the night I bathed my kids in soggy cereal

The end of my day was nowhere as dreamy as the picture above. Like the title says, my kids ended up bathing in a bath full of soggy cereal. But, I'll get back to that.

Everything started as it does normally. J woke up first, then S. I picked J up out of his crib, then together we enter S's room and are always greeted by an enthusiastic, "hi!" Diapers are changed, kisses are given and I ask S what she dreamt about the night before and I pretend to know what she's saying. We are usually the first ones up.

I scooped them both into my arms, and I carefully descended from our rooms on the third floor down to the first. We had just made it to the first floor when I looked over to the room to the right. It's technically called a "butler's pantry" but rest assured, there is no butler here. It's basically a small room with glass cabinets and cupboards stored with dishes and small appliances. What had caught my eye was the beautiful light coming in through the window. S had already broken free from my arms to run to the sunroom to say hello to all her birdies. I walked into the butler's pantry with J to take a picture of the flowers in front of the window. I set J down and noticed that he was just fascinated by the shadows and the light on the wooden floor. 

S came in soon after, walked into the light and yelled, "butterflies!" She was referring to the dust particles floating in the air that seemed to dance around in the light. I then was faced with a decision...do I tell her they are not butterflies, but rather, dust particles? Or, do I let her believe they are butterflies? I chose the latter. I then said, "Yes, baby! Go get them! Go catch the butterflies!" 

She then proceeded to run back and forth over and over again grabbing at the pieces of dust with her chubby little fingers, and all the while yelling, "I did it! I did it!"

It was such a perfect moment. One of those moments that make being a mother the very best thing in the world.

Now, fast forward to the end of the day. With C gone, I am again, shorthanded over here. It was 5:30, and I had thirty minutes to finish feeding them, get them bathed, dressed, read to, and down to sleep at 6. My kids are the type that if I wait too long to get them down, they are wired for a long time afterwards. 

So there I was, scrambling scrambling away. What did S end up having for dinner? A banana and a bowl of peas. I GIANT bowl of peas. And that was it. (She loves peas. She's been known to ask for peas for breakfast.) I felt bad because I worried that the giant bowl of peas and banana, albeit healthy, would not be enough to sustain her through the night. And now I start laughing as I write this. I grabbed a large handful of cereal, pour it into a paper cup, grab a baby in each arm (with the cup of cereal balanced between my teeth) and trek up the stairs. I strip them down and throw them in the tub. 

Now, for some reason, S is no longer a fan of baths. It's bizarre. It began during our time in England, but now she's just hit or miss on whether she'll enjoy her bath that night of not. So there we were. Kids in the tub, me shoving cereal in S's mouth in between soap scrubs, (at this point J is looking at her like, "Why you cryin', sis??") when all of a sudden, S let's out a giant sob and out flies tiny bits of cereal from her mouth. Like, tons. Enough that it made her stop crying immediately, and she pointed to the floating cereal and exclaimed, "yuck!" 

It was such a funny sight. I figured it was too late to re-fill the bath, so whatever. I just gave her the cup of cereal and she ate that happily in the bath. J did, too, as he grabbed the random floating pieces and put them in his mouth. You pick your battles, ya know?

The rest of the bedtime process went by pretty smoothly, except the point where I came thisclose to smearing diaper creme all over S's face and arms. (I thought it was her baby lotion.) I suppose that wouldn't have been too terrible.

So, while my night did not end up as dreamy as my day had started, I still thank my lucky stars for these two babies that have made my dreams come true. 

***

In completely different news...S and her pacifier break-up has begun. We have been down to pacifiers just for sleeping times for a while now, but have yet to cut it off completely. Today, I told her that they were going bye-bye. And since I was already lying to her, I found myself telling her that all her pacifiers were going away on a plane. (Noooo idea where that came from.) She looked at me like I was nuts. Like, why on earth would someone take her pacifiers and put them on a plane?? She then looked at me with sad sad eyes, as if I had just told her Dada was never ever going to come home. Yeah, THAT heartbroken. Wish us luck. I may not be sleeping well for a few nights.