This morning I was getting Sam dressed in the den. She decided it was time for a diaper, so she ran into the other room to get a clean diaper. She laid down on the floor and handed it to me. I couldn’t ask for a child to be more helpful. When I got her dressed, she ran into her bedroom again and came back with the moon bear, a gift from my college roommate when we were sophomores. It is as tall as she is. Then she ran back to her bedroom again and came in with a diaper. She told the bear “lie down” and gently laid him on the floor. Then she tried to put the diaper on. I asked her if she wanted help. She tried for a bit, then said “help.” I put it on, then she wanted it off, so she said “help get off.” I asked her if the diaper was stinky. She leaned over and stuck her fingers in the diaper, sniffed the diaper, then looked up at me and said “stinky!” very emphatically.

She also told the bear to stand up when she was done with the diaper, which is what I say when I need to put her pants on. It felt weird to see my behavior so closely mimicked. It was also incredibly cute and I found myself really feeling badly that her Daddy wasn’t there to see it too.