One Of Those Memories

I hear my Grandmom’s voice as I type that title. Honestly, it’s the best way to describe this situation.

I have a “Poo-casso” on my hands.

On Saturday my lovely child painted a Grafakiki for me on his wall. A Grafakiki is an invisible monster from the show Toopy and Binoo which we saw earlier in the week. He said he drew it just for me. He is a very sweet and thoughtful boy however the fact that he did this wonderful drawing in poop was not so wonderful.

In all honesty I couldn’t even be mad at him. I had a hard time keeping the smile off my face as I told him he was very thoughtful but maybe he shouldn’t use his poo to draw me pictures. Brian had to clean up the bulk of the mess, which included cutting Adam’s nails, a quick bath followed by a long one while I cleaned not only the wall but the baseboard and the chair.

We’re potting training and in all fairness, Adam does have a rash on his derriere so maybe he was itchy and then thought, hey this is a great art medium. Today however when I went into his room as he was screaming, it turns out he had a bad dream. However when he opened his hands there was A LOT of caked on dried poop. Lord knows if he did that at the beginning of his nap or the end, but the kid didn’t draw on the wall. The chair needed to be cleaned again but it could have been much worse.

As it turns out I have some very smart friends and Andrea shared this link from her psych class. There is a thing called Freud’s Psycho-sexual Development. There are several different stages of this development going right into puberty however she hit the nail on the head with this -

The second stage of psychosexual development is the anal stage, spanning from the age of eighteen months to three years, wherein the infant’s erogenous zone changes from the mouth (the upper digestive tract) to the anus (the lower digestive tract), while the ego formation continues. Toilet training is the child’s key anal-stage experience, occurring at about the age of two years, and results in conflict between the Id (demanding immediate gratification) and the Ego (demanding delayed gratification) in eliminating bodily wastes, and handling related activities (e.g. manipulating excrement, coping with parental demands). The style of parenting influences the resolution of the Id–Ego conflict, which can be either gradual and psychologically uneventful, or which can be sudden and psychologically traumatic. The ideal resolution of the Id–Ego conflict is in the child’s adjusting to moderate parental demands that teach the value and importance of physical cleanliness and environmental order, thus producing a self-controlled adult. Yet, if the parents make immoderate demands of the child, by over-emphasizing toilet training, it might lead to the development of a compulsive personality, a person too concerned with neatness and order. If the child obeys the Id, and the parents yield, he or she might develop a self-indulgent personality characterized by personal slovenliness and environmental disorder. If the parents respond to that, the child must comply, but might develop a weak sense of Self, because it was the parents’ will, and not the child’s ego, who controlled the toilet training. - Taken from Wikipedia

Who knew potty training would have such lasting effects on how Adam turns out.

Adam was quite proud of his poo drawing. Adam is also very possessive of his pee that he puts in the potty. If he uses his small potty he has to pour it in the toilet himself (I wanted to do the same as a child.) Sometimes he gets very upset if you dump it out against his will or without letting him help.

After today I am hoping that this stage goes by quickly. It is a little gross, I have no idea what he touched or not. It almost qualifies the purchase of a black light but what I find might terrify me.  There was also a lingering smell in his room for a few hours after which led me to believe he hid some poop somewhere. The amount of  laundry in combination with this and potty training has been crazy.

I hope today there is no poop paintings. I’ll take paint, marker, crayon or chalk on the walls. If he pees on my hardwood or even on my carpet I can handle that.

This poop thing, not so much.