One of the best purchases we ever made as new parents was our Evenflo ExerSaucer. As you can see on the website, it’s a playcenter that you put the baby into and he’s surrounded by a myriad of different toys. He’s loved it from the very first moment we put him in it (after an evening of assembly, of course!!), and since that first night he’s spent lots of time playing with it. That time allows us to clean, or cook dinner, or get in a few minutes of reading or tv.

Part of the fun has been watching him learn how to use each toy in different ways. It took him a while to figure out how to make certain noises or actions happen, but with each discovery has come the joy of learning, and his obvious satisfaction and pleasure.

However, we’ve noticed a trend in the past few weeks. Since he’s crawling around like crazy he doesn’t spend much time in the ExerSaucer anymore. But whenever he does, he almost always poops. My wife and I have taken to calling it the Enema Machine.

One of my favorite bloggers, Poop and Boogies, has written about this phenomenon as well, except his son does the same thing everytime he’s in a bookstore. I can’t come up with an explanation for it - he’s spent plenty of hours on it without pooping, so this is a new development. I set him in it, and within ten minutes that familiar aroma is filling the livingroom. Whoever notices it first alerts the other, we laugh, and then (of course) argue over who’s going to change it.

Up until this point this hasn’t dissuaded me from putting him in it to play, but I think I’m going to plan ahead from now on. At least to make sure it’s my wife’s turn to change the diaper.