I left the kids playing, taking advantage of a rare peaceful interaction, and headed toward the shower. I got as far as brushing my teeth before the first interruption.
“Mom, can we make those scratch paper things* today?” the girl asked.
“Yes. But I'm going to take a shower first. Ask your brother to get dressed, please,” I replied.
A few minutes later, in the shower, I was enjoying the warmth of the water on this cool, rainy spring day. “Mo-om! I don't have any pants in my drawer!” called the boy.
It's laundry day. Certain types of clean clothes are scarce, and life is conducted between loads. This includes showers, and I seemed to be having a tough time completing mine today. I told him to grab some clean pajama pants and wear those for the day. It is Sunday after all, and we have no plans to leave the house.
Suddenly the girl comes in, almost in tears. “I[gasp]triedtosharpenmypencil, [gasp]myyellowcoloredpencil, [gasp]andIguessIwasholdingittoohard[gasp] and it broke!”
“It's all right, sweetie. We have lots of colored pencils. Just throw that one away and use your small pencil sharpener for those in the future.”
The little one comes in again. “Mom, I got dressed!”
“Great. Thank you. Have your sister get you a quarter from the allowance bag.” We're trying a new incentive with the three year old. If he gets himself dressed, he gets a quarter for his piggy bank. We have a little bag we keep in the kitchen full of one dollar bills and lots of coins, and we use that to dole out the big one's allowance each week.
The little one again. “Mom, I got three quarters!!”
This took some discussion. Turns out he decided to help himself to some more quarters from the allowance bag. I made a note to myself to have a chat with him about who can take money from the allowance bag.
I turned up the temperature of the water. The warmth quiets the noise and calms the interruptions.
“Mom, will you fix my robot?”
“Mom, I'm hungry!”
“Mom, are you almost done?” This was seven minutes after I stepped into the shower.
As I was drying off, the chime from the washing machine sounded, and then from the dryer, signaling the loads had finished.
Ahh. It's nice to be needed.
*Scratch paper things = a new craft experiment. Stay tuned this week for more.
