So I’m realizing the thing about boys is, even when their vocabulary is limited and they don’t make much sense, one thing is certain: they’ll always welcome a conversation about poop.
Every day, Jack mentions poop. He’s fascinated with it. He loves saying “poopy…. yucky….ew.” Which of course makes me happy that at least he finds it unappealing, and doesn’t want to play with it like some children do. It has taken some getting used to though; living in a house with 2 boys and a dog… they pretty much have poo on their minds ALL the time.
So it was quite apropos when Artie Bennett asked me to preview his new book Poopendous!. Of course I would! What could be better than an entire book about poo; one which didn’t revolve around the potential bodily issues that could cause each type and send you into a self-diagnosing panic. No, this promised to be a much more fun tale, woven through the global exploration of flung dung, tasty cowpies, and putrid pellets.
Jack loves the book. He loves the illustrations, and of course, above all else, loves that we’re talkin’ poop. And I love that we’re actually kind of learning something in the process. SO… I’d like to share the good times with you:
Post a comment here by midnight on June 25th and tell me what funny or embarrassing thing your kids love to talk about. TWO lucky readers will each win a personalized, autographed copy of Poopendous!
Good luck! And may the POO be with you!
***********************************************WINNER UPDATE!***********************************************
Congratulations to KRISTIN PEDICONE and ARIANNE who were chosen through RANDOM.ORG’s name selection generator! Please email me at ogradysarah@gmail.com with the following information:
Your name
The name and age of the child you’d like the book autographed for
Your shipping address
And a BIG thank you to all who submitted their funny stories! I loved reading all of them… your kids are AWESOME!
Westchester Life 
We also love to talk about poop…and she always wants to “see it”. Sometimes described as “meatballs”, “blueberries”, or “hamburger” the possibilities are endless Yep- a whole new world. Oh and the word “nipple” is also one of our new faves. TMI?
My daughter Brianna’s favorite thing is to shake her little bootie. She’s got the moves and everything and most often likes to do it in the most public of places. Very embarrassing!
Sarah, first off I really enjoy your posts, particularly given that they often focus on 2 of my obsessions, life with a toddler and delicious food!
So I wanted to chime in on your post with my 2 year old Ethan’s embarassing topic of choice: boobs. Walking through a department store one day, passing by the lingerie section he notices the bra section and loudly commenting “boobies, boobies, boobies, boobies – Mom, you got your boobies on?”. Yes, buddy, yes I do. Luckily he did not ask the well endowed woman that we passed in the store shortly after!
Kristin, I’m so glad you like reading the blog! And I totally got a giggle hearing about Ethan and boobies… Do you have them “on.” Jack just pokes at my boobs and yells “fat.” Boys are great fun in public.
My girl is too young to discuss poo, but as most of my good friends know, it’s literally one of my most favorite topics. Maybe it will be one of her first words. A mom can hope.
My son is officially a public pooper. The moment we get into a store its “Mom I have to go poopy”. Then one day on the checkout line he said ” Mom I have to take a DUMP”. That’s when daddy get a “Really?”phone call from me.. Lol
Well, our little one is too young to talk yet, only 4 weeks old tomorrow–but, if his dad has his way, he’ll be talking about his bodily functions VERY early on!:) He does get the cutest look on his face when he does poop, though – so when he smiles and this happens, it sure says a lot!!
My son is a big one for Eyeballs. Yesterday, he told me how cool it would be if we could have a spare head to make an eye-ball gun out of. errrmmm….
I don’t think I have enough time to go into all the embarrassing things my kids talk about…poop is however #1. body parts come in 2nd!
As we pulled into the quaint little shopping place in the OBX, I was reading Sarah’s call for stories about kids and poop. To be honest, my initial thought was: man, people are so obsessed with kids and poop. Maybe I’m missing something. I don’t have any poop stories to share. My kids (ages 6,4,2) must be so grown up with their bathroom talk that we don’t really discuss it, or do we? Hmm, let me think…Why are we pulling into this quaint little shopping place along the bay, are we shopping? Nope, we’ve stopped here because my oldest son couldn’t hold his bladder for the final 5 minutes of our drive. As we are piling out of the car, we ask Reid if he is just peeing or if he has to poop too. He reminds us that he is still having issues getting the poop out of him. He feels like he has to go, but then he sits and he doesn’t. We remind him that about an half hour ago we stopped at a farmers market to buy him a pint of blueberries. He’ll surely be able to relieve himself after those get into this system. Mind you, we are now openly discussing poop and foods that make you poop as it is just a regular conversation. Surely the other occupants of this quaint little shopping center aren’t listening to our conversation. Luckily, thanks to Mom-Mom, we locate a unisex one room bathroom. Me and the three kids file into the bathroom; Reid quickly sits on the toilet. Finn quietly holds himself as he rocks back and forth. Maeve is so excited to be free from her car seat that she is literally running in circles, dropping her assie (her word for pacifier which we find particularly funny since it sounds just like assy) on the bathroom floor. Okay, focus back to Reid and his beet red face as he forcefully pushes the poop out of him. Someone knocks on the door. Ugh, I hope Reid’s done because now there’s at least one person waiting for us in line! Reid tells me he feels a little better, but there’s still more. I tell Reid, we don’t have time for this right now and I look in the toilet to find a small pebble sized poop. Reid insists there is more-okay I said give it one more push. No, nothing else. Hastily I tell Reid he’s got to get up, its Finn’s turn. Unhappily Reid gets up. Finn sits down (of course we’re now having the same exact conversation that we had when Reid first sat as to why you cover the toilet seat with paper). Okay, Finn is sitting, peeing and pooping successfully. Yay, time for everyone to wash their hands! As we open the door, I feel the usual pang of guilt that I hope that the person waiting was not in a dire emergency because it seems like we’ve been in there forever and I hope they can hold their breath, because Finn, the human garbage disposal has left quite a stench. Okay, back into the car for our last few minutes to the destination. In the car, I see my phone and go back to thinking about the whole poop story thing. Maybe I could write about the first time we went away when Reid was just 5 months. He was constipated from the switch from breast milk to formula, combined with starting to eat rice cereal. He stayed with my sister who had to stick a Q-tip up his bottom to remove his poop that had turned into a rock turd. No, that won’t work as a good story. Alright, back to OBX-we’ve arrived. About an hour after arriving, and being shown the bathroom that the boys are restricted from using because the thought of pee on the toilet seat is repulsive to this particular aunt, Reid informs me that he again has to poop. Alright, I send him down to use an allowable toilet and tell him I’ll be back in a few minutes. When I go back, Reid says he feels much better. I look into the toilet and clearly the constipation has passed. The poo is a fairly large size and blueish/greenish/reddish in color. I go back upstairs and tell my husband, Brian, right in front of the two other families that Reid is no longer constipated. I explain the color and shape of the poop and then we discuss what could’ve caused the reddish color (obviously the blue was from the blueberries). Okay, we got all settled in and then I returned to my phone where I was again reminded about the poop story. That’s when it hit me, I may not have one particularly funny story, but it’s definitely not because we are too proper to talk about the poop. In fact, poop has controlled our past 24 hours! Bathroom talk and poop talk are so common to us, that I hadn’t even realized it. I feel like this story should have a climax point where poop finally shoots out of Reid and accidentally gets all over that same aunt who nastily told me that my boys are not to go near her bathroom, but it doesn’t, sorry. Everyone poops.
So, I know this is a really long comment, but after my initial thought reaction to Sarah’s call, I’m embarrassed that I even questioned people’s obsession with poop.
Alright, so I missed the contest deadline but I’m going to be a team player and share anyway. My son, Jackson, has overheard me end conversations by jokingly saying “Your butt.” Apparently, it caught on and now he doesn’t stop pointing at people and quickly saying “Ya butt!” And if that wasn’t enough, he also has an uncanny knack for picking the worst time/place to say it or person to say it to (Think funeral).
And when he’s not saying “Ya butt!” he has one other little doozy he likes to use. My sister-in-law was trying to explain to my whining kids the expression “Whiners are weiners” but instead told them “Winners are weiners.” Now, anytime some wins something he jumps around chanting “Weiner, weiner, pee pee, weiner!”