Saturday Night

Saturday night we had friends over. It was great, because as the kids get older, they need less and less supervision, or do they? Mason and Ethan were engrossed in the X-box and to be honest I don’t think their bottoms got off the couch all night. Madelyn and Taryn were quietly getting along very well. Here’s a little tid-bit about Madelyn, she likes to be the boss. She wants to do what she wants to do, when and how, she wants to do it. So it makes playing with other kids, a bit of a challenge. All goes well, as long as it’s going her way. (Oh yes, I KNOW I’m going to have my work cut out for me, I already do).

After our guests left we went upstairs to put jammies on, and I was witness to the mass destruction that two little girls could do. Everything in Mad’s room was piled on the floor. And I mean EVERYTHING. (Including things I haven’t seen in ages, such as a breast pump, baby wipe warmer and the baby Bjorn carrier) You couldn’t see the floor. Of course I was annoyed, but it’s not the first time she’s pulled this crap. Then I went into Mason’s room, to close his blinds, only to find a very similar scene. They'd managed to make his room into a war zone as well. I lost my cool. It’s never pretty when I lose my cool, and everyone in the house typically knows I'm going to blow. "Oh-oh" they think and scatter…

“Madelyn, what on earth were you guys playing?” I asked.

“Make a mess” she responded.

And a mess it was indeed. I can’t believe that I didn’t pull out the camera for a picture. It was that obscene. I wanted to drop to the floor in the fetal position and sob. I knew there was NO WAY we begin to clean it up that night. Nope, just put her into bed, knowing we’d deal with it in the morning. Then, I went to the basement, to find… you guessed it ANOTHER mountain of mess. Oh yes, they’d been busy.

So the moral of my story is: when you think “goodness, they’re playing so good together, and they’re so quiet, AND getting along” GO AND CHECK. Immediately, go and see why exactly it’s so quiet.

The tears we’ve had that night and Sunday morning, were substantial. The garbage bags of stuff that’s been gone through, is impressive. There’s not going to be nearly as much stuff now, to pile up in any room. And she’s now not allowed to take friends upstairs, or downstairs for that matter. A tough lesson learned.