The sleep last night left much to be desired. Each night more 'inmates' have been added to the colourful characters occupying my normally peaceful room. Last night as I went to join the already sleeping beauties I found that there was very little room for me. Apparently Dave the Bear had decided to join us. He is a giant teddy bear we got for Kaitlyn for her first Christmas here in the US. James had bought me a similar bear (named Boris) before we were married and Kaitlyn wanted one of her own. Dave and Boris are good friends and I was quite glad that Boris had decided not to join the party too.
When I found Dave in my bed he was lying all diagonal and had on a pair of blue checkered boxer shorts. I said a quick apology and moved him to the floor. As well as Dave we had acquired several new characters who didn't take up much space but one in particular who was most annoying. Emily has a little cat who purrs and meows when you pat her. Emily loves her very much and thus cuddles with her. As a result Emily, who you will remember sleeps in a rather acrobatic manner, tends to hit the triggers on the cute little cat at various intervals throughout the night. I remember at least 3 occasions last night where I sat bolt upright, wrenched from sleep by the muffled sounds of a cat's frantic meows and one time when the creature actually moved against my arm whilst letting out its screech causing me to nearly leap from the bed.
Then there was the time when I discovered Emily's sandwich filled Tupperware container underneath my shoulder. It was unceremoniously moved to the dresser top accompanied by much muttering. All this was just in addition to the beating I received from Emily throughout the night.
Needless to say the girls slept well and were feeling extremely refreshed when I found them charging through the house at 6.30 am loudly discussing who was going to go first in the ransacking of my bathroom.
I decided to get dressed in 'cleaning clothes' this morning and planned on taking a shower after I'd done some housework. My plan was dependent on Abigail's nap being long enough for my shower. Unfortunately Abigail had other plans and wouldn't go to sleep. I put her down in her bed and waited for her to drift off but when I went up to check on her I found that she had pulled down 3 dresses plus Kaitlyn's dressing gown from the closet, one dress she was now wearing inside out. She had also put her pillow on Kaitlyn's bed and was quite excited about it. She hadn't done too much more damage than that but it was clear to me that she was not in the least bit tired.
So I ended up having to pick Kaitlyn up from school in my less then wonderful state of dress (requiring me to get out of my car and mingle with all the other properly dressed mothers). After Emily got home I had her tidy her room a bit and I had Kaitlyn watch Abigail for me so that I could take a shower and get properly dressed. I knew I would have to be quick but I really needed to wash my hair.
I went as fast as I could and stepped out of the shower to find Abigail standing in front of my toilet holding the lid in her hand and saying "ooh yucky, stinky". I noticed that her skirt was now hanging from right under her arms instead of at her waist and I just had a flash of motherly insight, just enough to ask her "Abigail, can you lift up your skirt for me and show me your bottom?"
I hoped that I was wrong and that all was well under that skirt but my intuition said it wasn't and it turns out my intuition was deadly accurate. She lifted her skirt to reveal a completely bare bottom smeared with excrement. She proudly showed me that she had put the dirty nappy in the rubbish bin next to the toilet. I'm not sure what she was doing with the toilet lid but I couldn't see anything wrong in there. I laid her down and got Kaitlyn to bring me wipes. She took forever to get them back to me which I realised once she got there was due to the fact that she had got into my wardrobe and was now wearing a pair of shoes with 3 inch heels.
She shimmied down the hallway as fast as she could without breaking a leg and delivered the wipes. I cleaned Abigail up and was now waiting for a nappy to appear (equally slow delivery, once more due to the heels) during which time Abigail peed on the floor. Kaitlyn then strikes a pose and says "Mummy, why don't you just let us have these shoes for our dress up box since you never wear them?". I later found those shoes perfectly lined up looking rather pleased with themselves in Kaitlyn's closet.
I ended up having all 3 girls in the bathroom with me while I tried to dry my hair and get ready. As I was trying to get my face moisturised and my makeup on Abigail, who was fascinated by my bottom, would poke it with her finger and giggle as it jiggled. It was rather difficult to get myself properly groomed while trying to discourage a small child from using my rear end as a plaything.
I joked with the girls that perhaps I should go out as I was and Emily put her hand over her mouth in shock and said "oh Mummy I don't think that would be very appropriate". I had to dodge many curious questions and try not to laugh at the way Kaitlyn was comparing our bodies and telling me that hers would look like mine when she was a mummy too "because only mummys have armpit breasts".
We had a spot of shopping to do and I had decided to take the girls out for dinner since it's our last night before James gets back and they have really been pretty good while he's been away. I got the kids all herded into the car and we did our shopping and headed for the restaurant. Once there, the girls charmed several waitresses and we had very good service as a result. They all ate like they'd been starved for weeks.
On the way home we were serenaded by Kaitlyn singing "moves like Jagger" I found out that she learnt it from a school friend. Fortunately the only words she knows are 'moves like Jagger'. I tried to explain that it probably wasn't the best song for her to be singing but she didn't really understand. Maybe I'll leave that one for Daddy to talk about when he gets home. We caught her singing 'Red Solo Cup' a few weeks ago (she sings 'red solo cup, I will fill you up, let's have a party, let's have a party') We then found out that she quite happily sings it at school, what must her teachers think of us?
While we were driving home through the middle of our town I noticed that there are bunches and bunches of American flags that have been put up today. I asked the girls why they thought there were bunches of new flags and Kaitlyn says "It's because of St Patrick's Day" then Emily said "no, its because tomorrow is the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking" then she went on to say "you know, they have a moment of silence to remember it". I replied with "ooh, I like that idea, maybe we could do that too". Both girls replied together "do what?" "a moment of silence" I said "I like that, lets have lots of moments of silence".
I guess I should break it to Emily that the Titanic was not American (even though it was big) but rather a British boat and I should probably let Kaitlyn know that Ireland is not part of America and their flag looks quite different. I still don't know why there are flags everywhere and I have no idea how Emily figured out that its the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking.
They're all tucked up in bed now and I'm gearing myself up for an early morning drive to the airport. I don't really care though, at least James will be home and regardless of the fact that he will have just got off a red eye flight he will definitely be 'on duty' the moment he steps into the car!!
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