Self Sufficiency

We’ve definately hit that toddler stage where they want to do everything for themselves.

Jessie insists on putting on her own jacket. Oh, how cute, you’re thinking. Yeah. Sure.  She puts it on backwards. Then upside-down. Then her hand goes into the hood instead of the sleeve.  She spends 10 minutes turning herself into a pretzle to get it on.  Finally she holds it out and looks up and says, “Holp.”

Although, yesterday at daycare Big Girl Jessie got her first arm into the sleeve.  Yahoo!!  Success!!  Of course, when I tried to help her get the second arm in, she’d have none of that.  But at the same time, she couldn’t figure out where the rest of her jacket was. She had one arm in and the rest was hanging behind her and she had no clue where to find it or how to get a second arm into it.  She was pretty proud of herself for getting one arm in though.

Sam was a real piece of work Tuesday night. It was bath night.  She was the first one out and I got her dried off while Matt rinsed Jessie and got her out.  Her pajamas and the diapers were downstairs, so I carted her little nakey self down to the living room (bathtub is upstairs).  I should just mention we don’t have curtains in our living room.  It’s probably a good thing the neighbors moved out over the last weekend and the new ones from California still haven’t arrived.

As I was assembing Sam’s jammies and diaper and put her on the floor to get her into them, she grabbed the diaper.  They’ll do that occasionally and play with them, wrapping them around their necks like stoles.  This time was different. It was clear she was going to attempt to diaper herself.  I sat back and watched. 

First she took the diaper and opened it up. For those of you whose last experience was with cloth diapers or those old plastic disposables, it’s a whole new world out there.  The new disposables are thin little things, folded very flat.  They have lovely gathers near the legs. The front and back velcro-esque tabs are nicely folded into the diaper.  She didn’t pull the tabs out, she just unfolded the main portion of it. Then she set it on the floor. Then she adjusted it a smidge.  And another little adjustment.  Then she patted down a corner (I’ve mentioned she’s obsessive, haven’t I?).  Then she picked it up and moved it over two inches. Then she adjusted it again.  And then she tried to lie down on it.  What happened was that she lay down next to it.  She looked over to her right and got a funny, frustrated look on her little face.  Sigh.  And she got back up.  Picked up the diaper.  Adjusted it. Moved it, patted it.  Lay down.  Next to it.  Got back up.  Took a good look at the diaper.  Pulled out the tabs.  Stretched it out a little. Set it down.  Got annoyed that it wouldn’t lie completely flat (remember those gathers at the leg?).  You could tell she was sure that was the source of her trouble. She’d set the diaper down and by then it was trying to re-fold itself, so the back would lay flat, but the front would come up in the air. Then the front would be flat on the ground, but the back would stick up.

Finally I asked her if she wanted Mommy to help.  She stuck her little hand out in my direction and said, “nnnnnnnnoooooooo!” (She has a very long, nasal no)  I asked her if she was sure, I could just hold the diaper while she got on it.  She stuck one finger up in my direction and said, “nooooooooooooooooooooooooo!”

Back to putting the diaper on the floor. Adjusting. Adjusting again. Laying down next to it.  Getting up. Straightening the diaper. Finally turning the diaper over so that the outside was facing up instead of the inside. Straighten that out. Again.  Just a little bit more to the side. Etc., etc., etc.

I let her do that for quite a while.  Matt was quite sure she’d pee on the floor before she got a diaper on.  I wasn’t too concerned about that.  It’s not like she’s a rodent without a bladder, after all.

Finally, it had gone on so long that Sam was frustrated and over tired.  I offered to help and she just started saying no and screaming. She wasn’t about to admit defeat, but she was almost too tired to keep going. I picked her up and tried to put the diaper on her but she was screaming so hard and flopping about so much there wasn’t anything I could do. I finally had to pick her up and cart her over to the changing table and just slap the diaper on her as she sobbed.  She was just a puddle of sad humanity by the time I got to the pajamas.  I kept telling her how good she’d done trying to get it on, but she wasn’t buying it.  All she knew was that she’d had to give up.

But just think of how much fun it could be to get them to change their own diapers!