It’s been just over a month since the last edition of “Did I Just Say What I Thought I Said?” I think we are making progress. Not only has it been weeks since I’ve caught myself telling the children ridiculous things but I didn’t even yell it this time. When Clara marched in the house followed by a helplessly giggling Ivy, pulled down her pants and undies to show me the results of their mulberry picking. I didn’t yell. I just told Clara that she really need to:

“Take the mulberries out of your underwear!”

While the question of why she put mulberries in her underwear may never be satisfactorily answered. I find it equally disturbing that the thought crossed my mind that at least she was wearing the underwear. That’s right, mulberry filled underwear is actually an improvement from Clara’s usual completely naked state.

She sheds her clothes when they get wet, when she gets hot, when she takes a nap, when she goes to bed, when they get food on them, when they get “too stinky,” when they get paint on them, and when they get cut “accidentally” with scissors… and that was just today.

Basically Clara spends 85% of her time running around naked. Unfortunately she also spends 25% of her time falling down and hurting herself. This means that her body is currently 75% covered in bruises, bumps and scrapes that would have been at least partially eliminated if the kid would just keep some underwear on.  Today we had yet another conversation about how if she had been wearing clothes when she fell down the stairs she wouldn’t have gotten scratches on her butt . Yet at least one outfit later into the day she was naked again as she tripped back up the stairs and added a few more scrapes to her collection.

Admittedly I’ve mostly given up the fight at home and just strive to keep Clara’s clothes on in public( Which is a full time job in itself. Have you ever shoved a dress back on a screaming girl at the library (it was wet), while holding a baby and checking out books?) and I have faith that one day she’ll put some clothes on in the morning and leave them there for the rest of the day.

One day she’ll believe me when I mention yet again that clothes would have saved her a bit of pain.

One day I won’t have to run back in the house for underwear because she’s trying to go to the grocery store in nothing but a short dress.

One day I won’t have to constantly enforce the, “No eating without underwear!” rule.

One day she’ll figure out that it’s better to keep your clothes on.

One day…

On the other hand Ivy with her advanced years is a quick study. She only hid in the stinging nettles once this morning before coming inside and informing me that that is NOT a good idea.  I’m certain Ivy is very glad she learned to keep her clothes on before she learned about hiding in the nettles!