Clearly, not instinctive

I bought a miniature toilet about two weeks ago. I say that because this is no "potty" - it is a battery operated, bells and whistles, flush arm with sound effects, sticker dispensing seven part mini toilet. It has an actual low voltage circuit built into the base of the toilet to determine if a liquid-like substance has entered the bowl.

Of course, I bought it because it was on clearance for $12. Right now I have no intention of ever loading the batteries or stickers into the appropriate spots. But if I get to a certain level, a point that I hope I will never get to that involves desperation and a stubborn kid that won't pee into his mini toilet, I know will load 'em under those circumstances.

Rest assured we are not starting to toilet train our child in earnest. Really, I'm just trying to get him to accept it as part of the bathroom landscape. But I noticed (shortly before buying the mini toilet) that Cooper nearly always pees onto the bath rug as part of his geting-ready-for-bath routine. This increased my laundry loads significantly, so I thought to myself- what if I got a mini toilet, and just held it in front of him so that instead of peeing on our bath rug, he peed in the toilet? That'd be smart, right?

And it works. In fact, it works great. He's peed in the mini toilet once a night for several nights now, right before his bath. The rug has been sprinkled, sure, but we are working towards a nice pattern of peeing in the mini toilet before bathtime as part of the routine.

Here's the problem- Cooper is REALLY REALLY curious about his pee. When he used to pee onto the rug, I didn't stop him from once touching the pee puddle on the rug to see what it was like (which he promptly declared "Hot!" and that made me giggle) and I also didn't stop him the time he decided he wanted to step in his pee. Step, step, step, step. Puzzled look. And that was the end of that. He never did either again. Mysteries of life solved, moving forward.

But back to the mini toilet. He pees into it mostly by accident as I position it strategically in front of him, and then he wants to learn more about the pee once it is in the toilet. But now we are in more challenging terrain. He sticks his hands in the toilet to touch the puddle of his pee, which elicits, "No Cooper, we don't touch that part of the toilet." He tries to get into the puddle, inside the toilet. Clearly not a good idea, "Toilets are not for standing in, Cooper." And then, tonight, he tried to drink it. Truly. "No Cooper, NO COOPER (whisking him abruptly up and away) that is not.. uh... safe."

What can you SAY when your curious kid does this?

So clearly, as indicated by the title of this short essay, the idea that pee should never ever be a evening nightcap is not instinctive. My hope is that he won't try this again. And if he does, well, at least I won't be nearly as surprised by it.