Story #1:
First thing this morning - yes, I started the day as a Slacker Mommy. Marin and Silje woke before 6:00, so, as usual with a wake-up that early, they fell back asleep after eating. So I went back to bed too. Ailey woke about 7:30-ish (I only groggily looked at my clock) and came into my room to wake me up with an "I'm hungry". What do I do? Greet her with my eyes closed and promptly fall back asleep.
So it came as no surprise to me to next be woken to Ailey calling from the bathroom with "Mama, I'm watering!" My eyes flew open, the covers flew off, but I sat on the edge of the bed for a moment thinking "It can't be too bad. Take a deep breath.... Whatever it is, I deserve it."
Ailey likes to play with the water so my guess at the mess I was about to encounter was pretty much spot-on. Water all over the counter soaking everything on it. Water on the floor. Water splashed on the cabinets. What I hadn't guessed at was the food coloring in the toilet, though it didn't surprise me when I saw it.
We had tried a while back, at the suggestion of friends who also had a 3-year-old-in-potty-training, to try putting food coloring in the toilet before putting Ailey on it to pee. The idea being to tempt her with "What color do you think it will turn?" It apparently worked wonders for our friends, but Ailey just liked putting the colors in, then flushing them down. We used it periodically, but not really since Ailey quit diapers. However, if left on her own she will make a be-line for the colors. Andy was to blame the first time when he fell asleep on Ailey morning-duty. Now I don't get to give him a hard time about it. In both our defenses, Ailey usually either tries her hardest to wake us up, or sits in our bed and reads books. Why should we expect a (curious and unsupervised) toddler to head straight for what she isn't allowed to do, right?!
Anyway, Ailey gets kicked out of the bathroom, everything gets wiped down, things are hung to dry, toilet is flushed (though if you see light colored stains on our toilet seat you'll know what it's from) and we're moving on with our day. End of Slacker Mommy story #1.
Story #2:
During the babies' first nap Ailey and I got out the art box and started some coloring and cutting projects. I had to go downstairs to the office to get envelopes, stamps, an address, seriously only gone about a minute. When I come back Ailey has drawn a "beautiful" picture of a green blob with her green washable pen. "Wow, Ailey, that's pretty! ... Where are you?" She hesitated just enough in coming back to the kitchen to make me wonder. Sure enough, she walks in and can't quite hide her green hands. Completely green hands. "Ailey, I've told you before: you draw only on paper, not on yourself!" She had a previous artistic moment during a brief absence of mine a couple weeks ago. That time it was both arms. Surely she'd remember the lesson from then!? So we wash her hands about 5 times, but now, even though they are "washable markers", both hands are just a little green ... with yellow food coloring still around her fingernails.
Story #3:
This one I actually have a picture of. Again, me out of the room for a minute. Silje was on the floor playing. I come back in and Ailey says "I'm holding Silje!" "Um, great, Honey. Try to be a little more gentle." I'm still wondering how much grabbing and jostling and throwing-about Silje had to endure to end up being "held" by Ailey. She did seem to be enjoying it. (Seriously, both the babies seem to love being rocked and rolled and pulled and pushed by their big sister. So far, Ailey can do no wrong!)
Story #4:
This one was a conscious decision made on my part and I could explain it away for several lines, but considering the above stories I'm not really in the mood to make excuses for myself. So here it is: Ailey had a cupcake and milk for lunch.
There you go. Definitely one of my slackery-est days. At least Ailey had some fun!
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