Thursday, January 13, 2005

A day in the life...

Why is it that as soon as you have finished cleaning one room and moved on to the next, 5 minutes later your child has destroyed the room that was finished? I was cleaning yesterday because my parents were coming over to watch the kids (Jason was out of town for the day) while I went on a much needed "Mom's night out." I was only cleaning the rooms that they were going to see and be in, but even that proved to be too much. As I was moving into cleaning the kitchen...since the family room was done, or so I thought...Piper comes walking in with a tube of diaper cream that she swiped from Finley's port-a-crib. In one hand was the tube, and in the other was the twist off cap...twisted off...and all over the fingers holding these objects was the cream that was formerly in the tube. I walk into the family room, and oh yes, there is cream everywhere. I give Piper, "The Look," and say in the most calm voice that I can muster:

ME: Piper, you have a choice (lab school language). You may either give me the cream or you may choose to keep the cream and I will have to take it from you and you will sit in time out. That is your choice. Give me the cream, or sit in time out. I am going to count to three and you need to make a decision. ONE...

PIPER: TTTWWWWWOOOOOOO....

Now, at this point I don't know if I should continue on to THREE, or applaud her and be excited that she knew that TWO comes after ONE. And she is looking at me and smiling that smile that says, "I know I am in trouble, and I am having fun and if I look cute my mom will let me off the hook." I decide not to let her off the hook and be the consistent parent that I should be.

ME: THREE. Now...

And before I can finish, she hands me the tube and lid like the angel she is...and then...she wipes the cream all down my t-shirt, shorts, and legs. How funny she thinks it is.

I know that part of the reason she gets into trouble like this is because we don't leave the house to do anything to let her release the inner-devil. So, today I get my shower early, fix a delicious and nutritious snack, pack up the huge diaper bag, get both girls in the car, and like a million hours later we are off to story time and then to the park. Thankfully, Dora was not there today (see previous post), and Piper was awesome. She listened to the story and then we played with the train table, she looked at some books, and she put everything back where it belonged!

Unfortunately, the day that I have everything together, it rains. No park. So, we come home and have a picnic on the coffee table. Later we are going to a "Music Together" class at some New Age church. Should be interesting...wonder if there will be "chanting."

1 comment:

Jason Dowdell said...

Update: Shannon told me about the new age music class that's $120 a pop... what a crock. She said the woman running the class was a total space cadet too, so needless to say, they won't be returning.