A Peck of Three Year Olds
A Pack of 3 Year Olds?
A Herd of 3 Year Olds?
A Flock of 3 Year Olds?
I know! A Stampede of 3 Year Olds!
Wow, I'm wiped out today. Yesterday was a busy day, and no small part of it is because I hosted a stampede of three year olds. Not quite all at the same time, but back to back, and that is pretty close to the same thing.
The day started bright and early when we picked up my niece Livvie before I took the older kids to school. My sister Amy normally works from home, but this week she had to go into the office for training for a few days. She is kind enough to frequently babysit my hoard of five, so I was quite willing to watch Livvie while her mom was at work. The first two days were somewhat free of problems, other than K & Livvie cutting a hole in our "new" couch and K locking all of us in the girls' room (Terence had to come home from work to let us out). Yesterday was our third and final day, and Livvie was quite excited to go with us. I was planning on having a laid back morning-- I was going to hang out with some friends while we let our kids play. Should have been a relatively stress-free morning, and I figured Livvie would fit in just fine with the other young kids. But life with kids frequently turns catawampus, and yesterday morning it was Livvie's turn to throw us for a loop by throwing up just as we made it back home from dropping the older kids off at school. So instead of hanging out with Kristi and Stef, I gave a distraught little girl a bath and spent the morning cleaning out the van. The good thing was that my van desperately needed to be cleaned anyway, so hey, at least I got something crossed off my to-do list!
Whatever went wrong with Livvie's stomach, it wasn't the flu. She was right back to normal as soon as she was clean again, actively and happily playing with K. They managed to keep out of trouble right until it was nearly time to pick the older kids up from school. I was out of sight for awhile though-- putting Livvie's clean car seat back together and then feeding S-- and it took a little bit of time for the shouting from the kitchen to penetrate my brain. I was just going to tell the kids to get in the car when I discovered that somehow K and Livvie had locked themselves in the kitchen behind the baby gate. They were standing on chairs lined up at the gate (Were they playing they were on a train? Trying to climb back over the gate?) and Livvie had found it impossible to get to the bathroom in time. Oops! I had just enough time to hurriedly dress her in a new outfit and throw a towel on the puddle before rushing them all into van. But hey, we made it to pick up the kids on time!
That afternoon Amy came and picked up Livvie about an hour before my next batch of 3 year olds was due to arrive. I decided to spend a little time doing surveys on the computer while I had the chance, and while I was otherwise occupied, K decided to dig the powdered sugar out of the pantry and dig in. I found him covered in powdered sugar, as well as a counter and a large section of the kitchen floor. Worse, B had been cooperative for once and was washing the dishes (it was her day). But she was slopping water all over the floor, so instead of powdered sugar I could sweep up, I had a sticky gloppy mess.
I didn't quite have it cleaned up before my next babysitting swap showed up. This particular family switches with us regularly since we both have five kids. But their family includes a set of twins and a set of 3 year old triplets.
Oh yes.
They were pretty good. Hope and Charity, in fact, were pretty content to play with toys or watch movies (other than answering my phone for me a couple of times, they stayed out of trouble). However, Faith was walking more in K's footsteps. I caught her several times dumping water from our cooler onto to the floor, and three or four times she poured chocolate milk from the other kids' cups onto the table or the kitchen floor-- which I had scrubbed just hours earlier to remove the powdered sugar goop.
Like I said on Facebook yesterday, never a dull moment. Not around here!
A Herd of 3 Year Olds?
A Flock of 3 Year Olds?
I know! A Stampede of 3 Year Olds!
Wow, I'm wiped out today. Yesterday was a busy day, and no small part of it is because I hosted a stampede of three year olds. Not quite all at the same time, but back to back, and that is pretty close to the same thing.
The day started bright and early when we picked up my niece Livvie before I took the older kids to school. My sister Amy normally works from home, but this week she had to go into the office for training for a few days. She is kind enough to frequently babysit my hoard of five, so I was quite willing to watch Livvie while her mom was at work. The first two days were somewhat free of problems, other than K & Livvie cutting a hole in our "new" couch and K locking all of us in the girls' room (Terence had to come home from work to let us out). Yesterday was our third and final day, and Livvie was quite excited to go with us. I was planning on having a laid back morning-- I was going to hang out with some friends while we let our kids play. Should have been a relatively stress-free morning, and I figured Livvie would fit in just fine with the other young kids. But life with kids frequently turns catawampus, and yesterday morning it was Livvie's turn to throw us for a loop by throwing up just as we made it back home from dropping the older kids off at school. So instead of hanging out with Kristi and Stef, I gave a distraught little girl a bath and spent the morning cleaning out the van. The good thing was that my van desperately needed to be cleaned anyway, so hey, at least I got something crossed off my to-do list!
Whatever went wrong with Livvie's stomach, it wasn't the flu. She was right back to normal as soon as she was clean again, actively and happily playing with K. They managed to keep out of trouble right until it was nearly time to pick the older kids up from school. I was out of sight for awhile though-- putting Livvie's clean car seat back together and then feeding S-- and it took a little bit of time for the shouting from the kitchen to penetrate my brain. I was just going to tell the kids to get in the car when I discovered that somehow K and Livvie had locked themselves in the kitchen behind the baby gate. They were standing on chairs lined up at the gate (Were they playing they were on a train? Trying to climb back over the gate?) and Livvie had found it impossible to get to the bathroom in time. Oops! I had just enough time to hurriedly dress her in a new outfit and throw a towel on the puddle before rushing them all into van. But hey, we made it to pick up the kids on time!
That afternoon Amy came and picked up Livvie about an hour before my next batch of 3 year olds was due to arrive. I decided to spend a little time doing surveys on the computer while I had the chance, and while I was otherwise occupied, K decided to dig the powdered sugar out of the pantry and dig in. I found him covered in powdered sugar, as well as a counter and a large section of the kitchen floor. Worse, B had been cooperative for once and was washing the dishes (it was her day). But she was slopping water all over the floor, so instead of powdered sugar I could sweep up, I had a sticky gloppy mess.
I didn't quite have it cleaned up before my next babysitting swap showed up. This particular family switches with us regularly since we both have five kids. But their family includes a set of twins and a set of 3 year old triplets.
Oh yes.
They were pretty good. Hope and Charity, in fact, were pretty content to play with toys or watch movies (other than answering my phone for me a couple of times, they stayed out of trouble). However, Faith was walking more in K's footsteps. I caught her several times dumping water from our cooler onto to the floor, and three or four times she poured chocolate milk from the other kids' cups onto the table or the kitchen floor-- which I had scrubbed just hours earlier to remove the powdered sugar goop.
Like I said on Facebook yesterday, never a dull moment. Not around here!
Comments