Friday was officially my first day solo as a mother of 3. My VERY helpful mother went home on Wednesday and Cool Uncle HH came that night and whisked Superkid and Abizella off for a sleepover. Cool Auntie Andy took my toads and Boo to the Zoo Thursday (you gotta check out the pics of the zoo kids on her website-click shoe obsessed link on the right) while Tadpole and I did nothing but sleep and eat all day.
After my day of leisure, I was ready to take on the kiddies. And actually things went relatively well. I remember the first day I went solo as a mother of 2. I had a lot more anxiety about that. Probably because Pops was the stay-at-home parent and I was not really sure about occupying one child’s time, let alone two. But much to my delight, Superkid and Abizella played really well together. After their morning milk, the kids hit the kiddie pool in the back yard. Tadpole and I watched from a safe distance as Abizella and Superkid splashed. Superkid would flop down on his stomach and start flailing his arms around and yell, "HELP! HELP! I'M DROWNING!" Abizella would quickly snatch his arm and say, "I HELP YOU!" and pull him up. This was great fun... at least it must have been because they did it over and over and over and laughed themselves senseless.
Later, we came in and they played catch with each other and rolled the ball back and forth across the floor to each other. I give them 5 stars for playing well together. I give also give them 5 stars for their extraordinary abilities in dumping out toys.
In other news, Tadpole's umbilical cord fell off Thursday so we gave him his first big boy bath! After I bathed him, Abizella bathed him with kisses!
Both of the other Toads are very mindful of Tadpole's presence. Abizella will ask me several times a day, "Where's Baby?" "Baby sleeping?.... He TIRED!" Superkid will all of the sudden pop up from watching TV or playing and say, "Mom, I am going to go check on Tadpole." Then he will return and report that, "the Baby is sleeping."
So I was feeling competent at my abilities of Mothering 3... until... I put the kids down for bed. Usually this is Pop's business but he was snuggling Tadpole so I went to tuck in the other Toads. The kiddies were crying so I tried to soothe them by singing. Abizella put her hands over her ears and looked at me like I was physically paining her. I can't say I blame her. Aunty Andy had tucked in the night before and has a MUCH MUCH nicer singing voice (she reported that Abizella kept begging, "Again! Again!" every time she finished a song). Finally Abizella could take the torture no longer and stopped me and said, "No, Mom. Hole in Bucket!" Which is the ONLY song Pops sings to the kids. After I switched songs her hands came off her ears.
With one good day under my belt, I feel like I am off to the races. And from now on, I will leave the singing up to Pops and Auntie and Andy.
6 comments:
You have no idea how funny I think it is that when I asked Superkid what he'd like me to sing at bedtime, he was very quick to respond "A lullaby!" Well, OF COURSE! Silly me. I just didn't realize he actually meant "A Hole in the Bucket".
And furthermore, I think it's probably good that's the only song Pops sings for the children. As I happen to have learned a few songs from Pop's Pop myself. And if that's where he learned his tunes, though absolutely entertaining, I'm certain not too many of those are appropriate for children.
Though now that I think of it, I'm sure Arlow Guthrie has SOMETHING appropriate that Pop could pull out for bedtime. Or at our next potluck!
Though come to think of it, he wouldn't even wear the Ceasar Salad costume. So who am I fooling.
Do we need to get a round of "Plastic Jesus" going when you come over next? We will have to start practicing with the kids. It is sad that this legacy has not been carried to the next generation.
"I don't care if it rains or freezes!"
Glad to hear you survived your first solo day as mother of 3. Sounds like friends are taking care of you :-)
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