over at me and said, “Are you taking pictures?”

Hell yes I was. And looking back, I’m damn glad I did.