Caleb had a painfully red diaper rash this morning, so after taking off a poopy diaper, I hopped up to get some cream. It helps diaper rash to air dry a little, so why not? Thirty seconds later Caleb walked up to me in the kitchen, worriedly jabbering as he showed me the poop on both hands. Which he had scooped up from the family room floor. So, I picked him up and washed him in the sink, him smearing one hand on the faucet as I washed the other. After he was all clean, I set him on the kitchen floor while I ran to grab a diaper, and he peed all over the kitchen floor. Then, while I wiped and cloroxed everything, he pulled knives out of the dishwasher, pots out of the cupboards, and towels out of the drawers. The final beauty - when I was done cleaning, I looked down, and there was poop on my shirt. So, instead of making yummy sandwiches and packing a real lunch for my kids at the pool, I threw saltines and grapes on top of the swim bag, and none of us ate more than that until we were done swimming at 3.
That happened today. Stuff like that has happened nearly every day for the past nine years, many times with way more ridiculousness piled up than that. I broke a lot of my rules for childcare triage today (probably I will write about that later), but that's not the point. The poop was was gross. I had to rearrange my time. But, no big deal, we had a great time swimming and lots of fun eating a giant sandwich afterwards. And I realized a funny thing. I like problems like this. I know how to clean, I know how to diaper, and to kiss newly-cleaned cheeks of an adorably naughty toddler. I can solve Caleb's problems! But the problems get harder for the older ones. And I know they will get even harder in the future. So, today I am grateful for problems I have solved. Craziness that I can conquer. Hooray for that!
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| Josh was so proud that Caleb liked the cookies he made, he wanted me to post this on Instagram. But we're doing blogger instead. |
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| He's always busy doing ALL THE THINGS. And for that he gets a kiss. |
P.S. Yes, Josh made cookies. By himself. He said he needed to start learning with "a basic chocolate chip," and found a recipe on Our Best Bites before I even knew what he was doing. Also, while Josh was baking away, Lissy and Andrew were busy shelling peanuts. When they were done shelling, Noah helped them set up a roadside stand to sell them, 1 cent a piece, or 5 cents for 10. So lucrative, but look:
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| Noah took the picture and ran around trying to keep the business thriving. |
