What. A. Day.
So this morning the toddlers came in my room yelling, "Hot chocolate! Hot chocolate!" We have been having a cup of hot chocolate every morning since we decorated for Christmas, so that they wanted a hhot chocolate wasn't a problem. The timing of their wish most certainly was.
I had them wait. I got out of bed. I came to the kitchen for them to get into a fight over who gets which spoon. I warmed up breakfast. {Mommy tip: make huge batches of breakfast and heat it up over the next couple days. This week we had pancakes and oatmeal. This has made our mornings much smoother!} One of our toddlers had a stinky diaper that he did not want changed. He made it very clear he wanted to remain in his stinky diaper-- though no one wanted to be near him. In fact, he had to go to his room to calm down before I changed that diaper. When he finally emerged, his brothers were yelling, "HOT CHOCOLATE!" I told them if they keep yelling at me, there would be no hot chocolate. That we must be patient. (There was much confusion over the definition of this word, patient: perhaps it is an old wooden ship used during the Civil War era? No...) I changed the diaper. He joined his brothers at the breakfast table.
I finished making their breakfast plates. They continued dropping hints about hot chocolate. I continued telling them to wait. I glared at the Keurig to hurry up and heat up the water-- must have coffee now! Finally it all came together. Finally I made myself a plate. I sat down with my cup of coffee and my small plate of pancakes (you know, whatever was left) and started eating. Immediately, toddlers start exclaiming, "Sticky! All done! EW! STICKY!" I gave them baby wipes to clean their hands. They put their baby wipes in their hot chocolate and rang them out over their heads... I asked them to stop. Our oldest asked if he could watch a Christmas movie (also been letting them watch more movies earlier, due to the holiday season). I told him not yet. The toddlers demanded to get down. Our oldest wanted to know when we could watch one. I told them all that I would assist them after I ate my breakfast.
And so they asked me for the next five minutes if I was done.
When I cleaned all the hands and cleared all the plates, I discovered our dishwasher was ran before we went to bed last night, meaning I had a dishwasher full of clean dishes and about 5 plates, 4 mugs, 4 forks, and 1 knife filling the sink. Plus my husband's breakfast dishes (1 pan, 1 plate, 1 fork). The boys are now running free is syrup coated pajamas. I put the dishes in the sink, turned away from the dish mess, and went to deal with the boys. We changed clothes. They resisted taking off snowman jams. Our 5-year old insisted that he either wanted to wear his pajamas all day or nothing at all. I went to their rooms only to find no jeans in any of their drawers. I literally got them dressed sitting on the floor next to the dryer, pulling their freshly cleaned clothes right out of the dryer and tossing their pajamas in the washer as I undressed them. Our 5-year old approved, "We should get dressed like this everyday! Then I won't need a hamper anymore!" (For some reason all our boys dislike their hamper.)
The bad thing about getting them dressed in the laundry room is that I had to walk through the kitchen and see the kitchen mess again. Ugh. I tell them I want to take a shower now and they need to behave. I don't know what set him off, but one of our toddlers then started throwing a tantrum. Time out. I calm him down and tell them to behave. I told our oldest that there was no wrestling allowed while I was in the shower. He promises he understands. The other toddler follows behind me, "Hungry, hungry, huuuuuungryyyyyy...." No way is he hungry with 2 hearty bowls of oatmeal and 3 pancakes in that tummy, plus the glass of hot chocolate. I tell him he needs to go play. He throws himself face down in my bathroom. Time out.
I finally got in the shower. While I was rinsing the conditioner out of my hair from my super fast shower, two of my boys bust in the bathroom accusing the third boy of biting one of them. And sure thing, one of the toddlers has a huge bite mark on his shoulder. The other toddler-- the accused toddler-- is pointedly not in the bathroom with his brothers. And so I rinse, get out and go sort this all out. Time out for the biter. Apologies, tears, hugs, lectures... An injured party. It was very dramatic. I can't believe he bit his brother while I was in the shower. Over a block tower.
I start thinking they need fresh air. I get ready. They wrestle. One of the toddlers falls off the couch. Our 5-year old feels his brothers are being too loud. The toddlers want to watch Frosty the Snowman. Our dog wants to go out. I felt like they just didn't want me to get anything accomplished. I wasn't entertaining them and I wasn't getting our stuff together so we could get outside and walk to the park. Nothing was coming together and they were all fighting, arguing, crying. I wanted a hug.
Lunches packed. Shoes on (why is it always the same child who can't ever find his shoes?). A debate ensued over whether or not they needed jackets (me saying it wasn't cold enough, our 5-year old saying his brothers needed their puffy coats). The toddlers fought over who could carry the lunch bag. All three fought over who could carry the picnic blanket. All three argued with me over whether or not they could bring toys (me: no; them: yes. I won). Keys forgotten. All go back inside. All go back outside. Finally on our way. Find the perfect spot. Realize we forgot waters. Do we walk back? No, we stay.
I settle us into our spot and the boys all fought to sit in my lap! What?! We get out of the house to go play-- at an empty playground, no other kids or adults to feel shy around-- and they want to quietly sit in my lap?! After wrestling on my couch all morning?! I insisted they go play.
So I listened to them fight over the swing. And over the random toys they found in the sandbox. And I wondered, "Why did I go through all this trouble to take them over to the park just to listen to them fight here? At home I have my book. My coffee. I don't have the problem that I forgot to pack water." I was just about to pack us up to go home when one of my girlfriends walked over and met us at the park. I chatted with her. The boys wandered away. They ran; they chased; they played. They went down the slides. The swung on the swings. And I relaxed. We ended up walking home feeling better, tummies full from our packed lunch.
They were happy until we got home and they realized it was naptime. I wrangled them into bed. It was one of those days that you look at the clock and think, "Is it seriously only 1:30 pm? There are so many hours left in the day!"
I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with all those hours.
I'm just hoping the second half of our day is smoother than the first half of our day!
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