le Petit Julien

Manneken Pis (literally "little man pee" in Dutch) is a famous Brussels landmark. Basically, it is a small bronze fountain sculpture of a naked little boy urinating into the fountain's basin. Interestingly, the French call this sculpture 'le Petit Julien'. When I made this discovery, I could barely suppress my laughter, for this week, Baby Julien has indeed been giving us a lot to think about pee.

We have been warned during antenatal class that baby boys tend to give showers of blessings when you open their diapers. Presumably, their little brother down there responds quickly in this fashion when exposed to cold air. At the beginning, I was always watching out for this spray, but Jules has been really nice and we hardly had any issues except for once or twice. Gradually, I let my guard down and no longer bothered to cover it up with a wet wipe or hurry through the diaper change.

Everything was fine until recently...

In his 7th week of life, he started giving us a run for our money. Literally.

I had just given him a wipe-down and was trying to get him ready to go out. I had his new outfit ready by the side and had just applied some cream on him after wiping him dry. A new diaper is ready beside me and already opened up, just waiting to be put on. Everything was going well and I had the diaper in my hand, when I suddenly saw a jet of water coming and felt the warm spray on my hands. Just a bit shy of my clothes and I am already changed! So, that was close. I quickly took a tissue and started wiping up the pee collecting on the waterproof changing mat before it started dripping out. And just as I was doing that, another spray hit me. Stunned, it was all I could do to quickly grab another piece of tissue to start wiping again. And before I had even wiped up the second shower, he took a third hit. I was really amazed by now, but I guess even that amazement did not have much time to play out. Of course, you've guessed it, we had the fourth shower of blessing, by which time I was totally speechless and still no nearer to getting that nappy on his little elusive bum! By now, Daddy Low had come to check on us to see why we were taking so long and quickly took over while trying not to laugh. I told him to be glad that despite 4 attempts, I had escaped being hit in my new clothes; otherwise, I would have been very upset!

The next day, Daddy Low was similarly "blessed" - he had the same multiple-shower experience after bathing Julien. And this has been the case these few days now. We could not help laughing once, when Julien sprayed on his own face - his face was frozen for a split second in bewilderment before we wiped it away together with the pee.

Now, we are always on guard during nappy time. And our top tip? - have a piece of wet wipe lying over his little brother, so that even if there is output, it will be captured and there will be less of a mess and aftermath to clear. Otherwise, you will find yourself having to wash him all over again... unless you don't mind your baby smelling of pee!

There are a few legends behind the statue of Manneken Pis as recorded in Wikipedia. These are my two best favorites (if one may have 2) -

"The most famous legend is the one about Duke Godfrey III of Leuven. In 1142, the troops of this two-year-old lord were battling against the troops of the Berthouts, the lords of Grimbergen, in Ransbeke (now Neder-over-Heembeek). The troops put the infant lord in a basket and hung the basket in a tree to encourage them. From there, the boy urinated on the troops of the Berthouts, who eventually lost the battle.

Another legend states that in the 14th century, Brussels was under siege by a foreign power. The city had held its ground for some time, so the attackers conceived of a plan to place explosive charges at the city walls. A little boy named Julianske happened to be spying on them as they were preparing. He urinated on the burning fuse and thus saved the city. There was at the time (middle of the 15th century, perhaps as early as 1388) a similar statue made of stone. The statue was stolen several times. In 1619, it was replaced by the current bronze statue, created by Franco-Flemish Baroque sculptor Jerome Duquesnoy, father of the more famous François of the same last name."

As much as they sound incredulous, I like them very much. Julien's name, after all, is about victory and triumph :) For obvious reasons, I like the second one a little bit more - the boy-hero is Julien's namesake!

If you ask me, I think whichever legend is the real one is not important. Rather, I think the Belgians have got the key thing right - little boys piss a lot and it's rather potent pee too! Definitely something worth celebrating, I say! :)