What I have found surprising about being a mother of two is that there are real moments of peace and calm. Believe it or not, there have been whole 10 minute increments in our house when everyone is happy, asleep or self-entertained enough that I’m freed up to ignore folding the laundry while I write a blog post.
What I do not understand is how quickly this calm disintegrates into such absolute chaos that nothing short of being an octopus would enable me to adequately address the situation. For what ever reason, both children know when the other absolutely needs me and find it unacceptable to be put on the back burner.
Take today, for instance. It was 11:30. Wendy was fed and contentedly kicking in her bouncy seat. I thought it would be the perfect time to take 15 minutes to mix up some play dough for Charlie (something I’ve been meaning to do for the last 2 weeks) since she likes watching “her people” do things. The first batch went so gloriously well that I thought I’d make a second color while all the ingredients were out. Charlie helped me measure it all into the pan, and then squeezed in enough green food coloring for twenty batches. Such is cooking with toddlers. And I must say, I like a nice strong green color myself when I can get it!
THEN….one minute into the critical heating/stirring process, right as the play dough was starting to set, Charlie announces he needs to go pee pee. I flick the burner off and we race to the potty. Success. Wash hands. Hear Wendy start to squawk about the fact that her people left her “totally… utterly… miserably….ALONE!…unacceptable….people?…my PEOPLE!” Replace pants and underwear. Wipe pee off toilet seat and floor (we’re still working on our aim) Pick out an orange, no, pink, no, purple—“Charlie JUST CHOOSE one!”--finally settle on the red gummy star for a reward as Wendy absolutely looses it from the kitchen. “I am alone….ALONE….ALONE! I WANT MY PEOPLE NOW!!!!”
Here’s a picture of the somewhat frenzied next 5 minutes while I tried to salvage the play dough and console Wendy at the same time. (We were making so much noise that Jonathan came out from the office to see what the hubbub was about. Then he started laughing so hard he could barely snap this picture.)
What might not otherwise be obvious was that Wendy was screaming her head off, I was stirring hard to get the lumps out, bouncing Wendy vigorously with my foot, belting out Charlie’s favorite song from Sunday School with him (so he wouldn’t object to me singing so loudly), and making sure he didn’t burn himself when he tried to eat pieces off on the first batch of play dough already cooling on the counter. Multitasking, anyone?
2 comments:
Yes, zero to 1000 in under 10 seconds. It gets considerably calmer when the youngest is about 1.
Hint on the pee pee aim - we just have Peter put the lid up and hold onto it leaning forward. As long as he watches himself pee, it goes in the potty. We haven't worked at any self aiming. this works well and is super handy when in public restrooms because the same technique works while standing on the seat lid and hanging onto the handicap bars (mom sometimes has to help aim low enough then.)
We've been playing with playdough too! What recipe do you use? The one I have is a bit unsatisfactory, I found it to be too crumbly.
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