Umm...Seriously?!?

Okay, I don't usually blog about days like today for two reasons. One, this really isn't that kind of blog. It is more of an update far-away family, sharing pictures, weekly happenings, family history kind of blog. Two, usually after this kind of day the last thing I want to do is relive it by writing about it. But today got to the point where it was almost funny. Have you ever had one of these days? The kind where you stare at your kids and either think (or say in my case : ) "Did you SERIOUSLY just do that?!?

So the day starts with Braxton falling down the stairs to our basement. All fifteen of them. Jace was at preschool, I was feeding Ashlyn on the couch and Braxton was climbing all over us. I suggest that he go and get a toy so we can play "show-and-tell". He runs over to the stairs and I hear many thuds followed by screaming cries. My heart stops, I hurry and put Ashlyn down and run to pick up Brax. I ask him where it hurts and he points to his cheek, so I am assuming he landed on his face. I do a quick assessment of his arms, legs, head, etc, and thankfully nothing seems to be seriously wrong. I tell him to please, please be careful around the stairs.

I finish feeding Ashlyn and then put her on my bed with her Boppy to help her sit up while I try and brush my teeth and put a little make-up on so we can run some errands. Braxton is singing her songs and dancing around to make her smile when I hear "Mommy, Ashlyn is throwing up." and sure enough she was, all over my bed and her clean clothes. So, change her outfit and change the sheets. I think okay we are finally ready to go. Not really. Braxton decided to go play in the bathroom while I am taking care of the throw up and stuffed the sink with cotton balls, turned the water on and created a small flood. So now he is soaking wet along with most of the bathroom. So, I think okay, whatever, lets just put clean clothes on him too, I am doing laundry today anyway. I clean him up, clean the bathroom up and am ready to run errands but it is time to pick up Jace.

We go and get Jace and I walk back in the house and think "Wow, something smells like it is burning." I had a load of laundry in the dryer, so I go check silently hoping it is just a tag or something that got too hot...but no such luck. It was a purple crayon. It had melted and was now covering the clothes and the inside of the dryer. I start taking deep breaths, and just make a mental note not to let Braxton help me load the washer or dryer anymore and pull everything out and let the wax harden. I then spend the next hour scrapping purple crayon wax off clothes and the inside of the dryer, so I can rewash the clothes and use the dryer again.

What are your kids doing while you clean up melted purple crayon you ask? Ashlyn took pity on me (I would like to think) and went down for a nap after my first discovery of the mess and I sent Jace and Braxton downstairs to play with toys. (which they do everyday with no problems) Today they decided to play a new game though. It was called Haircuts. I walk downstairs to find Braxton sitting in his little chair and Jace giving him a haircut. My first thought is, "Seriously?!?" So, I walk over to inspect the damage, wondering why the heck Braxton will sit perfectly still for Jace to give him a haircut but thrashes around like crazy when I try to give him one, and find a spot near his crown that is almost completely bald. Like you can see his scalp. Then I think perfect, just in time for Elyse's (my sister) wedding in a week, those are going to be some great pictures. Luckily, his hair is so blonde that it kind of blends in with his scalp from a distance.

After that we have an hour of calm with an uneventful lunch and kitchen clean-up. Just as I am finishing the clean up part, I hear crying downstairs. I cringe and hope that it is just the usual who is the best kung-fu fighter argument and go downstairs. If you are noticing a theme to the day you can probably guess it wasn't. They decided to bring some toys into the big downstairs shower and play with them in there. Who knows why. Jace said it was so the guys could jump off the bridge (the bench in the shower). Somehow they ended up losing one of their favorite Lego guys and some parts to an airplane down the drain. Jace said Braxton put them down the drain so he kicked him. I put crying Jace in time-out for kicking and crying Braxton in time-out for putting toys down the drain and then I hear more crying upstairs and realize Ashlyn is awake.

I feed her and think maybe things will go better if we get outside for a while. I had to drop some fliers off at a few houses anyway so I feed Ashlyn and we go outside for a bike ride. Things are going well until we hit about the half way mark. I hear a little sneeze and look down and Ashlyn has a bloody nose. (Don't be alarmed, she has had a cold and I have to use the bulb syringe thing before every feeding so she can breathe well enough to eat and not choke. The doctor said she might get a bloody nose from using it) It just happens to be when we aren't home and I don't have a Kleenex or anything with me, so I did what any good mom would do. I used the sleeve of my sweatshirt to soak up.

We get home without any other incidents and I go inside to change Ashlyn's outfit again. Then I hear a bang from the kitchen and think if it is another mess I am going to cry... or laugh, I couldn't decide. Jace had decided to try and get himself a drink of milk. He can usually do this just fine but today when he pulled the gallon of milk out of the fridge it slipped out of his hands, hit the floor, the cap burst off and milk sprayed all over the place. That's when I started to think this day was just almost funny. Almost. Then I started cleaning milk up and it wasn't that funny anymore. As I was cleaning I thought, okay, what can we do where no one will get injured and I can watch them and make sure that no one makes any more messes....a movie.

The boys pick the Mommy and Daddy movie (a wedding DVD with pictures of Tim and I growing up and pictures from our wedding and reception). They like to watch it for some reason. I sit down to feed Ashlyn while they are watching it and somewhere in the middle of all the wedding pictures Jace says "Mommy you used to be so pretty." Umm...thanks. I guess. I realize that in his five-year-old mind it wasn't an insult, but still.

Yeah, it was one of those days...times ten. (In the interest of time I will leave out the glue stick incident and Braxton falling down the stairs for the second time incident). All I can say is, thankfully, no one was seriously injured and, even more thankfully, this day is over and tomorrow gets to be a new one. : )