February 3, 2012

Scenes from My Life

I arrived early at Moe's school. Jelly was in the backseat with the iPad, my new strategy for keeping her happy and in the car. The school secretary called out to another parent "is that Moe's mom?" and all I could think was, "What now?"

A few minutes later, they brought out a weepy Moe. They weren't sure what was wrong, but I suspect that his being up a 4:00 in the morning was a part of it.

Moe was okay at home, but certainly whiny and unhappy. I decided to give him a bath, the one thing I can usually get him to do for more than thirty seconds.

At that point, Jelly was sitting at the table, still playing with the iPad, when she started screaming "fix it!" The battery had (thankfully) run out. I tried to explain to Jelly that I had to charge it up, that it wouldn't work, etc. but she, being two, was not having any of it. She threw a fit.

I left her to it, to go run Moe's bath. He got into the bath and immediately started crying, then screaming and whining. The water temperature was fine, so I'm pretty sure it was a sensory overload thing, but at that moment all I could hear was two simultaneous meltdowns.

I clicked my heels three times but I was already home.

I ignored Jelly, having learned that the best way to negotiate with a two year old is to just avoid the whole thing altogether. She isn't crying now, so I guess she stopped at some point.

I took Moe out of the bath, did some tight squeezes with the towel, and got him dressed. He seemed better, and went to his room to swing, so I started to make dinner. This involved preheating the oven for a frozen pizza organic flat bread.

The dog, meanwhile, had been scratching to go out, but I had been ignoring her because I now have to escort her on leash. Our neighbor's dog, a very aggressive golden retriever, has been spending a lot of time outside because our neighbor has been having work done on her house. So Berkeley and this dog have been fighting through the fence, and actually scratched a hole through it. But I was tired of the whining at the door, so I let her out anyway.

I heard an unfamiliar noise and went to investigate. I found Moe in my bathroom, pumping shampoo all over himself and the floor. He was covered in it as well, but at least he smelled good. I tore his clothes off and started to clean up the mess, when I heard Berkeley fighting at the fence. Dammit!

I called her in with the magic words "want cheese?" and got Moe, who was then whining at me because he was ready for dinner. Thank goodness the oven was already preheated.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails