I love my kids, but the last couple weeks I have been awakened every morning between 7:00 and 7:30 by Leah.
Leah: (whispering) "Daddy...Daddy...potty, Daddy."
During the summer her door was swollen (humidity) so it kind of stuck shut....but now that the temperatures are close to frigid, the door seems to open with relative ease...inviting the little disaster into our room in the "wee morning" hours....
....I realize that's a late hour compared to some mothers...We usually get up to either put her back to bed or have her play in her brother's room...
...which usually means she goes into the pantry (that she can now open) and gets little snacks...often aided by her big brother. I finally put the smiley face gummies (from Walmart) in a less accessible location. I don't mind them noshing on those goodies, however, I would like them to not eat 5-10 bags in the morning before a nutritious breakfast! These are raisins, so not such a problem. However, they end up on the floor everywhere in the desperate attempt to free them from their confines.
........Anyways, we ended up going later than planned (very frequent issue when kiddos are involved) to go see my friend and we had a great time (despite some obedience issues...which actually got resolved fairly well...Oliver was very sad to leave his friend.) I love love love going to visit her and her kiddos...we have kids all the same ages give or take a few months, so it's fun to let them get together to play.
We came home and everyone took a nap...well, except for me. I'm not sure, but I am fairly certain I vegged out on the couch catching up on my Thursday night shows......I did clean some: I picked up the living room, cleaned the kitchen, and washed the dishes in the sink! AND I did that BEFORE sitting down to relax (average housekeeper.) Then it was time to feed the baby.
You can't look at this sweet boy and not smile...although for some reason people keep calling Anthony a girl...
"You have such a happy little girl there!" ...
"Oh...heh heh...thanks."
I have a hard time correcting people in awkward moments like that...I just go with the flow and anticipate that I will never see that particular stranger again. The kid had a blue (and green) blanket wrapped around him....but, hey, that's just a minor detail when it comes to guessing baby genders!
This happened at McDonalds, where we enjoyed a wonderfully healthy mealtime experience...and by "healthy mealtime experience" I mean that the kids were playing in the play-place and the hunk and I alone for the majority of the meal, thereby securing our sanity for a later date (at which time, I am sure, it is likely to be lost.)
We got home and I was feeding the baby (deja vu?) and Leah snuck into our bed after getting her jammies on. My hunk-a-hunk-a-burnin'-love said I just HAD to see her (like I always have to do mid-anything that I can't really get away from at that moment) and found her bundled up under the covers looking quite adorable.
My hunk then came up with a plan to have a family night...as in the entire family sleeping in our room. Well, that idea didn't last long (I told him I didn't really care, but I think he realized that he would not get to sleep in as long on Saturday...since he's not feeding babies in the morning and all). So instead, we decided to let the kids sleep together...
My hunk "wrassled" together a tent-like structure....
Leah was peeking out...and yes, those are giant pillow pets.
Oliver (and a freaky looking specter in the upper left corner)..
...and Leah, pretending to be sleeping...
So for the next hour and a half:
- I allow some giggles and talking
- We reconstruct the tent after one of the poles (a kitchen chair) falls (on top of Leah who was playing with the tent)
- I empty a potty chair
- I go in and encourage the talking to end
- I go in and make (idle) threats concerning the constant jabbering
- I ask my hunk to help strengthen my (idle) threats by reiterating them to the kiddos
- We deal with a 4 year old vampire (Oliver bit Leah...for getting out of the tent...yeah, that's how I resolve all my issues too!)
- I allow a few more giggles and chatting
- And, the big bad mommy intervenes and places each child back into their own respective bed so they can hopefully just go to sleep....
....To be fair, this was more of a parenting (on my part) failure than a kid failure. Next time we do this (yes, we want to do it again...and do it successfully) we are going to try it earlier and just not worry about the talking too much. They will get tired and fall asleep eventually.
Speaking of sleep, now I am off to bed...
<The sleep of a labouring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep. Ecclesiastes 5:12>
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