Dressing the kids has been a fun adventure for me. I enjoy choosing clothes for them but they also enjoy getting dressed. They both like to look great. Tre calls his nice clothes “work clothes” and likes to wear them to his work (nursery school). Dija says she’s a “little princess” when she looks pretty. Ok she always looks pretty but if she wears pretty clothes she’s a princess – aparently I am too! Dija and I dressed alike the other day. When she saw that I had on jeans and purple shirt just like her she was excited, “Neenee, you a little princess too!” I thought you needed a dress to be a princess. So she thought it was special to dress alike… I think we’ll do that more.
Nana often takes one or both children to Sunday School (she’s the teacher) and I had some feedback from a daughter of someone who goes to her Church. “Lorraine always has those little ones dressed so cute!” Well I was flattered for a mere second when I realized that they think Nana dresses the kids. Do they think I get to sleep in on Sundays and she comes here to wake the kids up, feed them and get them ready? I really didn’t take offense but found it rather funny. Now, I will confess that there have been two mornings in the past year when I called Nana to the rescue so I’d make it to work on time…. this has been a huge adjustment for me… I had never been a working mom before so making me look good and getting kids dressed didn’t have to happen every morning. It’s not optional anymore. So when I knew the morning wasn’t going well I did call for back up. I’ve even taken kids to Nana’s without breakfast a time or two – why rush them when I’m the one who has to get to work?
So I would like to point out that I do usually dress these children on a daily basis and I do a pretty good job of it!
Dija went to church with Nana this week and I took Tre with me to “Justin’s” church. Tre wore a lovely navy paisley dress shirt and jeans. He’s a handsome little guy. With the exception of a slight wardrobe malfunction when his jeans became unsnapped at the front at the church it was a good morning.
Dija was ready when Nana arrived, wearing her blue dress with flowers and butterflies. She wore her matching “stockins” with flower and butterflies up the side of each leg. When she sat in church and greeted all her friends she also pointed out that she had a butterfly on her bum… “See!” and she turned and flipped her dress up.
I’m pretty sure this would never have happened under my watch. After all Princesses just don’t do that!

Putting that train set back in the box…every piece… is worse than fitting tupperware in the kitchen cabinets! Alright, I’ll confess there’s still a box in the attic but this kitchen is so much smaller than the last… I’d use it all if I could. We had a slight battle with the toy mess in the livingroom for a short time today. It wasn’t much fun but we stuck to our guns. We just don’t allow throwing of blocks and toy cars – they hurt if they hit! So when toys started to fly it was simply clean up time. It took a long time. They’re usually so great at the clean up part but not tonight. The floor was finally visible again and so I let them have supper.
After a little more playing, off to the tub they went and I didn’t realize the train was still out on the coffee table. Papa was out for the evening so I had fewer eyes and they needed to be in the bathroom. So my job this evening after bath, pj’s and bed…train set. Papa and I both enjoy having all signs of children disappear at bedtime. Keeping it simple and giving them a place to put all toys really helps… although I’m thinking a larger train box would make some of it easier.

Dija was given a tea set on the weekend. It’s a 1600 piece tea set and she loves it – Thanks Auntie Tanya! This morning after Tre left with Nana for his valentine party at Cubbies the little Diva Dija began her performance. She was playing while I got ready for our shopping trip and I realized that she was standing on the sofa – I was ready to growl and get her down when I put all factors into context.
Hhhhmmmm tea set (yes all 1600 pieces) all over livingroom floor. Kid on sofa singing. Oh nice, she put her boots on first!
“Hey, who made this big mess? ME! I guess I better clean it up, it’s only fair.”
So she did. I let the boots on sofa slide just this once. No more Comfy Couch on her TV!

Today I believe an old ringer washer may have saved me some time and effort. Seriously. You see, if I had to run each individual piece of laundry through the machine I’m certain that I would have found the lost diaper that made it’s way into the washing machine. My poor washing machine. I do think it will recover now that I’ve cleaned it out and apologized for the abuse it experienced today. I’m not actually taking responsibility for this incident though. When I change a diaper I wrap it tightly inside itself and fasten it that way then fire it down the hallway towards to bathroom trash. Yes, every time… unless there is a flushable item in it then I carry it and dispose. So where this diaper came from is a bit of a mystery.
The little beady things inside the diaper are quite the incredible technology (I’m surprised there was any water left to clean the clothing!)… could they not come up with a technology that is a little more stable so it doesn’t go everywhere if it explodes? Perhaps a built in alarm if it lands in a hamper instead of the trash. You can get bed wetting alarms so why not diaper alarms?
The good news is that soon there will be no more diapers and it won’t happen again. Until then I guess I’ll do laundry a little slower and examine what gets tossed into the machine. Lesson learned. I’m sure some are wondering what my reaction was. I pretty much had none – today had enough reactionary content without adding a thing for this. Now I must go fold the children’s laundry and see if all those alien beady things came off in the dryer!