As a kid, I was always amazed by those escape artist type magicians. I couldn’t believe they could get all the stuff off, while underwater, while a hungry hungry hippo was coming towards them. (Hippos… one of the deadliest animals on earth. No seriously. This factoid brought to you by the letter P, and the number 1.)
I am no longer enamored by escape artists. Their twisty ways, their ability to shuck off chains, their double jointedness. Not cool at all.
The reason is this:
Recently the J-man started wearing 2 piece pajamas to bed, because we couldn’t in good conscience stuff him into the sleepers anymore. You will remember the Hulk. Now though, he has learned that it is VERY easy to take those pajamas off, especially the bottom part. From there, it’s a quick journey to taking off the diaper/pull-up, and throwing both onto the floor. This usually ends (heh, ends) badly – Mama and Daddy have to wash all the sheets, the pajamas, and the J-man because of the gallon of urine all over everything.
Yesterday after non-nap we had to change the sheets. This morning, J-man had managed to take off the pajamas sometime between the last time I checked on him last night, and before he woke this morning… so the pull-up and pajama pants were still completely dry, while the pajama top, sheets, last vestige of the bumper pad, mattress? soaked. I had two sets of sheets (we do sheet/mattress cover/sheet, although that will change since he can soak through all 3 at this point), a blanket that had been almost under the crib, but not enough that it was missed when he peed off the side, and pajamas. I washed them all, washed down the mattress and re-made the bed. I also gave the J-man a bath (completely confused him) which he was not happy about – so he peed on the floor of the bathroom while I was running the water!
When naptime came, I remembered those blanket sleepers we had – they are slightly bigger than the old lightweight sleepers, so we put him in one of those. Ha! Let’s see what you do now!
Here’s what he did: he somehow managed to un-tape the diaper on one side, then slide it completely down the other leg and wedge it into the foot of the sleeper. He did actually nap. He woke up in a puddle, with a soaking wet sleeper (except of course for the footie part where the dry diaper was!). David Copperfield has nothing on my kid.
2 sheet changes in one day is too many. Tonight, he’s stuffed into one of the old sleepers. We’ll see if it works.
Posts that hopefully are similar:
- I’m not wearing pants!
- Are You Smarter Than a Four-Year-Old?
- Not the Fine Motor Achievement We Had In Mind
- There would be naptime
- Climbing Out
- And sometimes it just goes all to crap…
- Not the Fine Motor Achievement We Had In Mind – UPDATED (with the most bizarre twist ever)
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I seem to remember my brother, when he was little, having 2-piece pajamas where the top and bottom could be snapped together. Would something like that work?
Oh, my son went through a phase like this where he would slip out of his diapers, so you’ve got big sympathy from me. Fortunately, it did eventually end — and before he was potty trained!
ummm…are you tired of this yet? Cut off the feet and put the sleeper on backwards. You can also use a baby-type safety pin to pin the top of the zipper to the sleeper itself. Lands End makes sleepers in really big sizes, in case he does not outgrow the fascination quickly.
oh, and if you turn the sleeper around and still have trouble, you can put a little duct-tape over the diaper tabs for naps and bedtime. He is grasping the tab through the fabric, and is obviously persistent. There’s no way in you-know-where I’d do that much laundry!!! Andy “finger-painted” a couple of times—if you haven’t had that yet, consider yourself among the lucky ones. Now go outsmart your 3yo!
Lori – I suggested duct-tape to Tim, but he’s been saying no. J-man doesn’t actually unzip his sleeper (I don’t think he has the fine motor skills necessary), and it’s not the feet of the sleeper that are the problem – it’s the torso length. But we will be looking into Land’s End to see if they have (non-fleece) sleepers in his size! Thanks!
Ah-ha! Glad to know we’re not the only one. About a month ago Sean started the same routine – whipping off his clothes in the middle of the night b/c he didn’t want to wet himself. He spent a few nights in overalls until we could go to the store & find onesies bigger than 2T. I recommend The Children’s Place for those. When the house is 80 degrees, sleepers are out for us! He’s had the same fascination during the day. I guess in a “normal,” verbal child one would read a book and start potty training. The autistic, non-verbal, developmentally-two-year-old hiding out in the body of our three and a half year old has broken the potty training model we used for our older child.
My primary issue with duct tape is that in the off chance he figures out how to get to it, maybe he won’t be able to get it off but I bet he’d find a way to get himself stuck to it. Given that would hurt and given that he’s skin allergic to half of everything, that could be a recipe for even more fun. Of course I tend toward the melodramatic, so who knows. I’d rather be melodramatic than step in a puddle of pee again and go through yet another case of A&D.
Kat – our Children’s Place here only has sleepers to 3T, and even that requires hitting them on the right day. He’s wearing 4Ts in big-boy pajamas. He’s looooong in the torso so he can wear 4T tops and between 2-3T pants (assuming you can cinch the waist because he’s a slim fellow). In sleepers, that pretty much averages out to 4T or else his butt won’t fit.
Yeah, we threw the potty training book out long ago. We’ll get there when we get there. We got a potty to keep out just so he’ll get used to seeing it, but it might as well be a planter for as much as he pays attention to it. We do things on our own schedule around here. Since we don’t have another child as a reference point, we don’t even know what the schedule is “supposed to be”.
He does like sitting on the air conditioning vent these days, which has also become one of his, um, places to take a natural break, which does wonders for blowing a foul, yet very chill, wind around the downstairs.
Lori – No finger painting yet. Thank God. Seeing him moon the monitor camera was quite enough for this week…
Woot for the Land’s End advice! We keep hearing the Carter’s outlet across town has 4T and up sleepers but we are skeptical and don’t want to use up that much gas and it be wrong. More research! Ack!
magicdrgn – I don’t think the snaps would slow him down much. He’s so determined. Knowing him, he’d probably gnaw through them if he had to.
Mary (MPJ) – May that day come quickly in our house!!
If you go to the Children’s Place & they don’t have what you want in the store, they should give you a card with a code for free shipping. It happened to me! Great customer service. The one I was in had onesies all the way up to 5T!
Ooh Ooh… I see the long sleeved bodysuits up to 4T. This could be a winner!
I’m determined to outsmart this kid—-I looked on jcpenney.com
They have several sleeper options in sizes 4T and 5T for 14.99.
Look under kids–toddler clothing—boys—sleepwear
These might be too warm for summer wear, but if you typically run the AC might be workable.