Hide And Seek Should Never Be This High Stakes

Micah is independent from the moment he gets up in the morning. He goes downstairs, puts in a movie, goes to the restroom, plays, and generally does everything except fix himself breakfast. Of course, there was that one time that he did fix himself a bowl of cereal. The milk was right up to the lip of the bowl, but there were only a few drops of milk on the floor. That day made me grateful for the other days that he brings a gallon jug of milk to find me, whether I'm in the sewing room or the shower or still in bed. (Perspective is a good thing.)

Besides fix himself a snack, the one other thing that Micah doesn't do is wipe himself. It's a phase every kid goes through when potty training. He tries every now and then to get the job done, but either he forgoes the toilet paper altogether, or he doesn't use nearly enough. Either way, the result is messy and requires twice the clean-up effort than it should. Mostly, when he needs cleaned up, he comes to find me. Just like when he needs a snack. Sometimes this results in droppings here and there between the bathroom and wherever I am. I am chalking this up to his lack of speech, and am now frustrated all over again by that hand of fate that he was dealt. I never thought I would miss that yell I NEED WIPED from a restroom.

So knowing all this, you'll know why I was a bit frantic the other week when Micah came upstairs with his lower half bare, and in need of a wipe. It was a doozie of a mess, and I wiped as well as I could before just putting him into the tub. In the meantime I put the kids in charge of finding his mess (sometimes it's not in the toilet) and his diaper. (This was first thing in the morning, back when he was still wearing an overnight diaper. And now, thanks to your encouragement, he doesn't wear one. NO MORE DIAPERS IN THIS HOUSE, EVER. Happy dancing here, all up and down the street.)

The diaper was not found. Not by the kids, and not by myself. Not in the trash, not on the bathroom floor, not anywhere at all. There was a day that I would have stressed over this until I found that diaper, but nowadays there is just too much work that needs done in this house to worry about a diaper that will eventually surface with or without my effort in looking. I went on with my day and barely gave it another thought.

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Today Micah came up from the basement with his lower half bare, and headed for the wipies box. I took care of his needs, then made him go back to the basement to get his clothes (and find a mess). I believe in teaching responsibility, and cleaning up after yourself is big.

Micah led me down the steps and over to the workshop side of the basement. There, in front of the door that leads outside, were his shorts and underwear. He walked by them and opened the door. He grinned proudly as he pointed to his accomplishment, laying there on the concrete just outside the door. And beside it was a diaper. The missing diaper.

Huh. Nobody ever thought to look there. Obviously.

So here is the part where I feel completely justified in yelling at all the boys in the family for using the great outdoors to relieve themselves. Not a one of them see anything wrong with sprinkling in the grass despite my protests otherwise. How does one tell a kid like Micah that it's acceptable to do one half of your business outside, but certainly not acceptable to take car of the other half there? My solution is to use one of the 3 toilets we have in the house All.The.Time.

Maybe I'll make the boys clean up Micah's mess next time as an object lesson in why we use the modern facilities that we have.