Good Intentions Gone Bad

Sometimes the best intentions yield bad results. Last week, for Mothers Day, Thing 1 pledged to help. He even made this in school. How adorable.

So, with Thing 1 leading the way, he and Thing 2 set out to clean the basement. They may even have told me first. I don’t remember, they tell me a lot of stuff.? SuburbanMommy was enjoying her Mothers Day outside the house, so I had my hands full.?? I’m not sure what they were doing, I was just glad they weren’t fighting.? I assumed cleaning the basement meant what it always had until that point, which consisted of picking up all the toys and balls and other stuff.

A little while later, I spotted Thing 2 on his way to the basement. He was wearing goggles and had a roll of paper towels. His socks were soaking wet.

Me: “What are you guys doing down there?”

Thing 2: “We’re cleaning”

It was time to take a look.? With Thing 4 in my arms, I went to the basement to check out this cleaning operation.? I found the basement carpet was wet.? Really wet.? There were puddles of water on the floor in the bathroom.? Several towels were soaking wet.? They were wetting the towels, then carrying them, dripping wet, to parts of the basement to “clean” them.? How adorable.? To be more efficient, Thing 1 instructed Thing 2 to use the other sink at the wet bar.? Now there were two sources of puddles on the floor.

Let’s look at the bright side. They were trying to help. How often does that happen? They were also working together without fighting. That’s a good thing.? After using nearly an entire roll of paper towels to soak up the water, I asked:

“Is there anything else you cleaned I should know about?”

“No.” Then he thought about it. “Yes.”

“What?”

“The pillows”

They had taken the pillows from the couch and held them under the water in the sink to wash them.? Then put them back on the couch.?? Adorable.

Take Your Child To No Work Day

Yesterday was take your child to work day, or as it’s officially known, Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work Day. It started in 1993 with just girls but has expanded to boys in 2003.

I get the concept. Give kids an idea what their parents do all day. But that’s hardly what happened yesterday. Thing 1 had a day packed with fun activities and kids programs.

After a breakfast spread of cereals, fruit, and juice boxes, we had a kickoff speaker/pep rally for the hundreds of kids ages 6-12 that were attending.

Then the activities started. More than a dozen to choose from, I had pre-registered Thing 1 and me for five 45 minute sessions including an outdoor obstacle course and kickball, planting flowers for earth day, art projects, a scavenger hunt, and tour of the video studio. In between there was an all you can eat lunch buffett and ice cream party. Then a choice of two movies at the end of the day.

At no point did I engage in normal work day activities. I assure you a typical day for me does not include coloring. The kids did get to observe some work, I guess, if you count the people with no kids who were at their desks trying to work amidst the constant parade of kids asking which activity we’re doing next.

Poor Buzz

I’ve posted before about Thing 3’s obsession with Toy Story. We are a movie merchandisers dream. Thing 3 used to be inseparable from his Buzz Lightyear. But lately, their relationship has changed.

Thing 3 is now more interested in dropping him on the floor over and over to see what happens. We know what happens, which you can see in these photos. Buzz breaks. He’s missing both arms, his wings, an the retractable helmet.

In Toy Story the movie, there is a kid named Sid who mutilates and destroys toys for fun. Thing 3 seems to be recreating that character.

A New Level Of Multitasking

There is no better training for multitasking than parenting. You are constantly juggling several things at the same time. Like talking on the phone while making dinner while helping the kid go potty while giving another kid a timeout. All while trying to change a diaper.

Since the arrival of Thing 4 I have had to up my multitasking game. Here I am one morning this week. I’m feeding Thing 4, with a bluetooth headseat in my ear so I can be on a conference call for work, while refereeing a game of dodgeball between Thing 1 and Thing 2.? What you can’t see in the picture is Thing 3 who is probably climbing on something he shouldn’t be.

multitasking