I was going to post a status update on Facebook just now about Gabriel and Lauren, and their antics this weekend. But, it was turning into a lengthier post than I want a status update to be....well, that and I already posted once about Daylight Saving time this morning, and how it was a little tough to get out of bed. And then I had a second post about Kansas schools and the NCAA tournament, so I figured that was enough out of me on Facebook for one day. So, I'll just jot a little reminder in my blog.
Ahhh, kids say and do the funniest things. :)
This past weekend was a lot of "just Mel and the kids." Shawn had drill, as he does once a month, and he even had a Symphony concert on Saturday night, once back from drill for that day. We didn't have too much else going on, so I ended up at home with Gabe and Lauren quite a bit of the time.
As probably all moms do, I was trying to maintain a good balance of one-on-one time with them, but also spending some time accomplishing necessary household tasks. So at one moment, I was in the kitchen working on putting clean dishes away. After a short length of time working, a few quiet minutes went by, and my mom-sense picked up that these were in fact the variety of minutes that are known by parents as "too quiet." So, I set down the dishes and walked through the dining room and around the corner to the hallway to try and figure out exactly what my quiet children were up to, and where they were up to it. Didn't take me long to find them, as there they were in the hallway. As I came around the corner of the dining room to the hallway...there was Gabe, yellow child-craft scissors in hand. And actually, they were not only "in hand" but looped around his fingers, poised for scissor-action. Lauren was on the floor, kneeling with her hands up against the wall (because she tries to pull herself up on anything these days), and smiling (as always), and Gabe is standing right behind her. Gabe, looking guilty, walked immediately to me, scissors in hand and says "I did not cut Lauren's hair," and hands me the scissors. I took the oustretched scissors, and literally had to walk back to the kitchen to compose myself, then back around to the hallway to confront Gabe. I think I saved the moment; I tried to play it off as "Mommy is putting these scissors up." There have been a couple of moments in my life where I couldn't hold it and just burst out with laugher right in front of them, but this time I managed to get around the corner. When I came back to the hall, I did my best acting job to issue a stern "We do NOT play with scissors unless our Mommy and Daddy are there to help us" warning, while choking down the laughter.
The laughter is not at the fact that he could have taken a crazy chunk out of Lauren's hair, or worse, manged to hurt himself or her with the scissors....but at what he said. Gabe's at this age where he does that whole "I did not just eat some of that candy..." thing, which totally means he either: one, did eat the candy, or two, was about to. He makes these little non-confessions a couple of times a week, and it CRACKS me up.
For the record, I looked, and couldn't see any chunks taken out of Lauren's hair. So either, he tried to cut it and was not successful, or was intending to cut it in the very near future, and I caught him just in time. :)
We also had a moment this weekend where I was changing sheets on the bed, and the kids were on their own for a couple of minutes. (An aside here...I promise you I do not leave my children unattended for large portions of time, it just takes them no time at all to find all kinds of fun things to get into.) Gabriel is very well potty-trained at this stage of his life, and had actually gone in and taken care of business. However, he did it without me knowing, and even when he was done, he did not come in and proudly announce it, like he usually does. This is only a problem because of Lauren's current stage of life. He uses his potty chair. This potty chair is riiight within Lauren's 9 month old capability to reach. I do not know what her fascination is with playing in the bathroom, but she sure does try to go in that room whenever the door is open. So for now, we just keep the door completely closed. Well, since Gabe had gone in there, and he doesn't know or remember to keep the door shut very well, and I didn't know he'd gone in there and opened the door and left it that way...and, well...you know where this is going. So, I'm changing the sheets ......and I start to smell .... something. I look down and there's Lauren, and I'm like "oh man Lauren, here let's go change your diaper." I pick her up and realize it's not a diaper change she needs, but a scrub-down. I did not realize this in time to save the shirt I was wearing, or Lauren's clothing.....but fortunately it wasn't much...and she apparently did not try to .... well....nevermind. Let's just say that there were a couple of places I could have found stuff that would have made that moment a lot worse, so I'm thankful.
I hope that I am not the only mom who experiences things like this, both because I want to feel normal, and because it's little mishaps like this that add so much "flavor" to my everyday life. Oh, Gabe and Lauren....thank you for keeping me on my toes, and for all of these wonderful moments. Hopefully one day soon I will get the super-mom role "down", and maybe in the meantime, I'll manage to stay just one step ahead of you. :)
