The simplest solutions...

... are often the best.

I bathe Declan and Tavish together every night (because it's more efficient), and they always sit in the same spots: Dex a little higher in the shallow end and Tav down in the deeper end by the drain.

Tavish regularly complains of a sore bum during and just after his bath, but never at any other time.  It is a conumdrum that has stymied me, but to which I have given very little thought outside of the bathing arena.  The solution presented itself one night last week, and he hasn't had a sore bum since. 

The conversation went something a little like this:

Tav: Daddy, my bum is sore."

Si: "Again, Tav?  Why is it always sore?"

Tav: "Don' know!"

He smiled after saying that, and wiggled his bum a little back and forth.

That's when the light bulb went off in my head.

Si: "Hey Tav, are you sitting on top of the drain plug, and rubbing your anus on the plug puller part?"

Tav: "Yeah!"

Si: "Well, if you stop doing that, you won't have a sore bum any more."

Tav: "Oh.  OK!"

Comments

[Moksha Gren]

"Doctor, my anus hurts when I do this."
"Then don't do that."

Half the challenge with fixing a toddler's problem is simply figuring out what the problem is. Or, to put it another way..."knowing is half the battle."

[Mark]

If he didn't already know what and "anus" was, then he obviously figured it out quickly in the context of the situation.

Nice work. You're a regular private dick.

[Dave]

I almost spit out my coffee reading the last sentence Simon! *ROTFL*

Nice catch on what was causing the problem!

[Terri]

OH MY GOD...that is funny!!!!!

[BOB]

Ok, and when I was teaching the Blogging class today and brought them all to here.....

at least everyone got a great laugh.

BOB

[Amy]

And I am often told that I give too much information. Our kids are going to hate you for these comments later.

[Kate]

Dude, your kids are going to KILL YOU when they discover Dad's blog entries at an older age!

Cute story, though. Your kids sound hilarious.