NOW is when the word "poo", the sight and smell of it...is not taboo!

Cerise not wanting to poo in the toilet is becoming a major concern now because she's starting primary in 7 months. Of coure the rule is - She's not in unless she can get "it" out...onto the toilet.

It's not that she can't. She just won't. Mind you, she doesn't wet her pants nor her bed at all (Thank God!). She has been doing wees in the toilet on her own since she was probably 18 months old. If she has to go wees in the middle of the night, she'd wake up and go. But why she wouldn't poo in the toilet and how we'll manage to make her do that are the two questions that need answers pronto.

And yes, we have asked her.... she went from "I don't want to" ...to..."I'm scared of the flush" ...to... "I'm shy". I-don't-want-to-do-it and scared-of-the-flush excuses were easy to handle and we have successfully addressed them. But now....she's shy????!!! What's up with that?! I've reached the point of frustration.

I don't remember how I learned to do it when I was little but surely, it couldn't be that difficult, right? Cerise and I have had plenty of converstations about this ---- ranging from quiet heart-to-heart talks, to bribery, to volatile confrontations. And same with dad but on a more serious, no-nonsense negotiations and with the exclusion of bribery. Plenty of kiss-and-make-up in between of course. Seven more months of this and maybe we'll get there.

Well, in times like this, a mum would have to look at the bright side of things. For one, a milestone.... we finally discovered an effective cream for Cerise's eczema. No, it's not one of those breakthroughs from Germany or the US. It's simply a mixture of vaseline and dermovate courtesy of .... tadadada!....Mercury Drugs! Quite pricy but I don't care. I must have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars already buying every potion, cream, lotion, shampoo and body wash I can get my hands on (and stocks of them) - whether I'm here in New Zealand or Australia or even America. Anything that promises relief and cure for eczema, I buy it without question. But what do you know? Only a simple concoction from my homeland will do the job. Iba talaga ang pawis ng pinoy! I don't even know what it's called. I just know the mixture. I'm waiting for my next stock to come in when my friend visiting the Philippines comes back. I will forever be indebted to Rommel, a friend, for recommending it and giving me a sample to try for free. Apparently he's used this cream from when he was little. Cerise's eczema was the bane of our life... until this. So yes, I'm counting our blessings.