You Don't Want to Know What Happens When Our House Gets Dirty
I’ve written before that Abbie has to wear her pajamas to sleep, including naptime. If you need a recap, Abbie has to wear her pajamas to sleep, including naptime.
I’m happy to change her before naps. What’s one more chore as long as her diaper is already being changed, Ian is playing in the toilet, Tory is chewing on an electrical cord, and the dog is threatening to break the living room window barking at malicious wildlife in our backyard?*
The problem is this doubles the usage for her pajamas. I’m not concerned about the extra wear and tear it puts on her pajamas since they should still be strong enough to last the year it takes for her to grow from (X)T to (X+1)T.** My concern is double the usage means double the opportunity for her pajamas to be peed upon while halving my available opportunities to wash them.
Such was the situation yesterday morning, when Abbie woke up with a large wet spot on her pajamas. Her diaper spilled over last night like an awards ceremony spills over its time slot. Abbie only has two pairs of cold-weather pajamas, and pair #1 was already in the laundry room waiting to be washed. Fast action was needed if she was to nap that afternoon. I immediately pretreated the pajamas to prevent visual and odor stains, and set the kids down to breakfast while I threw the pajamas in the washing machine along with the other freshly-sorted clothes that matched their color, temperature, and cycle type.
Just kidding. I threw the pajamas on the floor, set the kids down to breakfast before their screaming drove me insane, and said a prayer that I would get to her pajamas before the dog did.
A couple hours later, the boys went down for their afternoon nap, Abbie sat down in front of the television with a DVD from Sesame Street so it has to have some educational value, and I had a solid 45 minutes of personal time to enjoy spending on laundry. I sorted the backlog of laundry into piles of lights, darks, and peed upons. A couple more dirty pieces were hiding in the boys’ room while they napped, so I waited until after I could fetch them before starting a load of laundry. While in the laundry room, I found pajama pair #1 so it could air out and lose some of its crustiness before her nap just in case I couldn’t/forgot to wash her pajamas before naptime.
When the boys woke, we ate lunch, and then Ellie surprised me by having the rest of the day off. With a winter storm coming, this was my chance to run some errands with adult help before the roads became an icy automobile playground. We ran around the house, finding shoes and coats, getting everyone ready to leave so we could return for naptime. Along the way I picked up pajama pair #1, heaved back to toss them into the kids’ room, and olfactorally remembered why they were in the laundry room in the first place. They had been peed upon.
I didn’t have time to wash and dry a load before naptime. I didn’t want to put a dirty, stinky pair of pajamas back on her. I didn’t want to fight with her to sleep without a beloved pair of two-piece pajamas. So I did the only thing any rational parent would do: I bought her a new pair of pajamas while we were out. Actually, it was a two-pack, so diapers can leak on three pairs of pajamas before I need to worry about laundry.
* Again.
** Although the extra wear and tear could reduce the selling price for those pajamas on the garage sale I swear I’m going to have just as soon as it warms up and I find the free time to sort and attach price stickers to 450,154,189 individual pieces of children’s clothing.
I’m happy to change her before naps. What’s one more chore as long as her diaper is already being changed, Ian is playing in the toilet, Tory is chewing on an electrical cord, and the dog is threatening to break the living room window barking at malicious wildlife in our backyard?*
The problem is this doubles the usage for her pajamas. I’m not concerned about the extra wear and tear it puts on her pajamas since they should still be strong enough to last the year it takes for her to grow from (X)T to (X+1)T.** My concern is double the usage means double the opportunity for her pajamas to be peed upon while halving my available opportunities to wash them.
Such was the situation yesterday morning, when Abbie woke up with a large wet spot on her pajamas. Her diaper spilled over last night like an awards ceremony spills over its time slot. Abbie only has two pairs of cold-weather pajamas, and pair #1 was already in the laundry room waiting to be washed. Fast action was needed if she was to nap that afternoon. I immediately pretreated the pajamas to prevent visual and odor stains, and set the kids down to breakfast while I threw the pajamas in the washing machine along with the other freshly-sorted clothes that matched their color, temperature, and cycle type.
Just kidding. I threw the pajamas on the floor, set the kids down to breakfast before their screaming drove me insane, and said a prayer that I would get to her pajamas before the dog did.
A couple hours later, the boys went down for their afternoon nap, Abbie sat down in front of the television with a DVD from Sesame Street so it has to have some educational value, and I had a solid 45 minutes of personal time to enjoy spending on laundry. I sorted the backlog of laundry into piles of lights, darks, and peed upons. A couple more dirty pieces were hiding in the boys’ room while they napped, so I waited until after I could fetch them before starting a load of laundry. While in the laundry room, I found pajama pair #1 so it could air out and lose some of its crustiness before her nap just in case I couldn’t/forgot to wash her pajamas before naptime.
When the boys woke, we ate lunch, and then Ellie surprised me by having the rest of the day off. With a winter storm coming, this was my chance to run some errands with adult help before the roads became an icy automobile playground. We ran around the house, finding shoes and coats, getting everyone ready to leave so we could return for naptime. Along the way I picked up pajama pair #1, heaved back to toss them into the kids’ room, and olfactorally remembered why they were in the laundry room in the first place. They had been peed upon.
I didn’t have time to wash and dry a load before naptime. I didn’t want to put a dirty, stinky pair of pajamas back on her. I didn’t want to fight with her to sleep without a beloved pair of two-piece pajamas. So I did the only thing any rational parent would do: I bought her a new pair of pajamas while we were out. Actually, it was a two-pack, so diapers can leak on three pairs of pajamas before I need to worry about laundry.
* Again.
** Although the extra wear and tear could reduce the selling price for those pajamas on the garage sale I swear I’m going to have just as soon as it warms up and I find the free time to sort and attach price stickers to 450,154,189 individual pieces of children’s clothing.
posted by Matt at
11:50 PM
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