the naked phase

Heaven help me. Zach has recently entered the shocking and completely inappropriate naked phase where he can often be found in his birthday suit. There was a time when he could get wet and easily move on with his day. This is no longer the case. Now if he gets wet (or sticky or dirty), he immediately launches into hysterics and tears the offending article of clothing off lest it kill him. If I'm lucky I can get him to replace the article of clothing with a suitable replacement. Sometimes when the stars are in alignment, he will even go take care of it himself. Cereal is especially treacherous as it appears impossible for a three-year-old boy to eat cereal for breakfast without dribbling half of the milk in his bowl down his shirt. This is especially problematic as he requests cereal for breakfast nearly every single morning. Fortunately, there is the pajama factor which keeps our number of shirts in the laundry due to cereal spillage lower than would be expected as he is usually still wearing his pajamas which would go into the laundry anyway when he partakes of his beloved Frosted Flakes. Unfortunately, he has been known to eat Frosted Flakes for a snack, lunch and dinner as well. That adds up to a lot of discarded shirts and several bare chested encounters a day. Several weeks ago we headed over on a Saturday afternoon to clean the church. It was raining, and despite his raincoat and umbrella, someone got a teensy splash of water on the hem of his pants. We were no sooner into the building than he tugged off his shoes and socks and dropped his drawers. And refused to put them back on despite several attempts until held down and forced into them when it was time to go. Last week at the mall, someone had a bit of an incident while washing his hands and got the cuffs of his shirt wet. And then promptly attempted to disrobe. I was saved by the buttons which he is unable to manipulate. He attempted a similar feat at church on Sunday, again due to wet cuffs from washing his hands. I think short sleeves may just be our saving grace. If he has an accident, I can tell immediately as he is walking around with nothing on in the nether regions. The real kicker, however, was today when he got upset with me for not giving him what he wanted and commenced stripping. I'm hoping the phase is short or I'll have to buy him a whole new wardrobe of button down shirts and skinny jeans that he can't take off independently.