Today's Goal.

Some days, the goal, the only goal I have, is to make it through the morning hours until Simon’s naptime. I really don’t care how I make it to 1 p.m., what the kids and I do to get there, or how much effort, wear and tear, or scraping by it takes. Some days, like today, we all just need to calm down and get some more sleep before emotions flare and grumpiness takes hold and ruins a perfectly good day together.

Today started out as innocuous as any other day: Simon woke up, Taylor woke up, and we all sat and played splendidly on the living room floor. An hour later, after reading Dr. Seuss’s Go, Dog. Go! for the fifth time, shuffling through countless flashcards, and building numerous “puppy houses” out of large building blocks, the kids’ mood changed. They wanted out, “run and play,” as Taylor would say; and they wanted it in a bad way. It’s not that I was keeping them inside or forcing them to listen to me read book after book after book, it just happened that way, but the invisible switch had been turned and the combined weight of two 30 lbs. toddlers raged for green grass, hills, and sunshine.

I couldn’t believe my eyes. Really! My darling children, so peacefully and adorably sitting by my side for over an hour, laughing, playing, and behaving like all children should transformed, within microseconds, into little monsters: pushing, pulling, taking each others toys, and, to my dismay and utter disgust, biting each others fingers and toes. What the hell happened!

I decided we’d better go to the park, fast. At least there they can run and play, swing, jump around, and dig in the sandbox with plenty of open space around and between themselves. What I forget, willfully or otherwise, was that it rained, torrentially, the night before. The park was a swamp. A buggy, stinky swamp.

I spent the first fifteen minutes at the park chasing them out and away from mush and mud, to no avail. Finally, more tired and frustrated than enlightened, I gave in and let them play. And play they did! They loved it! Within the shortest time imaginable they were covered from head to toe with the stickiest mulch muck mud one has ever smelt or tried to wipe off. Bad. Real bad. Just nasty.

To make matters worse, rather than the expected opposite, both kids fell asleep on the ride home from the park. Before putting them down for a nap I first had to carry them in from the car, wake them up, give them a bath, while they were, of course, screaming to be fed lunch, before laying them down for their afternoon nap.

Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhhhh!

Thankfully they slept. There really isn’t anything more comforting and soothing to an at-home parent than a quiet house. Thank God for little engines running out of steam!