Toby succeeded in placing a bowel movement in the potty once this week. Great rounds of cheering and applause ensued while we all gathered around to congratulate him. Grinning with pride, he announced to his fans, "And it looks like a banana!" Well, yes, it did.
Hannah ran into the kitchen with excitement one afternoon to inform me, "Mommy, when I stab an empty cereal box with a sharp pencil it works just like a Narnian sword, and it actually pokes a hole in the box! It really does! A real hole in the box, just like a Narnian sword!"
To which I responded, "That's exciting, Hannah, but please be careful how you wield your sword or it will poke a real hole in you."
She sighed back at me, "Oh, Mommy," as she left the kitchen. Not three minutes later she ran back into the kitchen screaming, "Oh, it's blood! It really is! It's real blood! I saw it! It's red! Oh!" I coaxed her to uncurl her right hand from its grip on her left ring finger, and saw a blue dot of graphite near her nail with a tiny drop of blood on it." I, of course, cracked up laughing. "Don't, Mommy!" Hannah scolded, "Don't laugh like that! It really hurts."
I led her to the bathroom for repairs as I remarked, "Yep, real swords draw real blood, I think I warned you about that."
"Well," she scowled, "That's the thing about practice, you know."
One night I announced that I was making pancakes for dinner (gf/cf, of course). This announcement was followed by cheers of approval from my three girls. While they were whooping and dancing for joy, Toby caught the spirit of appreciation and thanked me with, "I like this dinner, Mommy. I'm so proud of you for this dinner, Mommy!"
Yesterday was a big day for me. Matt's car still being too sick to drive, I had to wake four sleepy children before 7:00am, dress them, groom them, and load their sleepy heads in the van with baggies of cereal for breakfast. We dropped Matt at work at 8:00, hit Wal-Mart from 8:15-9:15, then headed to Emma's allergy consultation at 10:00.
I had everyone use the potty before we checked in. The waiting room was tiny and packed. Toby bounced, growled, climbed, and wiggled for 40 minutes while I grew more and more frazzled from trying to keep him off of strangers' laps. When we were finally called back Naomi quietly sat and read a Highlights magazine, Hannah listened intently to the how-to's of de-molding a wet basement, but Toby and Emma had had enough. "I need to go potty!" Toby announced. There was no restroom available for our use less than half a block away, so I asked him to wait. "I nee go pah-ee ooh! (I need go potty too)" Emma echoed. The allergist tried to hurry her explanation, but Toby had his pants down within a minute. I quickly pulled them back up only to turn and see that Emma had her pants down now as well. Thankfully, the allergist laughed, admitting she had four young children at home. "I'm glad it's not just my family," she added. I am glad too. Toby and Emma both made it to the restroom.
Back home I was low on groceries and had to whip up homemade chicken nuggets and french fries from frozen chicken breasts and three russet potatoes. It worked wonderfully well. Next up was installing new mini-blinds to replace the ones Naomi had destroyed while over-zealously opening them for me. Then we headed outside for awhile to plant some mums I had picked out at Wal-Mart, where I had to multi-task planting, chatting with the neighbors, and keeping Toby out of the highway. After cleaning everyone up and downing a quick half-cup of coffee we were back in the van heading to pick Matt up from work. Back at home I created homemade sweet-and-sour chicken stir-fry, cleaned the kitchen, and packed Matt's lunch for the next day. While Matt put the kids to bed I rammed the lawn-mower through the gigantic weed-patch we call our yard, then topped the day off by heading to the grocery store. I pulled back in our drive at 11pm and dropped in bed at midnight.
No comments:
Post a Comment