I considered this post carefully as I crafted it in my mind.  Would Rissa feel embarrassed if I share these stories with you?  I don’t want to shame her, I want to celebrate how amazing she is!  I’m incredibly proud of her and I think you will be too.  In that light, let’s discuss her recent penchant for diaper removal.

You are already aware that she loves clothing — taking it off, putting it on, choosing her outfits, etc.  And twice recently, she has pooped in her diaper and then immediately removed it and handed it to me because she is clearly done with it and I’m always so interested in dirty diapers, right?  My girl has impeccable logic!

Let’s talk about yesterday.  We went to the mall in the morning to do some shopping and get ourselves out of the house.  It has been super cold and we have been sick and I have pink eye so we’ve been in this house for way too many consecutive days (Super Mommy Jaime photo taken on Sunday while Matt was sick).  They have a pet store in the mall so we went straight for the puppies.

We ate lunch at the food court and while Zach and Rissa were interested in their lunch, I knew they didn’t get enough to eat so I hoped to give them some more when we got home.  I drove us home with plenty of time to spare and yet they both fell asleep in their carseats.  I carried them upstairs to their cribs and put them down for a nap.

We have encountered this problem before… when they get a 10-20 minute nap in the car and accidentally wake up in transit to their bed, they think they are fully rested and ready to go for the rest of the day!  So both of them stirred in their cribs within half an hour of going down for a nap and they were NOT going to fall asleep.  I decided they were hungry and that we should finish lunch and then try again for an afternoon nap.  I went up to their room to get them and…

There is my Riss-Riss standing in her crib with a stark naked little butt.  Upon seeing me, she babbled something along the lines of, “Oh, perfect timing, Mommy, I was just finishing.”  She then hands me her poopy diaper that she just filled and asks for her pants (thrown on the floor) by pointing to them and gesturing that she needed them.  I clean her up and get a diaper and some clean clothes on her and realize that much of her bed has poop smeared on it, including her special blanket that she canNOT sleep without.  Putting them back down for a nap after they eat is going to be tricky without this blanket but I resigned to doing my best.

I started some laundry and fed them some food.  They WERE hungry and I was so glad to help them finish their lunch!  I moved Rissa’s blanket to the dryer and carried them back upstairs, cleaning out her crib and putting fresh sheets in it.  They went back down for a nap and I hoped and prayed they would sleep.  But Rissa didn’t have her blankie and she MUST have her blankie.  She gazed longingly at Zach’s special blankie so my hopes that she would forget about hers were dashed.

They couldn’t sleep because Rissa didn’t have her blankie and was keeping both of them awake talking about it.  The dryer finally finished, and I carried her blankie up to her.  And once again, there was my butt naked little Riss-Riss who immediately pointed to her diaper and pants which she had flung on the floor.  And her crib was soaked because she had just peed, so now her other blankies were ruined too.  I re-diapered and dressed her and put her in Zach’s crib while I changed her sheets AGAIN.  Then I got her back in bed, handed each of them their special blankie and begged them to sleep, though I knew this was not going well.

They tried but at this point, they were too exhausted to even shut down and sleep and it was devastating.  I went up to get them because it was 4:30pm at this point and they still hadn’t napped, so there was no point.  And what do I find?  You guessed it… naked Rissa and her clean diaper on the floor.  But her bed was clean!  I sighed with relief, got her diaper back on her and her pants and set her on the floor so I could get Zach out of his crib.  I turn around to set him down and here is my daughter with her tiny thumbs tucked into her waistband, shimmying out of her pants and diaper in one fell swoop, kicking them off, then streaking around wild and free.  At this point, I’m thinking we either resort to duct tape, suspenders, or just start the potty training, because she is clearly ready!  And she’s right… why would you sit in a dirty diaper when you could take it off and feel much better?  We talked about how if she needs to go potty, she can say “potty!” to Mommy and we’ll go sit her on the nice potty and she won’t have to dirty her diaper.  She listened very carefully and barely blinked as I spoke… I swear she understood me and was filing away that information for later!

I got her back in her clothes and then Zach-a-bean just cracked because he cannot handle being overtired.  Who can???  He was devastated to be awake and could not hold still long enough to fall asleep and it was awful.  He never cries and he cried for an hour STRAIGHT as I tried to help him fall asleep but he just couldn’t.  The  poor little man usually takes a 2.5 hour nap and he didn’t get anything.  Meanwhile, Rissa was in the playroom and Hooch was in his kennel in the playroom when I left to calm Zach in a dark, quiet room elsewhere.  When we returned, Hooch was out and running around the playroom, Rissa was missing her pants though mercifully still wearing her diaper, and I found her pants in Hooch’s cage.

They went to bed early and I think we’re going to be okay.  Except that I can’t keep a diaper on my daughter.  🙂