The toilet situation was created by making it fun. We got a can of cleaning scrub that foams up really well when sprayed on. Then proceeded to make a huge deal about how cool it looked. Yea, it works better for boys yet that is all I have.

My daughter is 19 months so I don’t have a wealth of advice. I loved Happiest Baby on the Block and that got me through the first stressful months. I also have taught my little one some signs and it is awesome! Also I would say if you are breast feeding give the baby some formula early on…I didn’t know this and had this bright idea to wean and my daughter REFUSED to drink formula. She didn’t eat for an entire day! So I was frantically working on increasing my breast milk after not pumping all day. Hello…what was I thinking??!

No poop smearing for me! Yet. But my toddler did take his diaper off in his room when he was supposed to be napping. He started yelling for me and I found little “logs” all over the place. At least he didn’t touch them.

My other HILARIOUS poop incident happened while at church! Kaden, the two year old toddler in question, was in the nursery class and I was in the womens group class. His teacher brought him in to me to let me know he needed a diaper change. I took him to the changing room, set him down, and thought, how odd, why is there poop all over his shoe and down his leg? I took off his diaper and it was EMPTY! If your a mom, I know you know what happened. At that moment, I realized that somehow during his walk from the nursery room clear on the OTHER side of the church to me, he lost his load. I knew I had to find that poop before someone else did! After quickly cleaning him up, we began our walk down the hallway. Nothing. What if it was in his classroom with all the other little toddlers? Oh no! I went in and started to tell the teacher what had happened. Oh, I know, she said. When I was walking back a huge group of people were huddled around “something” in the middle of the floor. Nice discovery for them! So somebody else got to clean it up. In the meantime, I had to go home because Kaden no longer had clean pants and unknowingly to me, I had poop from when I was holding him and it rubbed off from his shoe. When my husband made it home, he said the entire church was talking about it. The news spread like wildfire! At least I have a good sense of humor.

Keep the stories coming!

As far as my #1 parenting tip (aside from hugging the kids and telling them I love them every day – if not more often) would have to be to criticize the behavior, not the child.

And Sheila – I don’t know if you will find this at all comforting, but when I recently told my 9-year-old about her own poop-smearing crib fiasco (unfortunately I was NOT out shopping at the time), she just about broke her ribs laughing hysterically about it (after the disbelief and embarrassment wore off).