Was The Floor Thirsty?

Parenting is definitely a learning process.  Some days I feel like I’ve got it all figured out.  Some days I feel like I’ve got a lot to learn.  Most days, it’s a mixture of both.

But, today, I learned why I should’ve resisted the temptation to hit the snooze button when I knew those kids of mine were awake….

The weekend rule is that they are allowed to sleep in the same room.  There are bunk beds in William’s room and Lizzie usually passes out on the floor.  Then I move her back to her bed.   And, half the time, I have to send Antwan back to his room because they just won’t fall asleep.  But, in the morning, they are always together in William’s room, playing.  Which, in general, I think is very sweet. 

Last night, they must’ve been tired because they fell asleep pretty quickly.  So, I should’ve known that they would be well-rested and up to no good, pretty early.

Meanwhile, I’m battling a head cold and had Nyquil-ed myself up.  (I love you, Nyquil.)

So, in the morning, when I heard them playing, I thought to myself, “They sound like they’re having fun, it won’t hurt them to play in their rooms for a few more minutes.  A couple snoozes later (Ok, ok, it was more than a few minutes), I dragged myself out of bed, feeling lousy and extremely sorry for myself.

As I’m coming around the corner, the first thing that I see is William holding a bucket and a cup and hear him happily say “Lizzie, you’re up!” 

Then Antwan looks up, sees me and says “They’re playing with water!”

Then William sees me and says “Lizzie’s playing with water and I’m trying to stop her!”

Then I advised him that I had heard what he said and that he was full of it. 

Then I looked around and saw that everything (and  I do mean, everything) was soaked.

They all started talking at once and I went to hide in the bathroom for a minute; making sure to step carefully beause, of course, the bathroom floor was soaked.  I tried to shake off the Nyquil haze and figure out how to deal with my lovable, but extremely mishievious little monsters.

So, after a little personal pep-talk in the bathroom, I came out and presented them with towels for wiping off their toys and the floor and rattled off a list of consequences: no more water in the room, no more playing in the room in the mornings, etc, until they can make better choices.

Remembering that I’m obligated to feed my children, I brought them out for breakfast.  😉  I had them get dressed, brush teeth, and sent them back to finish up.

I sat in my recliner had my healthy (I use the term, loosely) breakfast of a chocolate pop-tart and Cherry Coke.  I took some more cold medicine and, quite frankly, had the most relaxing morning that I’ve had in a long time.

I’m not saying that I’m glad that they made their rooms look like a hurricane came through, but I am saying that I’m not so sure that I really learned my lesson… 😉 

Hopefully, though, they have!



Halfway through.  Everything in this picture is wet   Wish I had taken a picture before they started cleaning!

I’m not so sure about Lizzie, though…

Taking it all very seriously….