Learning to Dance in the Rain

I did not cry, I didn’t even yell (well not until I thought Emily was really going to burn herself), I think I handled myself in a pretty orderly way really.  There were messes, two of them, and they were big.

The first one happened right as I was going to have achieved an almighty feat – making dinner with two kids clamoring for food at my knees “me some, me some.”  With no husband in sight yet, I was desperately trying to get a quiche in the oven so that we could eat at 6.  Well, as I opened the oven I reached over to shield Emily from the door “don’t touch, it’s hot” I kept saying.  Suddenly, the contents of my quiche dish emptied almost entirely into my oven, spreading it’s chunky, milky, cheesy contents over most of the door, down the crack onto the floor and partly into the oven itself.  Let’s not forget the oven drawer which aligns perfectly so that the mess also enters it, spreading the love all over several cooling racks and pans.  NICE!  Where do I start?  Oh, and I still have two curious kids who are standing in amazement that mommy hasn’t lost it yet.

Well, the egg mess is cooking on the door and I’m trying to think about all the places I need to get with the paper towel, when Emily reaches out and places her palm right down on the door!  Aaaaah!  Well, Luke lost it.  He just doesn’t deal well with screaming, poor kid, I don’t either (by the way, I screamed, Emily sympathy cried for Luke).  Andrew walks in the door a few minutes later to greet a sorry pile of distraught people consoling each other on the kitchen floor.  We ate dinner at 6:15pm and mommy didn’t even hit the chocolate…well until later.  Thank you PF Chang’s for some good desert on a very well timed Girl’s Night Out with my wonderful friend Brandee.  Good timing would continue with the purchase of a baby gate to keep the kid’s out

The very next morning I’m scoffing a bowl of cereal before it hits the soggy stage and I hear an almighty crash.  I knew the kids were by the TV but there was no sound of commotion so I still don’t know how it happened.  When I ran in, there lay the entertainment center door in about a million pieces on the floor in between two very surprised looking children.  I reached over and picked Emily up instructing Luke to stay put.  When he was reunited with her in his bedroom I told them both to read books or play until I’d cleaned up.  “Right…” what was I thinking, there was no way they were going to do that after what just happened?!?  I turned around to see the answer, my baby gate still in the box (I thought the kids had knocked that over when I heard the noise,) “thank you!”  A few minutes later it was installed and 30 minutes of kid free time later (apart from the pleas for freedom) we had a safe living room.  And you know, I kinda like the TV stand better this way…it’s just as well the floor needed a sweep, the door needed cleaning, and I needed another experience to practice keeping my cool.

I am grateful for husbands who offer to go get dinner when it spills all over, paper towels – costco style – baby gates, and the fact that in all of it my children escaped unscathed even though there was at least one shard of glass that had impaled the wood of the TV stand itself.  Tragic stories, lots of tender mercies….

4 Responses to “I am Mommy; cleaner of messes!”