I’m Sorry, I Can’t Hear You

One day, when I’m old and gray, I want to look back and remember what it was like to have my 5 little souls at the ages they are right now.  Trying to talk on the phone with my sister yesterday afternoon reminded me why my life is crazy and so, so good.  I always tell the kids that I love my job and that I’d never trade it for the world.  They need to know how much I love being home with them even if there are moments of total chaos.

My sister called at 3:30 in the thick of our afternoon. M and J were engaged in a light saber battle in the family room, making it hard to hear.  I asked them to quiet down.  MG was painting with watercolors, taking time to dip her fingers in the water and dab them on her face for a little extra cleaning.  She would come up every so often to show me her work, complain about water spilling/dumping onto the floor, grab a towel to clean, and ask for new paper or for my help in getting a darker color.  Little G was pathetically sitting in her feeding chair after vomiting several times (oy vey!) while I tried to make sense of the mess and sanitize the kitchen!  I was feverishly cleaning so that I could get her down for her second nap.  She was a total sad mess, poor baby.

While all this was going on, T was working on his class project kite at the kitchen table.  Part of the assignment was that the kite had to have a tail with repeating units, so it was my job to tie on the tissue paper tail after T set out the tissue paper pattern.  He told me he wanted to make a metal kite, 4 papers large, so instead we took two papers and staggered them, taped them together, and wrapped the paper with aluminum foil.  He then decorated the foil.

Meanwhile M and J were still engaged in a battle and M was supposed to be off doing his homework.  We’ve been setting him up at a desk in our office to allow him some peace and quiet and he had yet to go to his station.  I hollered at him to head there and in turn, he asked me for a snack and something to drink.  J and T then latched onto that thread and asked for some milk in cups.  MG then chimed in for a snack.  She loves snacks.

I finally broke away to put the baby to bed, said goodnight, and closed the doors to her feeble pre-nap cries.  Then, seeing my chance, I tiptoed across the hall to my room and laid my tired body down on the bed.  No sooner had my head hit the pillow, but M and T joined me on the bed (busted!)–T with a question about the kite and M with a need for a pencil.  From the distance we heard MG shout that she had just successfully used the potty…

All with my sister on the other end of the line.
Poor sister.  I’m so sorry, J!  I promise to lock the door next time!

And cheers to all of you who understand such happy craziness.  God bless!