Star of the Day Brings In Potty Humor

Hadley came home last week from preschool and told me that she gets to be "Star of the Day" on Tuesday.  Sure enough, in her school bag was a cute tote with the words "Star of the Day" in glittery bubble paint.  Attached to the tote was a note that said the Star of the Day gets to bring a book to school that s/he would like to share.

If I had to guess which book Hadley would want to share, I would've said a Frances book, or Fancy Nancy, or maybe Franklin.  She also loves the alphabet, so maybe she would've thought Chicka Chicka Boom! Boom! or The Sleepy Little Alphabet would've been good to share with her classmates.  Hadley didn't choose these, though.  The book Hadley wanted to share with her classmates was Potty Animals. 

Hadley told me on Thursday this was the book she wanted to share, but over the weekend, and most of Monday I tried to talk with her about the other great books she owns that maybe she'd like to bring instead.  Nope.  Potty Animals was the book she was going to take. 

I'm a huge fan of Potty Animals.  I bought the book specifically after Hadley was potty trained because I realized that while she had the "going to the bathroom" thing down, the other rules of etiquette were lacking.  Instead of me throwing a fit because she doesn't see why playing "fishing pole" with toilet paper half in/half out of the toilet is totally disgusting, I figured having her read about animals who have the same habits might be more effective.  And it worked!  These animals did the same things Hadley did, and they (and Hadley) learned that their habits were not appropriate, in a way that doesn't make me half gag - half scream, "You did WHAT in there?!?!"

So it's a great book, but I was just nervous that the teacher might think it's not appropriate.  But it didn't matter because Hadley was bringing this book to school.

On Monday morning Hadley woke up before her sister and she and I sat on the playroom floor and read books for awhile.  After a few books, Hadley decided that we should put them in piles of "funny" and "not funny."

So that's what we did.

Olivia is funny.  Painting on the walls?  Funny!  Trying on every piece of clothing before deciding on an outfit?  Funny!  Green Eggs and Ham is funny too. Who wouldn't chuckle when being presented with eggs and ham that are green?  Great stuff.  Potty Animals is at the bottom of the funny pile.  On the other side you will see Franklin Goes to the Hospital.  Definetely not funny.  Fancy Nancy Bonjour Butterfly was also in the not funny pile because Nancy couldn't go to Bree's birthday party and instead had to go to her grandparents 50th anniversary party.

We had a dilemma with The Sleep Little Alphabet.  Hadley didn't think the book was that funny except for this part:

What's not hilarious about taking off one's underpants and throwing it in the air?  I tried to tell Hadley that because of this page alone, the book should be in the funny pile.  But it didn't make the cut.  It was sent to the "not funny" pile.

As we read the books, and sorted them, I realized that Hadley wanted to bring in a story that is funny.  It wasn't that she didn't like the "not funny" stories.  In fact, when we got to Frances, a decidedly "not funny" (although I beg to differ) book, Hadley said, "Ooooooo, Frances!  I better stand up for this one!"  Apparently Frances deserves the utmost respect while reading her stories.  But Hadley wanted to bring in a story that would make other people laugh.  When I pick her up from school, the first thing Hadley does is tell me who she made laugh that day.  So Potty Animals was brought with the intention of making people laugh.

I wrote a note to the teacher and taped it to the book with a mild apology.  I said I hoped it wouldn't cause too many problems, but that Hadley was quite excited to share this book with her classmates.  When I picked her up from school Hadley's teacher looked at me and said, "Great book!"  I said, "Really?"  She said, "Yea!  We need to be reminded of washing hands and things like that."  Washing hands, fine.  It was the "things like that" I was nervous about.

Driving away, Hadley said that a little friend of hers, didn't laugh at Potty Animals.  I said, "Well, you didn't laugh the first time we read it together either.  Sometimes you have to read things a few times to understand why they're funny.  Not everyone can appreciate the humor in someone tinkling on his or her shoes."