Bedtime for my three-year old, Athena,  is never complete without her poopoo book entitled “Everyone Poops”.  That’s on the top of her reading list.  With her crude speech she does her best to read along with me. When I turn the page to her favorite line she holds her hand up as a signal for me to stop and then she’d  slowly and laboriously recite  ”A one hump camel makes a one hump poop. A two hump camel makes a two hump poop.”  Burst of laughter. I chuckle along with her.

I saw this at a store last year but I never bothered with it.  Its very graphic treatment of  bowel movement  made me snicker and put it down. It had pictures of butts, genitals, and shit of all kinds. Last February, my aunt, Tita Rory,  gave the book as a present to my daughter on her birthday. These days, whenever she sees me lying down on the couch or on the bed,whether it’s bedtime or not,  she’d rush to look for her poopoo book so I can read it to her. Eventhough I’m so sick of it and often beg her to get another book, I still do it because I enjoy watching her laugh when I make all sorts poop noises for different animals.

On pages 12 and 13 you will see a big whale and the question “What does a whale poop look like?”. This part always awakens my curiosity. It fills me with a strong desire to see whale excreta. Is it long like that of a gold fish? If whales are as big as a bus, how big could their feces be? Is it well-formed or does it disintegrate the moment it hits the water? Such are the intellectual musings that have occupied my mind of late. Obviously it has done something to me. Whether it’s for the better or for the worse, I really can’t say.

My daughter likes to identify with the human illustrations in the book. If she sees a picture of a child, whether girl or boy, she’ll declare that it’s her. An argument starts everytime we get to page 23. She’d point at the picture and say, “That’s Athena, da baby.” I would correct her that the child on the page has a  pitoy (penis) like her brother’s so it couldn’t possibly be her. She’d insist that she also has a putoy. One afternoon, when she saw her brother putting on his pants, she ran toward him asking to get a peek at his putoy. Feeling violated, her brother angrily told her to leave his private parts alone. She merely giggled and answered, “I have a meemew(her term for vagina).” It was at this point when Freud’s psycho sexual theory flashed in my head. Now I understand why Athena loves that book so much. At the age of  three, she is in the anal stage of development. It is a period where her most-important task is toilet-training, a time of gender curiosity.  I  realized I shouldn’t be annoyed even if I have to read the book to her  again and again. I should thank Kane/Miller Book Publishers for the hours of fun that they’ve provided us.  In fact, I’m thinking of  buying two more similar books that they’ve published: “The Gas We Pass” by Shinta Cho, and “The Holes in Your Nose” by Genichiro Yagyu. Just like “Everyone Poops”, I think they’re gonna be a hit with my preschooler.

]]> http://chiquibaylon.net/2009/06/poopoo-book/feed/ 5 http://chiquibaylon.net/2008/07/what-a-piece-of-shit/ http://chiquibaylon.net/2008/07/what-a-piece-of-shit/#comments Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:08:44 +0000 Chiqui http://chiquibaylon.net/?p=25

My daughter’s first poo in her potty

Pardon my toilet language.The title isn’t just an axpression. It’s really a piece of   @#$%  that you see at the top of this page. My husband was taken aback when I emailed him this picture so I think you might  react the same way.  

I’m keeping this for posterity because it is my two year old daughter’s first poo in her potty.  June 24, 2008. She achieved a milestone in her life when I least expected it.  The doctor told me that I will have a hard time toilet-training her because of her chronic constipation so I was mentally prepared that she might learn at around age 3 or 4.  On this particular day she didn’t just poo, but also went pee pee three times in her potty.

Who would have thought that a small thing like that could blast me off into cloud nine.  You can just imagine my ecstasy.  Lately I’ve been thinking of going back to work  and putting her in daycare. Most daycares, however, want kids who are toilet-trained.  So I’ve been feeling some anxiety.  This new development has erased some of that.

The day started like any other day. I told her for the nth time that she’s a big girl now and doesn’t need her diapers. I always say this with the hope that she will understand me somehow, without really expecting much.  The day before the 24th  I made her wear panties instead of her pull-up diapers. Those training pants don’t make her feel the need to use her potty so I decided to do it the messy way.     My husband complained loudly that she was peeing everywhere: on the bed, the couch, the floor, the dining room rug, and the kitchen. He insisted that I make her wear her diaper since he had just cleaned the carpet the week before with a steam vacuum that he rented at Vons.  I could understand his concern, but what else could I do?  And I wasn’t wrong.  Going down and dirty was the best way to make her learn.

Thanks to Molly Matthews.  What a gem she is!  She’s the star of the book entitled “Big Girls Use The Potty”, written by Andrea Pinnington.  We read it several times a day.  My toddler  runs to look for her potty everytime we do.  She  loves it. After just a month of reading she has already grasped the idea that I want her to learn. Of course  she still has accidents. Just a little more practice and she’s going to be perfect.  When I feel anxious about it, I try to remember what Molly Matthews said, ” Some days are wet, some days are dry. The most important thing is that you try.”

Phhew! That’s one developmental task accomplished.  Now if I can only get my daughter to understand that hitting people is not good… that would be another milestone.