Curiosity Killed Kate

For the second time this week, and third time in recent memory, Lily decided that fishing around in her poop diaper would be interesting. You may remember the recent disaster with the poop smeared all over the bed, her body, and even some on the wall from a few weeks back. I thought I had learned my lesson: don't stick her in her bed with just a diaper on. Early this week, she got her hands in her diaper despite having clothes on. Addendum to lesson learned: don't put Lily in her bed without a onesie on, which will make diaper diving noticeably more difficult. I was sure I had beaten her at her game.

Nope. Tonight our usual bedtime routine was in effect despite Kyle's absence (he worked late again) - Lily in her bed (with a onesie on) drinking one last bit of milk, Molly in the master bedroom drinking her milk, and Claire and I wandering around cleaning up. I got Molly changed and went to get Lily changed, and found her crouched on the bed, in a squatting position, with her hand snaking into the diaper, bypassing the onesie I thought would keep us safe from a bio hazard accident. The room was wretched smelling and I instantly knew what she had done. I went ballistic, knowing the effort ahead of me to fix the mess her curiosity had created. I can't even count the number of times I yelled "no hands in poop!" at the poor kid, and all the while, I realized not only was she not understanding what she had done wrong, but she was not going to stop doing this to me.

So my last resort is now making a rule that she cannot be in her bed alone without footie PJs, the diaper safely zipped up inside away from wandering, curious hands. My issue with this solution is that it's a lot of extra effort to dress and re-dress her all day long just to ensure we don't have another poop disaster ... yet I guess that is still less effort than bathing a baby and washing sheets. Tonight I was so exhausted and frustrated I didn't even wash the sheets. I just Lysol'ed (it's a verb, don't you know?) the sheets and bed and left it at that, but I did give her a bath and made it a very, very unpleasant experience hoping that might deter her from diaper curiosity.

Urgh. My saving grace for the day is that Claire spent all afternoon at Lauren's house (her best friend from preschool), so I had an afternoon of peace while the twins napped and I could actually get some work done. And because I wasn't juggling an unusually demanding Friday afternoon of work and the chatterbox Claire, I had slightly more patience for my solo flying this evening and that might be the only reason Lily is still alive at the moment. I've had a lot of solo flying the past few weeks with Kyle's late nights, and it's definitely wearing on my mood and patience with the kids. So thank God for the playdate today.

Oh, and after the playdate, I did do a quick clinic run to have the doctor check Claire's eczema (I barely even register the inconvenience of doctor visits anymore as I've done so many of them now). Claire hasn't slept through the night for two nights now, and it's killing me, and I assume it's related to feeling itchy, so I wanted some official advice (and yes, my diagnosis was correct). So tonight I used hydrocortisone cream and if my Benadryl hadn't already expired I would have given her a dose of that too. I have a script for a mild steroid cream if I feel we need it in a few more days. I pray she sleeps through the night so Kyle and I both can actually get a decent night's sleep.

Normally I'd be overjoyed it's Friday and I have a weekend ahead of me, but Kyle will be working all weekend and I'll be 100% on kid duty so I know I won't get the break I need to recharge for the workweek ahead. Sigh. I will take Claire to tap/ballet class and Science class, but that will be the extent of my excitement for the weekend. We also have two cold (low 30s) days ahead of us, so that will likely keep us cooped up all weekend. I am so ready for Spring.