Our Little Exhibitionist

Today was an ordinary Sunday at the Belknap house. The kids were dressed and ready to go to church, although, as usual, we were running a little late. Leah was wearing a pink and green dress with a matching hat that Grandma had just sent. She looked picture perfect, adorable and innocent. Kaleb was still putting on his shoes, so I sent Leah out to the car while I grabbed my bag and keys.

When I got to the car, Leah was nowhere to be found. I called her name, circled the house and found her playing in the backyard, splashing around in a little swimming pool we had just set up the day before. Leah had stripped out of her diapers and they were floating in the pool while she jumped around them, giggling; she was soaking wet.

I plucked Leah up and carried her into our kitchen where I threw her diaper in the garbage and pealed her wet dress off and slipped another one on. Pressed for time, I whisked the kids out to the car with Leah mumbling to herself, “We don't wear clothes in the swimming pool. We only wear swimsuits in the swimming pool.”

We made it into the chapel before they started passing the sacrament, the quietest time of the meeting. It wasn't long before Leah began to throw what we fondly refer to as a Diva Fit. She shouted, “I don't want it” and began to cry, loudly. I scooped her up and made my way past Kaleb and out the pew, tripping a bit. Finally I got to the aisle and carried Leah out the chapel and into the foyer, her dress hoisted up to her waist. It was not a graceful exit.

It wasn't until we were out in the foyer and Leah began dancing with her dress held high that I realized what I had forgotten to do before we left the house: put a new diaper on Leah. My daughter was commando, buck naked underneath her little sundress. I replayed the last 5 minutes in my mind. Not only was Leah diaperless, but she had just mooned half the congregation on our way out the chapel.

Well, I thought, we just woke everyone up.

We couldn't go back in the chapel until I had stopped laughing. You know what they say, either you laugh or you cry.