Poop Time

Be warned - what follows ain't pretty so if detailed descriptions of the excretory nature disgust you you may excuse yourself from reading further.

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Our Dylan told his first ever toilet joke recently.

One evening, as we sat round the table after dinner, the little prince let off a long, loudly audible whoosh of gas. Not a mean feat considering the thickness of his diapers.

After a slight awkward moment, this mommy gave him a disapproving stare, and said, "Dylan?!"

Looking perfectly composed and right back at me, his reply in our short repartee -

"Who's that?"

Floored!

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Probably the most unglamorous of jobs associated with being a parent is potty training. Since the new year, we've resolved to finally not put it off any longer. The plastic potty has been sitting the loo unused for the last 4 months, and because he's never shown any interest in staying seated in it, we went ahead to buy the seat that fits over the toilet for him.

I had one successful attempt at coaxing him into relieving himself one morning, but the attempt hasn't been replicated since.

This afternoon, I spied him beginning to take a poop, so without delay I stripped him of his nappies and put him on top of the seat -

"Go poo poo in the potty, D-!"

"You can do it!"

But after 12 months of exerting standing up in his diapers, he just couldn't do it. Struggling against my effort to stay him seated, he put his feet up on the seat, stood up, strained, and I had to do all I could to hold onto him while a wet mess of poo shot straight down his legs.

Most of it ended up in the bowl, thankfully, but to save the details let's just say it got pretty messy.

Thank God for a husband who's around during school holidays! My darling E rushed in after I yelled for help and without further ado, went ahead to sweep our son off my hands for a bath and a good clean-up while I attended to the crime scene. Love him to bits.

I guess the lesson here is that you can't undo what's been a learnt behavior for the past 12 months at least of a toddler's life. We've never seen the need to get D to sit down for the big job, so I guess it is going to take a lot more messy episodes before he feels comfortable doing so, and doing so on the toilet.

I welcome any suggestions on helping D with this milestone!