I just happened to come across my last post, yes, from a year ago. I noticed it was about potty training, which is something we are beginning to deal with again. No, not with the same child, THANK GOODNESS. We had just ended the process with Grayson at that time and now Brielle is interested. A little sooner than the boys were too, I think. Partly because she's seen them do it and partly because she can't figure out why it doesn't work the same way for her.
It's all similar to Dallon's experience when she was born. Dallon was five, almost six, and made an awesome diaper fetcher. One day, while witnessing a newborn poop explosion, he asked, "Where's her penis??" I matter-of-factly explained that she didn't have one. "She's a girl. Girls don't have penises." His level of shock was impressive, annnnd pretty hilarious. The news had to be shared. He took off in a frenzied rush to find his brothers, yelling, "HEY!! GUYS!!! SHE DOESN'T HAVE A PENIS!!" I had some further explaining to do later but the point is, Brielle can't figure out why they DO have one... OR where hers could be. She has a very "where's mine?" attitude about the missing appendage.
She routinely tries to stand in front of the toilet, or places a cup in front of her pants when she has to go. She's often seen Grayson take care of business that way since we have to allow him an alternative route of relief on occasion. It has prevented having to haul everyone back into Costco or Target when he's mentioned nothing about needing to go while we were in there. (You mothers of little boys know what I'm talking about.) Anyway, all this confusion/discussion about how/what comes out the front, makes her want to quickly remove a diaper with what comes out the back. So much so, that while trying to unload Christmas groceries (yes, on Christmas Eve) and deal with sick Grayson, she decided to remove her diaper BEFORE anything actually happened. After all, who wants to have "what comes out the back" squooshed and cold on your warm rear end?
She had managed to place her little gift right in front of the TV, but had the courtesy to step in it first so that I could see her beautiful poop path to the kitchen. I couldn't believe Grayson had missed her doing all this, since he had been laying on the couch WATCHING TV with his throw up bowl when it happened. The pile she left had to be blocking his view, but on this occasion he chose NOT to tattle. Thanks for listening to mommy about the tattling, honey.
Standing there in the kitchen, trying to figure out whether to run her to the bath before she made a bigger mess, or start cleaning up the mess she just made before someone else unwittingly made it a bigger one, I recalled a similar situation with Grayson a few years back. So I took a deep breath and told myself this has all happened before, as us experienced mothers do. (Haha! Are you ever an "experienced" mother??) There's always SOMETHING new these little people can throw at you, so to me, it's an oxymoron. Part of the job description is that you can't ever be a total ninja mom master because they WILL continue to challenge any newly acquired skills.
Anyway, when Grayson was about two, he had decided to do the same thing. But he REALLY stepped in it. MORE than twice, if memory serves. And then trotted his poop covered feet across my family room in a clover leaf pattern. Jordan had made the initial discovery, looked at his poopy bare feet and asked, "WHY are you wearing POOP SOCKS all over the family room?!?" So that's why "poop socks" was coined at my house and why it is still used on occasion.
I decided to share this moment since my last post related, and now that I have a few kids, I know this is going on in other homes too. These situations are why I was just explaining to a friend that having small children is very similar to running a mental hospital. Basically, toddlers are all on a suicide watch. You have to secure sharp objects, medications, anything flammable... You even have to ensure there is no possible route of escape and that the residence is properly locked down! And... you have to be prepared to deal with poop socks.
