Ah. The little devil above is now growing a tail to match the horns he sprouted a few months ago. Seriously. He is simultaneously easier and more difficult than Gracie was at that age. I hate to succumb to and embrace cliches but the old adages about boys do seem true, at least in my house. Whit is physical, full of energy, and unmoved by authority. He is more interested in jumping and hitting and climbing than was Gracie at his age, and less interested in playing by the rules. Don’t get me wrong: Grace can be very naughty. But discipline is almost too effective with her, sending her into spasms of self loathing and noisy bawling. Whit simply doesn’t care. To him a timeout is an opportunity to torture us by screaming at the top of his lungs for 3 minutes.
His latest trick has been to take his diaper off in the middle of the night, pee his bed, and wake me up hollering about it. Now, the little man has been potty trained for about 2 months, but if he follows in his sister’s footsteps (and one has to assume their bladders are made from similar genetic material) he won’t be dry at night for another 2 years. I believe this just his latest ploy for attention and “wocking” (rocking in the rocking chair, mostly a joy because it’s a way to get Out Of The Crib in the middle of the night).
Oh ye of too much faith. No, he is not trying to demonstrate that he’s ready to be dry at night. Do the soaking wet sheets and stuffed animals not bear this out? He’s trying to get some attention in the middle of the night when, as far as I can tell, he wakes up and is bored. The same routine went on for several nights. I thought of just leaving him, but he is soaking wet, the only (small, flimsy) blanket he’ll accept in his crib with him is soaking wet, and our house is heated to a yankee 65 degrees. I worry he will freeze to death. Or, worse, keep me up all night yelling about being cold.
So my attention turned to how to keep him in his diaper. First I tried threats: if you take this off again, no TV tomorrow before bed. Did not work. No TV? Fine. I can play with my trucks. Then I tried a sleepsack, zipped up backwards as I learned long ago from Christina. Somehow he houdinied his way out of that. I considered duct tape but thought that unless I actually adhered the diaper TO his body he would probably find a way to slip it off. And the duct-tape-on-skin idea, while perhaps a last resort, did seem a little hard core.
Aha! A brain wave. I took an old pair of fleece footie pajamas, size 2T. They are skin tight. I cut the feet off of them. I then put them on backwards and zipped them snugly up the back. Not the most flattering look, but it seems to be working. And he’s slept in them for 6 consecutive nights now. They could probably walk downstairs on their own and wake me up if they wanted to.
Anyway. The latest adventure in trying to sleep with two small children.