The Paan-Palfreymans: September 2008

"I'm washing my feet" Brigham exclaims as he is running towards the house. Kaiya his faithful sidekick is not far behind.
I am outside talking to Caleb while he is feeding his dog. I only give Brigham half of my attention. "Oh did you wash your feet?" I ask since he had been splashing in a puddle of water on the driveway. "Yeah" he yells. I open the door and the two of them run inside. I am thankful for a small break and the chance to talk to Caleb uninterrupted as I shut the door behind them. All the other moms reading this are saying "Emilee! What were you thinking!!!!" Obviously I wasn't.
A few minutes later I walk in the house and discover Brigham really was going to wash his feet. In my kitchen sink to be exact.
I snapped a few photos to make a blog post about my kids splashing in the sink, but as I looked at the picture closer I realized how much it says about my life.
First, notice the dishes sitting in the sink. I had done the dinner dishes, but not all of them fit in the dishwasher. So, these are waiting for the first load to finish. It is a half finished job something I hate. Second notice Kaiya is not wearing any pants only a diaper. I had just removed her pants because she got them all muddy playing outside in the puddle with Brigham. Since I had just mopped my floor I removed them so she wouldn't drag mud all over the place. Third, notice where Brigham's hand is placed. This will show you the water mess waiting for me to clean up all over the floor, walls, appliances etc. Also, notice the unpainted window trim. This represents all the little odds and end finish work around my house I try to complete in my spare time. Next, and luckily it doesn't show up, there is a thick film of dust on the blinds. This represents all the deep cleaning jobs looming over my head. I never seem to have enough time to complete them all. But for all my complaining the last is my favorite. The two adorable children sitting on the counter tops washing their feet in the sink.
My kids create three new chores for every one I complete. I don't think I will every catch up, but sometimes I just don't care. Because oblivious to the extra chore they tacked on to their mother's already daunting list, they are so happy. I get such a sweet satisfaction knowing that at the moment they are loving life. When I walked in the kitchen Brigham kept giggling and yelling "Mom I'm washing my feet." I can tell they love feeling the water on their hands, and watching it spray out of the nozzle and shoot across the room. Kaiya loves that she can make loud noises by banging dishes together. As I said before, for all my complaining I wouldn't trade the moments of sweet satisfaction being a mother can bring for a completed chore list.

Now for the rest of the story...............

After the "aren't they cute" moment ended their true personalities came out. I told them no more water and took both of them off the counter. Since I had my camera ready I decided to document their different reactions. As you can see Brigham began screaming throwing a temper tantrum and Kaiya little miss "I'll do it myself" gets a chair and begins to climb back up. It never ceases to amaze me how different two kids from the same parents can be.

I am sure this is borderline child abuse to film Brigham like this, but his dramatics it just crack me up.

After the dramatics ended it was time to get the kids ready for bed. Sometimes this takes some wheeling and dealing on my part. Tonight to get Brigham into his pajamas I told him this car was a friend to Lightning McQueen. It worked. Brigham was super excited to wear his Pajamas, but I did have to pay for my little fib. All night long I got to hear "Look mom, lywing queen's fend."

Then we come to Kaiya's lovely little ensemble. Notice the shorts. They are Brigham's swimming trunks. She is OBSESSED with them. I usually manage to hide them at the back of Brigham's drawer, but if she finds them she will follow me around and say "wa-er (water) wa-er (water)" until I put them on her. The fashion police would not be happy, but I like how happy she is when she gets to wear them. Besides, I think this is fantastic blackmail material for when she is older.

So there you have it. A brief summary of the night time frolics that happen at our home. It is a interesting mix of emotions. I don't think I will ever get it quite right; I am sure I will always be trying to catch up and finish my "to do" list. However, I am beginning to accept and love the journey of life for what it is.

While waiting for Caleb to finish with Parent Teacher Conference I stopped to buy the kids an ice cream cone. As most of you know Caleb and I are passionate about ice cream. I have decided our kids inheirted that same passion.

Unfortunately these pictures don't capture the extent of ice cream smeared all over Kaiya's face, legs, arms, ears, car seat and anywhere else she could reach. As a matter of fact she was my inspiration for the blog post. Basically anything glossy and shiny you can find in the picture is ice cream.

Kaiya is still new to the wonderful world of ice cream and can't seem to shove it in fast enough. However, Brigham a little older and more experienced prefers to eat his ice cream a little slower and with a little less mess.
When I took these pictures Kaiya had already devoured her entire ice cream cone, but Brigham was just getting to the cone. I think he likes to savor it.