That guy who said necessity is the mother of invention? Not in my house, fella. Around these parts, laziness leads to innovation.

A year or so ago, Poppy woke up screaming around 1am. It wasn’t her usual “I’d like to get up and play” scream. She meant business. I stumbled out of bed and into her room, where I discovered one distraught little girl and a whole lot of vomit. I cleaned her up and calmed her down while Rockford changed the sheets.

About half an hour later, she screamed again.

We spent the rest of the night cuddling in the bathroom floor, administering Pedialyte and holding little Pi over the potty every few minutes. It was not a fun evening.

But there was a silver lining! Ever since that late-night sheet-changing fest, I’ve double-sheeted the beds. (The kids’ beds, not ours. Although that would save a full-on sheet change every now and then, wouldn’t it? Hmm …). Pete’s crib, for example, has several layers: the mattress, a mattress pad, a sheet, a sturdy piece of cloth, another sheet. This came in handy a few days ago when he had a major case of the spit-ups during his nap. All I had to do was pull the nasty sheet off and viola! Clean sheets!

If I were on top of things, I would have put another fresh sheet on top as soon as I had the chance. I’m taking baby steps toward efficiency, though, so that hasn’t yet happened. Maybe I should go do that right now.