My husband is (jokingly, I hope) writing a parenting series entitled "The Merciless Discipline Guide to Parenting." Book One is to be entitled "Duct Tape: The Only Parenting Tool You'll Ever Need"... well, I don't know that it's the only tool that we'll ever need with four little monsters ruling our roost, but we're certainly finding more uses for duct tape every day, that's for sure.
Ellie, for example, has taken to removing her pajamas after we've put her to bed. And hey, once you've removed your pajamas, well, you may as well remove your diaper, right? Ah, sweet freedom! Who wouldn't want such luxurious freedom? Most nights, we would find her like the picture below, diaper discarded with wild abandon:
If you look closely enough in this picture, you can see that Ellie not only took off her pajama bottoms and diaper, but she also peed all over her crib sheet and accoutrements. Poor baby; we had to wake her up and change her crib and her clothes and take her beloved bear away from her to be washed. She was sleepy, though, so she cooperated really well.
This happened a couple times before we broke out the duct tape to tape her diapers on during bed time.
Unfortunately, it didn't *quite* occur to us that naptime and bedtime are roughly equivalent in a toddler's mind. And yesterday I went into the nursery to rescue the kids from naptime. I walked in and Abby giggled and handed me a diaper. Huh? A diaper? Where did this come from? *Gasp* The girls were wearing little sundresses yesterday - easy access to their diapers. Drat. Clearly, Abby had learned to take her diaper off also! Ah well.
I pulled Abby out of her crib and went to put a new diaper on her when I realized... she hadn't just pulled her diaper off... she'd pooped in her bed! Gah! This was something Ellie hadn't managed yet. Le Sigh. I got a new diaper onto Abby and moved on to the next baby. Ellie grinned up at me and dropped a sopping wet diaper over the side of her crib. Thud. Thanks, Ellie. At least *she* contained all of her bodily functions to the diaper. Sam, bless him, was still fully clothed and diapered when I got to his crib. Whew.
When I called Seth (he was working) to tell him what I'd discovered at the end of naptime, he chuckled as he said:
The Duct Tape is in the Linen Closet!
Oh yeah, duct tape really works wonders.
Posted by: cat | May 26, 2009 at 08:01 AM
... and that's why Kali now wears onesies all the time. Flinging poo is only funny on Family Guy.
Posted by: Decemberbaby | May 26, 2009 at 09:58 AM
Oh I dread the day....
Posted by: Laura | May 26, 2009 at 04:48 PM
wow. we thankfully haven't had any of that yet.
Can they get a onesie un-snapped? If not - maybe you should go back to putting on things that snap at the crotch.
Posted by: Carol | May 26, 2009 at 06:21 PM
Hilarious. Well, maybe not for you, but I sure got a good laugh out of it!
Posted by: My Reality | May 26, 2009 at 06:45 PM
Funny photo... but not so funny when you're the one dealing with it.
Yikes. Do they make pink duct tape? ;-)
Posted by: hopefulmother | May 26, 2009 at 08:18 PM
Well, my brother used to do that -- and then paint on the wall with his poo!
Posted by: Elaine | May 26, 2009 at 10:12 PM
Oh my! I am going to buy duct tape right now!
Posted by: docgrumbles | May 26, 2009 at 11:49 PM
That's hilarious... well, in retrospect, right? They are so cute that they can get away with this stuff! :o) Duct tape, huh? Good idea!
Hope all is well with you all... been thinking about you. Looking forward to our get-together at the end of June!
Posted by: Beth | May 27, 2009 at 12:09 AM
Oh man. We laughed so hard at this and are thankful we can't feel your pain. Good luck with that and there is pink duct tape. No one would notice.
Posted by: kitty | May 27, 2009 at 12:53 AM
Are they being intentionally impish, or are they perhaps simply trying to avoid discomfort?
Posted by: nobody | May 27, 2009 at 06:36 AM
My page loaded, I saw the picture and I thought: oh NOOOOO. This is terribly funny... for me. For you: not so much.
You can totally fix anything with duct tape and dental floss. Must haves for any dire situation.
Posted by: Ms. C | May 27, 2009 at 11:12 AM
I can't help but laughing at this story but I know if that happened to me, I would so not be laughing.
Posted by: KLTTX | May 27, 2009 at 03:19 PM
We duct taped diapers all the time last summer (twins were just over a year and a half) and it was a good 3-4 months before they finally quit taking their diapers off. And now thankfully they're using the potty so that's their excuse to be stark naked now lol. Least they make it to the potty faster. But oh I can't tell you how many crib sheets I changed before I wised up to the duct tape trick :)
Posted by: Brianne | May 30, 2009 at 07:56 AM
We have the same problem with Nora. The kid likes to be naked as a jaybird. We had it solved by putting her into a zip-up Gro-bag, but now that it's too hot we're resorting to putting her pajamas on backwards. It's funny when they strip down, but not when it becomes a horror scene!
Posted by: Shannon | June 02, 2009 at 04:00 AM
Welcome to the take diaper off and poop club, i think its a parenting ritual . Hope the duct tape works well , putting on diapers backwards can do the trick sometimes to
Posted by: Laura McIntyre | June 03, 2009 at 01:14 PM
Oh, just came back ... cutie tush still here making me smile!
Hope all is well, Shabbat Shalom.
Posted by: Ms. C | June 05, 2009 at 10:09 AM
I have the exact same picture of Thomas! That is too funny. We had to put duct tape on the tab part.
Posted by: chris | June 09, 2009 at 10:38 PM
Yup, this is why I started dressing my toddler in a one-piece sleeper for naps & bedtime. Kind of a hassle to change her clothes for naptime, but totally worth it!! Although she has now figured out how to take off the sleeper, so we'll see how long it lasts....
Posted by: Diane | June 10, 2009 at 09:05 PM