Regular Life

There are times when I wish we had a video monitor in Ben’s room. We opted to go with a cheaper and less invasive audio-only system. Sunday would have made the difference in price worth it.

I went to get Ben after his afternoon “nap,” which that day consisted of one hour of babbling sporadically about and to his stuffed toys and everything else in the room. Each time he got quiet, I thought, Okay,now he’s asleep. It’s not unusual for Ben to talk before his nap, but it normally lasts only about 10 minutes before he’s off to sleepytown. Besides providing color commentary on everything his imagination conjured up, it seems he was up to something else, too.

When I walked into Ben’s room, I got the usual greeting — he jumps up and down, his hands holding the rail of his crib. “There’s Daddy!” he says. Yes, a bed is in his near future. We’ve decided to wait until the year-end holiday fervor dies down a bit.

Now, understand that recently we’ve been standing Ben up during dressing time and encouraging him to do as much of it as he can. So, while I was a bit shocked, I was not at all surprised.

There was my boy, as if nothing unusual was happening, with no shirt, one sock, and his sweatpants pulled down far enough in front that I could tell he was not wearing his diaper. He wasn’t revealing anything, though, kind of sporting a gangsta-rap look. I scanned the floor. There were his shirt, one sock, and his diaper.

I had heard the horror stories. Kid poops. Kid rips off diaper. The rest becomes family folklore.

I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that the diaper was empty.

I looked back at Ben. Still just that “glad to see you, now get me out of here” look on his face. His hands were clean, too. Whew

I put a hand on his back. “Are you cold, Ben?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“If you keep your shirt on, you won’t get cold.”

“Yes. Go play.”

“Do you understand?”

“Go play.”

After helping Ben get dressed, I gave myself time to laugh. Had the sock come off first, or the shirt? Don’t know. Exactly how were his pants up but his diaper gone? No clue. If we had a video monitor, would I have watched patiently for an hour while our boy toiled alone? Probably.

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