Fascination with Poop

Hayden is almost 3 years old and like MANY toddler boys his age, a fascination with POOP is 2nd only to things with wheels.

For example, about a month ago, while we were enjoying a nice afternoon at a park, Phil took Hayden into the public bathroom facility to wash his hands before leaving since they had been playing in the dirt and sand. Apparently, there was a BIG GIANT POOPY in the toilet that Phil said looked like the toilet had been clogged for a while and people just kept pooping on top of more poop. How do you like that visual?! Hayden mentions, "the big dirty poopy in the bathroom at Lake Tapps" at least once, if not more times every day since then. He asks to go back to look at it again. He explains how Mommy and Brooklyn went to the minivan and didn't get to see the big poop. He thinks blobby brown things, like Chicken Nuggets, are "Just like the poop". Mmm. Hmmm. I'm SO GLAD my son is talking so well now...

Another example of the poop obsession is the zoo. He doesn't care all that much about the animals, what he really wants to see is the animals go poop. The first time he saw the elephants at the zoo, one of them did a basketball size dropping of poop right in front of us and he is always asking to go see the elephants poop when we go to the zoo now. We hung out at the elephant exhibit for almost an hour last time we were at the zoo, but sadly, no pooping action.

He chases the cat around the house, trying to look at her bottom, and races into the laundry room where we keep her litter box to see if she's done a "big poopy" in there. Boy, that kid keeps me accountable for litter box clean-up for sure!

He loves to read "Everyone Poops" and also "Once Upon a Potty". Bonus for reading - he can identify the word POOP on a page. Bonus for sure.

Last spring, a bird pooped on our dining room window in a place that is impossible to reach easily so we STILL haven't cleaned it off - and of course he points to it at least once a day and says, "Bird went poopy on the window". I really need to just pop the screen out and take care of it. If there is bird poop on my car, he'll spot it, and insists we go through the car wash.

Oh, and I almost forgot this example - when I change Brooklyn's diaper he races over to see it if it's poopy so he can see how messy it is and see what color it is (we talked a lot about color of her black and then mustard-colored poop when she was first born). One time when her poop was particularly orange after eating sweet potatoes earlier, I explained to Hayden how her poop is like the color of the food she ate. Well, this has stuck with him, because now when her poop is more green, he says "like green beans!" and the other day when she was eating yogurt, he said, "Brooklyn's poop is going to be white!" A little later when I changed her poopy diaper he REMEMBERED that it was supposed to be white this time, and was confused why it was brown. A good question, Hayden.

You'd think all this talk about poop would make potty training a breeze. Well, when he was 20 months old, we got him a potty seat and he actually pooped once back then, and will usually pee in it (standing up!) before bed each night.

BUT TODAY... drumroll please... Hayden wore underwear almost all day (except for nap time and out to the park)... and... HE HAD DIARRHEA IN HIS UNDERWEAR. BIG, MESSY, DIARRHEA.

I was putting Brooklyn down for a nap, and heard a worried, "Mo-om!" from downstairs. I quickly put Brooklyn in her crib and rush downstairs to find Hayden standing in the living room, legs split wide like an A. I thought he was peeing, so a swooped him up and rushed him into the bathroom, only to discover his underwear completely full of runny diarrhea. And then realized it had dripped all down his legs and in 8 places on the carpet from where he was standing and the beeline we made to the bathroom. Oops. Thank God for Nature's Miracle. I did my best to keep my cool and reassure Hayden that accidents happen, but he was a bit traumatized.

A little trauma must have done some good because later this afternoon, HE POOPED ON THE POTTY!!!! YAY!!!

(And now, I have talked more about poop than I ever thought I would. I am officially a mom of a potty-training toddler.)

Fox Hollow Farm Day

Today we took the kids to the Fox Hollow Farm Day at an incredibly awesome farm a few miles away from our house. There were lots of animals - horses, a 1 week old pony, goats, chickens, ducks, bunnies, kittens, and a peacock. Also there was a huge inflatable obstacle course and giant balls on their beautifully manicured landscape. What Hayden loved most, though, was the kid-sized ride-on motorized John Deere Gator and pedal tractor. He was in HEAVEN!!

So I gave the iMovie Project Template feature a try and made this movie in about 2 hours. Check it out! Yay iMovie, I love my Mac.