When All You Can Do Is Laugh

Or cry.

I usually choose to laugh.

Last night I was trying to get Adelaide quickly to bed, but, after playing outside several times during the day, she really needed a bath. Madeline loves baths, and thinks that every time Adelaide gets a bath, she’s entitled to one, too.

And Drew’s never one to turn down a party.

So, I shrugged, said “fine!” and let them all get in. Went downstairs for something and a little while later heard “Mom! There’s poop!”

Perfect timing, Adelaide, as always. (Think she plans it?)

I somehow managed to get her squirmy, slippery self cleaned and rinsed, meanwhile Drew was playing with the faucet and succeeded in spraying the entire bathroom. I looked down and realized I was kneeling in an inch of water. My poor jeans!

I grabbed Adelaide (who felt remarkably like a greased piglet), stuffed her into a towel, threw her diaper on, and left her in the girls’ room so I could finish refereeing the bath party.

Oh, and the poop cleanup. Let’s not forget about that.

The three of us finally made it out of the bathroom, mostly unharmed and relatively dry, and I began trying to wriggle pajamas onto two jumpy kids (otherwise known as The Nighttime Workout). Madeline insisted on dressing herself, so inevitably I had to help her turn her shirt around but then just left her pants backwards. I mean, I can only take so much.

I ran down again to get Adelaide’s bottle, but while I was waiting for the microwave I heard the upstairs bathroom faucet turn on.

(Not a good sound when your bathroom is already sitting under an inch of water.)

It turned out they were just brushing their teeth, but unfortunately Adelaide had crawled in after them, which meant she was soaked. I changed her into fresh pj pants and dry socks, and put her to bed.

I immediately went back into the bathroom, perhaps a little nervous at the tooth-brushing chaos I was about to witness. They had all three selections of toothpastes out, each one opened and generously sampled.

Needless to say, there were blue spots all over the counter and the white bath mats.

Since it was obvious their teeth were sufficiently brushed, I made them wrap it up and shooed them out. However, as I was stepping back to let them pass, I stepped on an opened tube of Tow Mater toothpaste:



Yeah.

Like I said, all I could do was laugh.