When you go to the bathroom, aim for the toilet.

As always this has not been proof read.

My boys are about two and one-half years apart in age. If you have reared boys you can imagine the mess they made at 5 and 7 years old. In their minds, the idea of peeing directly into the toilet was a mere suggestion and was something you did when you weren’t in a hurry, which wasn’t very often.  As I listened to them in the bathroom I very rarely heard the familiar sound of a boy tinkling into the toilet without first hearing the sound of urine hitting the bathtub, wall, floor, toilet seat, and finishing with a last little blast that actually makes the water on water sound.

Frustrated with the boy’s inability to aim while tinkling, my wife and discussed a possible solution. After many different ideas we came with this: I placed a small bowl of Cheerios on the tank lid of the toilet. I instructed each Boy to drop one Cheerio into the toilet prior to doing their business. Once the Cheerio is in the toilet they must try and destroy it while tinkling.  Good idea, and it worked for a while.

I noticed that the Cheerio bowl was getting emptied in a short amount of time. I filled the bowl and placed on the back of the toilet. Shortly after that I observed Stephen heading into the bathroom. I heard the toilet lid close and then complete silence. Curious to see what he was doing I crept to the door and opened it quickly. Stephen was sitting on the toilet lid, looking at one of his books while enjoying a fresh bowl of Cheerios.