Must be a boy thing

I am the oldest of four girls. My parents both come from very conservative families. My dad recently had surgery and I heard him tell a nurse, "In my family, body parts were referred to by their scientific names, and they were never referred to." So, as you can imagine, having boys has introduced me to a strange and unfamiliar world. Tanner, my stepson, has been in my life for about 8 years now. That's where I was introduced to how boys do things. Believe me, it took me a long time to get used to all of the wrestling, and climbing, and jumping off of everything. And laughing at body humor that I never imagined people could think of as funny. I think I've mellowed out a little, and while I am most certainly the one giving disapproving looks to the boys (hubby included) at dinner for all sorts of inappropriate behavior, I can laugh at a lot more than I used to.

Tanner is 11 now, so his potty humor has matured somewhat, and he's smart enough to censor himself for my benefit, I'm sure. But suddenly I have this little 2-year-old who fits right into the boys club. With no lessons, no initiation, he just understands what is supposed to be funny. Here's an example. I was teasing the kids in the car the other day, trying to keep them awake because it was too close to dinner for a nap, and I shouted, "Boo!" at Carter. He started laughing hysterically immediately, and I was patting myself on the back for being such a fun mom, when he started repeating, "Poo! Poo!" That's what he thought I had said, and for the life of me I couldn't convince him otherwise, or get him to stop yelling that and laughing. So for the last two weeks, that has been his favorite word. He runs around saying it and laughing. Putting him on the naughty mat doesn't make him any less likely to start it up again as soon as he's off. He also loves to talk about "bottoms" and laughs at any body function that has a sound associated with it.

For any of you who doubt it, boys are born with this sense of humor. For the boys I've known, you can't take it out of them. Luckily, you can train them to tone it down a little, at least when you're around. I hope it doesn't take me too long. I have a feeling there's going to be a lot more "poo" talk around here than I'm really comfortable with.

*Update*
This made me laugh. Carter was running around saying poo again, over and over. I told him that if he said it again, he'd have to sit on the naughty mat. So he looked at me oh-so-innocently and said, "Sadie went poo outside." (Sadie's our dog.) He seemed to know that if he used the word in legitimate context, I just couldn't get mad at him. I swear, if you saw his face, you'd agree - he was trying to outsmart me. I couldn't help but laugh, then cut it off and put my serious face back on so I could resume trying to quell his potty mouth.