Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Boys will be boys


Max is bending over Ben in this photo to tell him one important thing: "Good job!" That's because Ben let out a burp likely heard in Kathmandu, and Max thought it was rather stellar. He even tried to give him a high five, so impressed was he.

If you don't have a child with disability in your life, I'm here to once again fill you in on just how much like other kids they can be—in this case, the burp, fart and poop obsessions. Max is very amused by Ben's output, as is Dave. Yes, the menfolk in my life are all members of the Bodily Functions Celebrations Club, in which no burp goes unnoticed and no toot unmentioned. As you can imagine, this makes for one seriously elevated level of conversation around our home. 

When Dave is changing Ben's diaper, Max will find me to report on the size of the poop. "It's big!" he'll say, delightedly, throwing up his arms. "It stinks!" He regularly asks if, when he was a baby, he made big doodies because he knows the answer is a big "Yes!" He giggles when Ben belches. When Ben passes wind, Max says "Ewwww!" with a huge grin on his face. Sometimes I'm similarly surprised by the decibel of sound emanating from one little guy but there comes a point where you just don't want to talk about it again and again...unless you're Max and Dave.

Happily for me, Max enjoys blotting Ben's spit-up (not as copious as it once was but still regularly dribbling out of him). Just when I'm drowning in exasperation about having to change Ben's outfit once again and clean spit up off the couch/floor/rug, there's Max leaning over to dab Ben's face with a burp cloth and saying, "There you go!"

Meanwhile, we're still working on the whole "Excuse me" thing (with Max, that is). Because when he belches or farts and I prompt him "Max, what do you say?" he responds "Thank you!" then cracks up. He knows full well what's right, but he just wants to be a wise guy. Because boys will be boys, disability or not.

9 comments:

  1. I'm laughing really hard because my brother did the same thing!

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  2. I don't think boys (irrespective of their abilities) have to be necessarily encouraged to indulge in bad-taste jokes and behaviors. It is not likely to help them socially, and it is, frankly, gross. Also, given the stereotypes surrounding the incapacity of disabled people to control their utterances and bodily functions, it seems wise to me to teach a child with a disability to control his enthusiasm and to try and re-direct it towards more acceptable subjects of conversation.

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    1. I have a not so typical child like Max and forgive me for speaking for others, but I think the post was about seeing so called normal behavior is refreshing. I think your comment is a little too serious...

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  3. So true, and the degree of hilarity they find in all of this is amazing.

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  4. I enjoyed reading your post and can not believe people have issue with it. Really? Boys do love all things gross! I would love to send you and your son a set of my ABC Cards to check out. I think you all would get a lot of joy out of them. If you are interested please contact me at susan@he-is-all-boy.com I would love to chat more.

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  5. Boy do I know, H loves to inform everyone...especially dad on every "guy noise" he makes :)

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  6. Poor Anonymous needs to get a sense of humor....

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Thanks for sharing!