Undaunted

Poopy head. Pee-pee pants. Booty butt. Are you laughing yet? Does anyone find any of these phrases completely and utterly hysterical? Apparently my four-year old daughter does. These are three of her favorites these days. She’ll say them over and over and well over again. Much to the chagrin of my nine-year old and anyone else who happens to be in hearing distance. The more the nine-year old complains, the louder the four year gets. She turns the words into a song as she dances around the room.

I’ve tried to get her to stop without much luck. No sooner than the words “big tooter” or “booger girl” escape her mouth someone else laughs at her antics spurring her on. She finds herself to be quite a comedian. If she’s in the shower and water’s dripping off her arm or her sister’s chin, all of a sudden it’s peeing. If she peaks into the bedroom while I’m changing, she bursts into the “boobies” song. Yes, she has a boobies song. Don’t ask me. I know for a fact though that mine did not inspire this particular song.

The other day we were watching a movie. In this particular movie a dog, let a loud “fart” rip. She laughed so long and so hard I thought she was going to fall off the couch. It really wasn’t that funny. However, just listening to her laugh is contagious. She gets herself going and she can hardly breath. I always thought bathroom humor was a ‘boy’ thing. Not that it really need be; its just growing up I had a cousin, who happened to be a boy, who also had a fascination with all things pee, poop and belch. She hasn’t really spent much time with this cousin, but it does have me wondering if maybe instead of a gender thing, its genetic.

I don’t really find body noises or outputs particularly hilarious, I never have. I’ve learned to ignore my husband’s foray’s into this type of humor. If he farts loudly or belches, I pretend to ignore him. It only encourages him if I look at him in disgust or disdain. But with her, it is much harder to ignore. The ability to laugh that loudly and unabashedly at herself is a true gift. So the other morning when asks what me would happen if she blew a big fart that l loud on my bed, I hate to admit I encouraged her in her fart talk. I told her it would probably blow her all the way up to the ceiling. She doubled-over laughing, “that would really be funny, wouldn’t it Mom!” she asked. I agreed, it would be pretty funny indeed. So while you won’t hear me sing any songs involving pee, barf or burps anytime soon, I figure once in a while it’s better or at least more fun to join in the potty talk and have a good laugh than to crush her spirit with a timeout. Now if I could just get her to limit her songs and jokes to home, I would be all set! The only consolation I have for now is at least she doesn’t find the Three Stooges to be any funnier than I do.