Anyway...all this means is dad is all work no play for a bit and mom is on full time kid duty. Today Brayden made me consider going back to work myself. Once again...five minutes of a back turned is five minutes of chaos. While the kids were happily playing puzzles, or so I thought, I went to try and look online to see what it would take to send Shawn's transcripts to his new district and send out one e-mail. I do believe it was less than five minutes before Gavin came to me with pen on his hand claiming, "Mom, I'm dirty."
It wasn't that bad, but I could hear shouts of glee from Brayden, which made me question how the pen got there exactly. I rounded the corner into the kitchen and proceeded to find: seven boxes of 24 pieces puzzles dumped on the floor, the "no kid allowed without permission" cupboard open and a mess, and Brayden covered front to back, up his arm, on his clothes, in his scalp, on his face, on his stomach and even on his back (how he did this, i have yet to figure out) in black dry erase...which does not come out with water or stain remover. Brayden was in the bathroom trying to scrub his arm off, with the pen, in the sink.
Deep breathe.
I marched the boys out to pick up the puzzles. Which really meant me sorting and picking them up and taking out all the pieces they put in the wrong boxes. Who knows how many actually have 24 pieces anymore, seeing as Gavin was finding some in the heat vent and behind couch cushions.
I then proceeded to start a bath and while the kids got in, took the clothes to the laundry room and pulled out the rubbing alcohol (surprising cleaning tip here: rubbing alcohol does take out ball point pen, and as it turns out in this case...the dry erase pen too!) . Upon reaching the bathtub approximately 3 minutes later, I find Brayden had already bailed out most of the bathwater with a cup and mommy's "special treat, way more than I ever spend on shampoo" shampoo, floating half opened in the tub.
Deep breathe.
I will admit, at this point, the tears are welling up. I had to walk out of the room for a time out. I wanted to scream, "What are you doing?" I actually might have, it's all a blur. I did however leave out the part about him being crazy and my swelling desire to drop him off on a friend's doorstep.
Onto bath clean up. I got the floor cleaned up with three towels, cleaned up the training potty, which had the lid up and was full of water, and I managed to get most the pen off my children, without bathing them in rubbing alcohol (I figured some may frown on this and CPS would NOT help the day go any better. As is, the house already smelled like a distillery from cleaning the clothes off.) I took brayden out first, and set him in front of his train set while I got Gavin. By the time Gavin was cleaned off, I found Brayden in the office playing on the computer. Fortunately, nothing befell the computer, because Mommy was way past the end of her rope already.
Lastly, as I tucked Gavin into his bunkbed, I realized there was black pen all over Brayden's bedspread and his whiter than white gate, that holds him in bed. Hmmm...I didn't realize the pen had made it that far. I didn't bother to look for more. I just ran out of the room.
I think I may laugh about this someday. Not today. Today, I keep reminding myself how great he was getting his haircut this morning, how brave, how cute and how sweet giving me hugs when it was all done. I am reminding myself how he loves to laugh and is not afraid to enjoy life. Even when it's risky. I am reminding myself how much I love this little boy who has my shoulders tensed up to my ears and my head throbbing. It's really quite a phenomenon.
Here are a few pictures for enjoyment.
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