It is so different now that the kids are older. The day flies by. I find the kids back home from school so quickly and before I realize it, it's dinner time, Daddy's home and then it's bedtime.
I'm not faced with huge messes on a daily basis. I'm not faced with the physical exhaustion of young toddlers and their unending energy.
And while I'm grateful for that, I relish in the time I can spend with my friends who have little toddlers and are in the throes of parenting from early morning till they collapse at night.
I was searching through my computer and old files, and I came across some old stories of my kids and their escapades... so I thought I'd share some of them here.
Yesterday was just the day from toddlerland! My daughter is 2 and Son is 3 and they did a chocolate powder stunt- dumping Quick powder all over the living room couch and carpet, and then while I was cleaning up the powder I had put them in the shower (I know... not the greatest choice, but I had to get them out of the immediate area while I got some of the mess cleaned up and they were covered head to toe in chocolate powder). I got the vacuum out and did a little bit of vacuuming up the powder. I then thought I'd check on the kids and went into the bathroom to find an inch of water covering the floor. So I get that cleaned up with towels and get them out of the shower and diapers/pull-ups put on. I drag out the gate which I haven't used in months and gate the hallway so they can go to their rooms but can't get to the rest of the house. The minute I turn around my little sweet 2yr old terror kicks the gate down. So I decide that I'll just put her in her crib with some toys and I can get my 3yr old to "help" clean up the mess that he made. Unfortunatly he was more interested in "helping" his sister because she was crying and went and pushed a large toy over to her crib and helped her climb out. At least while he did that I was able to get the bulk of the powder vacuumed up. Then amazingly he asked me if he could take a nap and I of course agreed immediatly and got them both in bed and had some time to work on the stains and calm down myself.
So two hours later I've got rags laying across the stain and weighed down by books trying to soak some of the stain up and my kids wake up. Immediately two year old helps me by moving the pile of books that "don't go there" then I try and get her to sit and color at the table here in the office and the minute I turn my back she is drawing a masterpiece on the file cabinet that is next to the table.
I take away the crayons and as I am putting them away she climbs on top of the table and empties Dh's and I's scripture cases (We keep our Bible and Book of Mormons in fabric cases to make it easier to carry them to church and protects them a little bit) all the papers that were just in them loosely all fell out all over the floor. So while I'm cleaning that up she walks over to the bookcase and starts emptying the shelves with a swipe of her hand. So as I'm attempting to get her to put the books back on the shelves she throws herself down in a screaming tantrum and starts yelling and kicking.
At that point I went and put her in her crib for a few minutes. That calmed her down and I got her back out and she helped me put the books back on the shelf. She never got lunch due to the chocolate powder incident and them asking to go to sleep after it, so I put her in her booster seat, strap her in and give her some crackers and some milk to eat. I turn around to go put some laundry in the washer and come back to find the cracker ground up into fine powder and being thrown all over the dining room and the milk dumped on the table. I clean that up and take her to her room and we were playing with her kitchen and her food and she starts picking up her plastic food and throwing them at my head! She thinks she is hilariously funny at this point. I'm thinking she is possesed!
So the rest of the afternoon went okay but the two year old continued to just be into everything. Hubby got home and I made dinner. Tuesday nights he gets to go play tennis with a friend so he left to do that. I needed to go to the bathroom and alex and ashley amazingly were playing quietly so I just went alone thinking this will only take a minute. I come out to the three year olds diaper having fallen apart and diaper "stuff" all over the room. He saw that his diaper was falling apart and went and "changed" it in the bathroom and left the door open so I went into the bathroom and found the two year old standing on the counter with a whole bottle of baby oil dumped all over the medicine cabinet and counter and a bottle of baby lotion squirted all over the mirror. So... I clean up yet another mess and get the kids changed and ready for bed. Hubby gets home and we have family prayer and he puts the kids in bed. I needed to go get some milk so I went to Wal-Mart and got some milk and a bathtub pillow and came home and went to go take a nice bath. I go to turn on the water and look in the tub and there is another masterpiece that sometime during the day my two year old terror for the day got into a marker and drew a "pretty picture" for me on my tub! lol!!!!!!! At least marker comes right off of the fake marble whatever that my tub is made of.
I do kind of miss those days a bit... :)
