Our Funny Disaster

Thomas used to be able to strip himself down almost 5 minutes after I got him dressed. I would turn around, maybe pick up his dirty clothes, and throw a diaper away, whatever. And there he would be sitting there in nothing but his diaper looking incredibly proud of himself. I finally got to the point where I would just let him run around in nothing but his diaper all day every day, unless we had someplace to go. In which case he would be dressed from the time we left the house to the time we got back. This morning, I got him dressed because the weather is attempting to get stormy so the house and air is a little chilly. Since we no longer have our heaters plugged in that was my fix to keep him warm. We went outside and did the chores with the animals. Came back in and ate breakfast, he played for a little bit. He lay on the couch and watch an episode of Dora the Explorer (to my dismay), and then got back up to ride his trike around a little bit.

When I look back at him he is sitting on the floor, stripping his pants off. Then he stands up and attempts to take his shirt off. Holding one sleeve he pulls his arm out and then forces it threw his neck hole. Then works on the other one and pulls it out correctly. So now he has his shirt on him with the neck hole going from the top of one shoulder, around his neck and down under the other shoulder. That pour neck hole probably won’t ever fit the same. So I asked him what he was doing, and he just started giggling. He tries to force the shirt over the top of his head. He grabs the bottom and is pulling it up, the neck hole squeezing his face like crazy. He looked ridiculous with his eyebrows pulled up to his hair line, and his cheeks squeezing his eyes partially shut. He’s pulling and pulling, and getting more and more frustrated. So of course I ask if he would like some help. And he’s screaming at me “baby try. Baby try!” So I sit and watch him, and I start cracking up. Of course he starts giggling about it too, the whole time screaming ‘baby try’ at me.

Finally he gets fed up with it. He flops his arms down by his side. His lip hangs so low it’s in danger of touching the floor. All the sparkle has diminished from his eyes. So I again ask him if he would like some help. He just says “humph” and stops his foot at me. So I grab his shirt and push his arm back through the arm hole. And by this time he’s back to screaming at me. I’m sure he was thinking I was going to make him put the shirt back on. I push his arm through the hole, and pull the shirt over his head.

He looks at me like I’m the reason he couldn’t get his shirt off. Grabs his trike and turns it around, gets on and peddles away from me. I guess at some point of not wearing clothes, he forgot how to undress himself properly. I will have to keep that in mind. Once I teach him something, if I don’t keep it in our everyday lives, he could forget it, and we will have to re-learn it again. I will have to keep quizzing him on his alphabet and counting…but as for the learning to get undressed, I think that will wait.