The One About Poop

I have raised four dogs and one cat as an adult. Got them all house trained and litter box trained. The cat was easy. The dogs were all different. I trained the most recent dog, now seven, with a crate. An enormous crate which she loved and used for two years. She was house trained quickly but I could not get her to leave her beloved crate. I must say, crate training really did the trick for her. So I have had my share of dealing with animal excrement and all sorts of things that could come from an animal. Two of them lived to be 16 so obviously I did something right.

I still have two dogs, yet I have two daughters now. And even though I have a husband, you can imagine that when it comes to animal or child bodily functions, he is not the first one to volunteer to clean up. You see, stereotypes exist for a reason. Many are based in fact.

Anna Grace is the oldest and just didn't have a desire to be toiled trained as early as let's say I did. Hey, diapers are convenient, she didn't have to do anything, I can't say I blame her. Jenna walked another path. She saw her older sister in the bathroom and had to do everything her sister did so she started to train herself when she was around 18 months old. For real.

They are both toilet trained now. And at their daycare, a big deal is made of the kids in general going to the bathroom IN the bathroom. Which is a fine idea. Of late, though, my girls have developed a twist to their routine.

First of all, daycare uses the words poop and pee. I never did, but the girls hear those words all day so that is what they use. Whenever they go at home they come racing around the corner to announce to everyone in the house what they have done and "come see come see." The other child always races to look and applaud. Their father, not so much.

At night, when I put them to bed, if one gets up while I'm still discussing their day, they want to be cheered on with something like "go go Jenna go go Jenna goooooooooooooooo Jenna yaaaay!" Honestly, if that gets them to not wet the bed and/or to not wake me in the night, I'm all for it.

But the best part, really, is when they do "a giant poop." They are very proud and want to reveal it. They have a little song, much like a magician's "da da ta daaaaa" and then they will comment upon it and say how proud they are of each other. It is the funniest thing I have ever witnessed. And sometimes what they leave behind is, indeed, giant. I have often been on the phone with my BFF Brien as this has happened and have offered to take a photo. But now that I think about it, how could I then prove that what I took actually came out of a toddler?
I went to college. I've seen similar photos that the guys took. No one would believe me.