Dirty little habit

Alex has a dirty little habit. I've referenced it in recent posts, but over the past 24 hours, it has manifested itself twice with messy and disgusting results.
I never went through this particular issue with Jacob, and frankly, I'm not sure how to handle it.

Last night, around 8:30 p.m., Jeff and I were relaxing, browsing the internet, and winding down after a long, tiring day. The boys were playing. Bedtime was in a few minutes.

Ahhh. Things were good.

Then we heard Alex talking gibberish at the top of the stairs. If I haven't mentioned it before, Alex has learned how to climb over the safety gate at the bottom of the steps. As you can imagine, this is just a fantastic development. Now he can't even be contained to one floor.

Jeff: "You know Alex is upstairs, right?"
Me: "Yea. Doesn't he sound so cute talking?"

Fast forward about 3 minutes later. Jeff & I decide we should head upstairs and get the boys in pj's and into bed. I reached the top first, and what did I see?

Alex.

Standing wide-eyed, shirt raised over his belly, and a hand on his cheek.

Oh, and did I mention the 2 little balls of poop beside the railing?

And the poop smeared on his belly, back, and beside his mouth?





OK, so maybe he didn't look exactly like he'd had a mud bath. There were a few minor differences. He wasn't wearing a pink towel turban, it was obviously not mud (oh, how I wish it had been mud), was not done for the purpose of rejuvenation or exfoliation (or whatever the reason is people have mud baths), and no cucumber slices were harmed in the process.

I guess when he was so sweetly talking to us from the top of the stairs, he was saying something along the lines of, "Hey guys...I think you're gonna want to come check this out."

And this morning, approximately 12 hours after his faux mud bath, Alex walked up to me with his arms outstretched, palms facing me.
"Look, Mom! I put both hands down my diaper, and check out what I found! More poop!"

[Insert loud, long, frustrated sigh here.]

I'm often told that Alex is my Mini Me since he looks a lot like I do. Well, here's another person he bears a strong resemblance to:

Yes, that is Al Bundy. (Is Al short for Alex?) And what is Al Bundy doing with his hand? The same thing Alex does. All.The.Time.

I thought I had outwitted him with my plan to dress him in a onesie all the time.
Me: "Ha! No reaching down your diaper now!"
That worked for a little while, until he learned he could just reach in through the side.
Alex: "I feel a bit sorry for you, Mother dear. Your plan has been so easily foiled by a toddler."

Me: "OK, what if I dress you in a onesie and shorts?"
Alex: "Well, it's quite simple, really. See, all I have to do is this."
And he proceeds to either:
a) take off his shorts, or
b) stick his hand up his shorts leg, gaining access to the diaper.

So, I guess my solution is to dress him in outfits like this all of the time:


Too bad it's summer. That looks a little warm. And anyway, I'm sure he'd figure out how to unsnap the top, pull the zipper down, and have a field day inside his diaper.

I could just follow him around every second of every day.

Or drape the entire interior of the house in tarps.

But I guess I'll just have to brace myself for many more episodes of poop scrubbing.