The Duct Tape Diaries

When Carson was about 15 months old I started to have a major problem with her. Whenever she was in her bed at night or for a nap she would take all of her clothes off including her diaper. Later I would find her naked, asleep, and usually laying on wet sheets. I thought it might just be a short phase that would become boring in a day or two. I was wrong.

This went on for a week before I consulted my mommy network for ideas. I received lots of practical advice:

"Put her in footed, zip-up pajamas." She figured that out after the first night.

"Put her diaper on backwards." I really thought that might work, but I was up against a will power equal to the force of gravity. This technique didn't even make it through one nap time.

Then one day while taping up a box with duct tape, I had a revelation. Duct tape fixes everything, right? So the next time I put her in bed I wrapped a strip of duct tape around the top of her diaper. Voila! A solution that finally worked. So, for the next 5 or 6 months that was the routine twice a day.

So yesterday I put Memphis down for a nap, occupied Cody and Carson, and went to lay down myself for a little while. When Memphis woke up and started to make noise, Carson came in and asked me if she could go play with him. They both seem to enjoy this even though Memphis has to "play" from the crib, so I said yes and put my head back on the pillow.

A little while later Memphis started screaming and I got up to see what all the commotion was about. I walked in the room to find that Carson was also in the crib with Memphis. I have no idea how she got in there, but that's an exploration for another story. The more remarkable detail here is that Memphis was completely naked.

Given her history of nudism (not even sure that's a word) I immediately blamed Carson. I kept asking her why she had done it and I kept getting answers like, "because I love him," or "because I wanted him to come to my tea party." Oh yeah. Naked tea parties. Those are the best.

To bring this long story to a close, I put Memphis down for a nap today and when I went to get him I found him naked, asleep, and laying on wet sheets. All by himself. Looks like the days of duct taped diapers have returned.