This will be a short story. Not as short of a story as "The Ice Cream Van", but still pretty damn short.

Like most babies, Harlow hates napping. Once we went through sleep training though, we were able to get her down pretty easily. At the right time, I'd close the black out shades, turn on the sound machine and lie Harlow in the crib with her pacifier and her blankie. Then I'd back out quietly and rarely hear a peep for at least the next hour.

Then one day, about a month ago, I put Harlow down for a nap like usual, but soon after I left the room, she started crying. I had just fed and changed her, and she didn't sound too distressed, so I decided to wait it out to see if she stopped crying on her own.

A few minutes passed and the crying continued to escalate, so I went in to see what was wrong.

Harlow was standing up in her crib and immediately stopped crying as soon as I entered. She looked both happy and relieved to see me. Then she used her hand to point to the back of her diaper.

Ah. It did smell kind of funky in her room.

"Did you poop in your diaper?"

Harlow nodded vigorously.

I took her out, plopped her on the changing table and sure enough, POOP.

I changed her, put her back down in the crib, and she was able to have a soil-free nap.

The next day, the same thing happened. I put Harlow down without incidence but soon after, she started crying. I went in to check on her. This time, she motioned toward the front of her diaper.

"Harlow, did you pee?"

Harlow nodded vigorously.

I took her out, plopped her on the changing table and sure enough, she had a fully soaked diaper.

I changed her, put her back in the crib, left the room and she went to sleep.

The next day, it happpened AGAIN.

When I went in to see what was wrong, again, Harlow pointed to the front of her diaper.

"Harlow, did you pee?"

She nodded.

I took her out, plopped her on the table and sure enough— Oh wait. This time the diaper was completely dry.

"Harlow, you didn't pee."

I tried to put her back in the crib but she threw such a fit, I ended up letting her skip it.

I work during the week so I'm not exactly sure what happened for the next five days during naptime, but come Saturday, she did it AGAIN.

No pee. No poop. Harlow had just realized that crying, followed by pointing at the crotch of her diaper, was the one thing that could potentially end nap time.

Whether her diaper is dirty or not.

She even did it at a public park, after a cat nap in her stroller, to indicate she wanted out. 

Fast foward to this morning. Harlow went down for her 8:30am nap and slept for about :45 minutes. When she woke up, she went through her whole crotch pointing routine. I took her out of the crib and checked her diaper. It was dry. Then I put her on the floor to run around.

The first thing she did was locate her big sister. I watched Harlow run up to Mazzy, wait until she had her full attention and then proudly point at her crotch, grinning from ear to ear. Then she ran up to her dad and smiled while proudly pointing at her crotch once again. 

Apparently, Harlow has made up her own sign language. 

Pointing at your own crotch means, "Naptime is over. It's time to have fun!"

Please feel free to use this in your adult lives.