Calgon Take Me Away

It's a happy day at Mama's house. The kind of day that makes you want to lock yourself in the bathroom, fill your tub with Calgon to test it's promise that it will "Take you away".

We got a late start getting ready for gymnastics this morning. The Little One screamed the whole way there.  I should have just turned around then, but I had agreed to meet my friend Daycare Mom, and her three charges at the gym. I just couldn't leave her to her own devices with two 8 month olds and a three year old. And besides I crave the adult interaction as much as the Big One loves getting out of the house and playing with her friends.

We pull into the parking lot a bit early (a miracle for how I rushed around this morning), Daycare Mom has not yet arrived, so I decided to sit in the parking lot to nurse The Little One while we wait. Daycare Mom, pulls up beside us and The Big One is excitedly screaming in the backseat "Hi Daycare Mom! Hi! Mom, Daycare Mom is here!"

Daycare Mom, comes over and opens the back door. "Hi Big One!" She is met with the "mean face" and no eye contact. The oldest of Daycare Mom's charges, Handsome (he really is so cute), bounds into the van barely containing his excitement that The Big One is here to play. "Hi Big One". He excitement is met with a steely stare. "No Handsome. This is MY van", is the response he gets.

An example of The Big One's mean face

After what is meant to be a thought provoking, behavior changing time out, we head to the gym. We sign in, pay our fee, remove our shoes and get ready to play. We stayed for about 20 minutes of the hour allotted. Of those 20 minutes, maybe half of that was spent actually playing. The rest was best spent crying when waiting her turn, yelling "MINE!" at various unsuspecting kids, sitting on the trampoline so other kids couldn't use it, and refusing to play with Handsome.

Finally, I had enough. Time to put action to my threats. Lucky for me, Daycare Mom only had one of her usual three kids and I was able to leave without feeling enormously guilty. I walked out of the gym with my shoeless preschooler screaming behind me, wanting a giant hole to swallow me up, shielding me from the eyes of the other mothers. In my mind, I am the mother who has the "unruly kid". I'm the mom who somehow lacks parenting skills- the mom who can't teach her child to be nice to her friends. I can not rationally at this moment,think that those other moms are looking at me, as I so often look at other moms who's children are having a public meltdown, with compassion and understanding. Nope, right now I am embarrassed and frustrated that I can't teach my child to act differently.

The Little One, having missed her morning nap, screams almost the whole way home. Finally after grabbing lunch at a local drive- thru, we pull into the driveway. I am relieved. After the girls have a  nap the day will be much better. Right? Not so much. I walk into the house and I am met with the strong smell of bleach. You see, the Captain is home today, and in an effort to help out, he has cleaned our bathroom (that's another post). The smell is too strong to be able to lay The Little One down, so after setting up fans and opening windows we sit down and have lunch. Now that the house has aired out a bit, the Little One is fast asleep in her crib, The Captain is napping and The Big One is in her room, every five minutes asking "Is it time to get up?" I tell her to go to sleep (she so needs sleep right now) and she screams from her bed "I AM NEVA EVA GONNA TAKE A NAP!"

Really?!?!? Now, where is that dang bottle of Calgon?