I know that we all as parents like to tell each other that we long for the times that the house is empty and free from noise and chaos. We claim to long for these moments as with the kids around it is highly unlikely that we can experience this. I long for the day that my girls realise that it is not a necessity to watch daddy take a dump every morning!
When you live with little ones you are sure to have little people who follow you everywhere. I literally cannot go into the garage to put something in the recycling bin with out a little voice from Eden behind me saying "me coming!" It does not help if I say to her that I will be back immediately; no she is still coming. I guess this isn't so bad as I always have a companion when I do chores around the house. This unfortunately does not mean that my companion is good at helping with the chores, no, she can be more of a hindrance.
I cannot tell you how many times I have heard Julia yelling at Eden to stop helping here with putting the laundry away. This is Julia's job as both of the girls clothes look the same to me. The problem is perpetuated by the fact that most of Eden's clothes are hand me downs from Bella. So I am so confused as to who's is what that I would just leave all their clothes in a pile on the floor and tell them to randomly select what they want to wear for the day. Apparently, according to Julia, this is not effective parenting; I don't understand, thus she puts the laundry away. I hang it up and take it down, purely because her wash-line management leaves much to be desired!
Back to Eden and her attempts at helping Julia with the basket of folded washing. The problem comes when Eden's enthusiasm to help takes over from her facility to listen to mommy's instructions. I can just see the thought process inside her little mind; taking one out at a time is so slow, lets take them all out at once! With that the full basket of folded laundry will be tipped over. Nine times out of ten Julia will be able to save most of it from becoming un-folded.
Her next course of action is to put each persons respective clothing items into their own pile on the bed. Once again Eden can help with this under strict supervision. The problem comes when Julia has finished this exercise and is ready to take each person's clothing to their respective cupboards. Due to the fact that she suffers from the most common mommy ailment there is, chronic fatigue, she forgets what will happen the moment she leaves the room. Eden will play one of her favourite games, make one pile out of all the little piles and maybe throw some of the washing onto the floor. As is a common problem with humanity, history will repeat itself, thus this is a common occurrence in our house.
When I feed the dogs in the evening, Eden is right behind me and occasionally Bella will also grace us with her presence. As Bella's motor skills and ability to follow instructions are slightly better than her younger sister she is easily supervised. With Eden I have to plan how we go about feeding the dogs, Buddy and Holly. If I let Bella go first then we may get issues with Eden wanting to put food in both bowls and they will end up fighting over the only scoop. Thus what I do is let Eden go first knowing that she will spill a good few pellets on the ground around the bowl, thus buying Bella and I some time. If she finishes cleaning her mess up before we are ready I send her off to call the dogs out of their kennel.
This is a funny exercise in itself as of course the dogs are not going to listen to her. So it ends with Eden wagging her finger at them and telling them they are naughty. What this enables Bella to do is finish putting food in the other bowl uninterrupted. Then we get the dogs over, where I make them sit and shake before they are permitted anywhere near their bowls. It took Eden a while to realise that the shake is only for the dogs front legs. I have on occasion had to stop her trying to shake one of the dogs back legs whilst they are in the sitting position!
This type of organised chaos is par for the course in houses with young children and this is why parents like to wish for an empty house for a few hours or god willing a day or two. I think we tell each other this just to fit in with the perceived general consensus of what we should want. I say this as my 'prayers' are about to be answered; and I am so miserable!
On Wednesday this week at lunchtime all my girls are flying to the UK. I will have an empty home with no pitter patter of little feet, laughter and screams filling the empty spaces. There will be no one I can call on for a quick cuddle. I will have no one to irritate to the point of tears. I will not have a little person tugging at my pants asking for a kiss. I will have no one to play hide and seek with. What will I do with myself? Probably get drunk at night so I don't have to cry myself to sleep in my big empty bed. I will not have to contend with a wayward foot or arm in the middle of the night and I won't be there to see the first smiles in the morning when Bella and Eden wake up and see us.
No, be careful what you wish for, luckily for me I fly out on Saturday to join them but at the moment Saturday might as well be an eternity away. I will ask them to leave me a bag full of cuddles and hopefully these will see me through the five days of loneliness...Buy my book here
