And Yet, I'm Still Laughing

This has been one of those days that just screams for a blog posting.

It all started with naptime.

Due to his night shift job, Hubby was sleeping in the kids' room (with only one window looking out underneath the upstairs deck, it's the darkest room in the house), I had to do my usual musical beds routine to coordinate naptime for the two tired kidlets.  I pushed and shoved until the pack n' play was securely wedged between the shower and the changing table in the bathroom.  Having learned my lesson last time when I went to get Little Man up from his nap and found all of his clean diapers crumpled in the pack n' play and the remainder of the roll of toilet paper shredded on the floor, I removed everything within arm's reach of the pack n' play and tucked him in.

Next, I herded my whining daughter into my room to lay down on my bed.  Cleaning off my nightstand, I went over the rules with her.

"Don't get out of bed"
"Don't touch my jewelry"
"Don't touch Daddy's nightstand or Mommy's nightstand"

Each of these rules originated with previous mishaps on Princess's part that led to: a call to Poison Control to find out if Tums are dangerous in large quantities, scrubbing of the wall when little vaseline handprints were discovered, and several losses of my jewelry (always my favorite pieces, of course).

Princess settled in pretty quickly and I could hear her quietly playing with her dolls, but Little Man decided that he simply wasn't napping today and proceeded to scream at the top of his lungs.  Have I mentioned that the bathroom is right across the hall from where Hubby was sleeping?

A few minutes later, I heard the door to the kids' room creak open and Hubby sleepily stumbled out.  Great.

He laid back down 15 minutes later, but the damage was already done.

Little Man continued his caterwauling for over 1/2 hour before finally settling down.  I could hear him talking to himself, but didn't think much of it.

Then, Princess came out of my room to tell me that she had to use the bathroom.  As Little Man was "napping" in the bathroom, I trundled her upstairs to our landlady's bathroom.  It was there that I noticed something in Princess's mouth.  After determining it to be a Tums, I tore back down to my room to see how many she'd eaten.  Let me just stop here a moment to say that the bottle of Tums had been stashed up and out of sight.  The jumbo sized, just-opened bottle.  Which Princess had filled with water.  I'm still not sure where she got the water which worries me a bit.  So the Tums went in the garbage and Princess went in the doghouse with a longish lecture on the dangers of eating medicine and ruining $7 worth of Tums.

At this point I decided to check on Little Man in the bathroom and was greeted with baby powder.  All over the pack n' play.  And the worst part?  I still haven't found the bottle.

Okay, clean up the mess, hand out snacks, and send the kids out to play where they can't get in trouble.

Ha!

My landlady informed me a short time later that she had just caught Princess climbing on the roof of the porch.  Because of a retaining wall area in our yard, the porch roof is easily accessed in one spot from the back yard.  Apparently, Little Man was right behind her.  Visions of broken bones, stitches, and ER visits danced in my head.  After directing the kids to head downstairs and stay inside for a while, I stayed upstairs to chat with our landlady for a few minutes.  Literally...just a few minutes.  That's all it took.  Apparently, the kiddos sneaked right back outside to play with the dog.  As I came back downstairs, I was met with a frantic Princess who gasped that Little Man was out on the gravel road that runs by our house.  I ran outside, but didn't see him anywhere so was a bit skeptical.  That is, until I walked down the road a ways and finally caught a glimpse of a little boy running down the road as fast as his little legs could take him.  If we'd been in town, he would've been several blocks away.  How he moved so fast, I will never know.  How I moved so fast to catch him, I will never know.  

During the time it took me to write this blog post, I broke up 4 fights, picked up a whole box of pins that Little Man dumped out, cleaned up a puddle of water on the floor, and caught Princess stealing my fabric to play with.

This has been one of those days that I would usually add to my "I will laugh about this in a few years" list.  But you know what, after the immediate panic and/or anger faded, I'm already laughing.  And I'm sure Hubby was laughing when he saw me running down the road after Little Man.  I am SO glad no one chose that moment to drive by...