Admit it, we all have a favorite time, place, position, and/or style when it comes to pooping. If poop talk makes you squeamish, 1 – you must not have kids or they are so grown you don’t have to clean up after them anymore, and 2 – it’s completely natural and we all do it!
Yes it stinks, and yes, cleaning it is NEVER fun, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun-ny! True?
Going Mom and I have yet to start potty training Avery (we should really get on that!), but we are picking up on her very non-subtle pooping queues. Red face, grunting, brief moment of silence after making a lot of noise, and sitting at your feet are all very strong indicators.
Yes, I did.
For Christmas, Kelley and I decided to limit the toys we got her since she has plenty and we knew family would most likely take care of that, which they did! So, we bought her a mini-armchair with her name embroidered in pink.
She took to it immediately and let us know with her giant grin!
And I’m not 100% sure, but I think that very same day is when she decided her new chair would be a perfect home base when the time came for a good poo. I’m even convinced we captured her as this thought went across her mind..
Yep, this will be the perfect chair for pooping in my diaper.
Fast forward to present day, and she’s been going to her chair almost every day to do the deed.
Busy!!
It gets quiet, sometimes I hear a stressful grunt while in the kitchen, and next thing I know…
Done. Clean me!
Sometimes she doesn’t quite make it to the chair, but she gets close. I think this embarrasses her though…
I tried to make it, but it wouldn’t stop!
And so, this is our first big indicator for when we do start potty training. If she goes to the chair and she gets quiet, it’ll be time to bring her to the pot!
Does your kid have a favorite spot to go poop in the house?
Any other visual/audio cues that they are “making mess” in their diaper……or worse……undies?
Please share all the gruesome details in the comments. Hold nothing back, it takes a lot to gross me out! 🙂
Time shows no mercy for us parents, huh? It feels like we should still be planning her first birthday, but that’s already whizzed by a month ago!
Over the course of just one month, we’ve seen Avery transform from a crawler into a tiny, wobbly walker. Things get more interesting every day now and we love watching her learn and react to her surroundings.
This girl is developing quite the character and I can already tell she’s going to be stubborn about certain things just like her mom and dad. Yeah, we’re in trouble! But no worries, we’ll go with the flow and ride the wave of craziness the best us parents can do and learn from mistakes (probably a lot) along the way.
With that, I have 13 memories, some mistakes, some lessons, and some just purely memories to share with our sweet little devil girl.
1. For your 1st birthday party, you were not the happiest in the beginning, but you finally warmed up to all of our friends and family that came over.
Even Nana couldn’t console you.
2. I held you for a little while as Mommy unwrapped your gifts and you decided to give a gift of your own….Poop!
It’s confirmed, Poop!
3. I made chocolate pumpkin brownies for our guests and to make your birthday cake which was the first time you had anything with sugar. It was hard for me to get over, but I’m over it now.
4. Your icing was simply plain Greek yogurt with blueberries forming a “1” on top. Apparently, you weren’t impressed with Mommy’s icing and blueberry work…
You spend hours creating my cake, I’ll reduce it to rubble in under a minute!
5. You received some pretty good gifts for your birthday, but a plastic flashy wand grabbed your attention the most. It wasn’t even the gift, it was just something extra placed on top!
Seriously, anything that lights up is an instant win!
6. Another toy win was the Catch-Me-Kitty one of our friends gave you. It moves around similar to a Rumba vacuum singing a taunting song until you catch it. And catching it you do, very well…followed by body slamming it multiple times!
7. I’m not sure how you grew so fast, but now you can reach the refrigerator doors and shut them when I have them open. It’s a nice thought, but does make it harder when I’m not done getting in there. Also, I really need to watch when I open/shut the doors as I might of bumped your head a few times. Sorry.
Just grabbing a beer for naptime….
8. Mommy worked hard to clear out our front room so you have an awesome room to play in. We’ve been enjoying playing with your blocks and other toys ever since. Which means Mommy and I will build something and you knock it down.
Hmmm, a structure someone put effort into making…..DESTROY!!!
9. I’ve been cooking a lot of different foods for you lately and some you like, some you don’t, but we’re having fun seeing you try new things. Omelettes, both sweet and savory, are my specialty and I’ve made ones with mixed veggies, chocolate and spinach, as well as butternut squash and cinnamon that have been a big hit.
Chocolate + Spinach with a little stevia makes a perfect omlette. Daddy doesn’t mind leftovers!
On the weekends, when I usually make pumpkin teff porridge for Mommy, I’m now making extra for you and Mommy feeds you. It makes me happy seeing both of my favorite girls enjoying the healthy food I cook!
Well, it’s not mommy’s milk, and it definitely didn’t come from her boob, but it’s good!
10. You’re getting smarter every day which is wonderful, but also means you’ve become very difficult in some areas. For instance, you found out how to take off your diaper by pulling at the snaps in front.
Yes, can I help you?
11. You recently decided to undo your diaper just as you went poop with your footie pajamas still on. This resulted in poop all the way down your leg and smashed in your foot and some in your belly button. It was the biggest poop-tastrophe we’ve had yet, and called for an emergency bath time. You enjoyed the bath. Me? Not so much. Lucky for you, I have not pictures of this.
12. And FINALLY, you are walking!! I’ve only been making “bets” since just before your 10 month mark, and now you’ve made it! Mommy and I have to constantly keep an eye on you now and even that doesn’t work sometimes. You’re a sneaky and quick little girl on your hands and knees, and now just your feet too!
The mounting stress aside, we’re very proud of you dear, and love how lively you’re becoming. Every day is an adventure with you and you are growing to be very smart and strong!
We’ve been a cloth diapering family since Avery was only a few weeks old, and we don’t plan on “changing” until she’s done with diapers for good. It was intimidating at first, but now the whole process is second-nature and is comforting to know it’s better for the environment and our wallets. Plus, what baby wouldn’t want to be surrounded by colorful cloth they poop and pee in?
Avery at 4 months helping me “organize” clean diapers.
As a stay-at-home parent, I do most of the washing, and after a short learning curve, it hasn’t been a problem. We were only feeding Avery breast milk to give her the best (and free!) nutrition available which made her poop, though messy and stinky, never having much substance that required spraying. Then we started solids; “Crap.”
And “Crap” was right; it got bigger and more substantial! That wasn’t the last time we saw those carrots on the tray; nope, they were there waiting for us after her next “movement.” Now we had poopy diapers that needed the poo removed before going in the bin.
But there was a light at the end of our dirty diaper conundrum; Spray Pal, the splatter shield for cloth diapers! Man was I ever so grateful that the kind husband and wife behind Spray Pal recently agreed to send one for review so we had one ready to be used!
Jen and her husband David are both elementary school teachers with 2 kids. Their first is a little girl, and their youngest is a boy who was born 3.5 months premature. Now, their son is over 2 years old, but he has to be on an oxygen feeding tube and is visually impaired and profoundly deaf. Despite this, they are a happy, close-knit family who are extremely caring.
I love seeing small, family-owned businesses like Spray Pal, and it just feels good doing business with them as opposed to some large corporation. Think buying produce from Wal-Mart vs. going to a local farm and purchasing directly from a farmer who will use your money to grow more food. Jen and David are “farmers” who use the proceeds from Spray Pal to go directly towards their son’s medical expenses after operating costs are met.
I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather give my dollar to farmers of the world who are personable and have a story to share. And what you get in return is their Spray Pal Splatter Shield that keeps your bathroom floors and walls free from poop splatter. Need I say more? Okay, well,I will anyway.
The Spray Pal is a high quality sheet of BPA-Free plastic with a tri-fold and a heavy duty clip in the center to securely hold those dirty diapers.
It’s nice to see a baby item that doesn’t look as complicated as Pandora’s Box!
After Avery gave us our first test sample, I made use of our newly installed diaper sprayer and the Spray Pal.
Getting a dirty diaper on the clip was tricky at first because you’re trying to avoid floor “plops” while simultaneously working to keep from touching the poo. But after a few uses (you’ll get plenty), it’s not so cumbersome and just like cloth diapering, becomes a matter of course.
What’s great about the Spray Pal is that you can spray at full pressure and not worry about splattering anything around you; just right in the toilet. Of course, test your sprayer first and make sure you have the Spray Pal past the toilet rim; otherwise, you’ll have a wet floor. I might know from experience….maybe.
After spraying, you can use the Spray Pal to squeeze out the excess water and carry the diaper to the pail.
If you’re squeamish, don’t look at the toilet water. What? Too late? Sorry.
We used to have the dirty diaper bin in the nursery next to the changing table, but now we moved it into the bathroom to avoid any nasties dripping on the floor.
Spray Pal sells different bundles to get you everything you need to tackle dirty diapers with the most basic one including their Spray Pal Shield and a Jaq Jaq Bird Wet Bag. We don’t have the wet bag, even though I know it would be useful; instead we place the shield in a plastic trash container on the side of the toilet.
This works just fine for us and we haven’t had an issue yet.
Now that we have a hang of it, I couldn’t imagine trying to spray a diaper without the Spray Pal, especially with the shallow toilet we have! I am happy we have the Spray Pal to save us from a splattery mess, and now we use it for every big poop! It will take getting used to, but so would cleaning poop off your wall, so pick your battle! 😉
If you are a cloth diapering family or thinking of becoming one, the Spray Pal is almost a very necessary item to include. I highly recommend! Check out this video on how to use the Spray Pal and give you a sense of how simple it really is.
Show some Spray Pal love and like/follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. They are Going Dad and Going Mom approved, so what are you waiting for?
Disclosure: Spray Pal provided their product to me free of charge in exchange for review. I was not compensated for this post and all views are my own.
An at-home dad on a mission to keep it real when it comes to food, fun, and raising a healthy, happy family.
