5 Green and Speckled Frogs, sitting on a hollow log
Eating some most delicious bugs Yum Yum
One jumped into the pool, where it was nice and cool
Now are 4 green frogs.
How do I know its our new favorite book? Woke up several times last night to this tune in my head. Even meandered its way into my dreams. Oy
Our new favorite place to sit: my lap
To the extent that upon sitting down, there is a mad dash (worthy of olympic speed skating medals) complete with a forcefull plop onto the lap. To the extent that a lil one who was having a very hard time getting comfortable, couldn't choose whether to relinquish his prized lap spot for comfort, or to just suck it up and move on.
Him: lap, lap, lap
Me: if you're uncomfortable, stand him
Him: lap, lap, lap. tugging at my belt which apparantly was the source for his lower back pain.
Me: i am wearing a belt today, no I will not take it off. If it hurts, stand up (at which point I help him up)
Him: lap, lap, lap.
this continued for 10 minutes, until I decided for the sanity of all involved to get up and work on another idea
This month we've had some ungodly number of inches of snow (something like 25) which have effectively buried our playground. When it finally warmed up to the point where it was deemed possible to go outside, we tried. Twice. On two different days. Each with exhausting and disastrous consequences.
To enjoy 25 inches of snow we need to be wearing: snow pants, snow boots, coat, hat and mittens. All 12 of us. We had a plan. We gave ourselves a 30 minute head start. We told the kiddos the plan. All were excited to play in the snow. 40 minutes later and a call to the office for help. Scene: 11 toddlers, dressed ready to go. 1 toddler not dressed and ready to go. infact, he is only wearing a diaper. 20 minutes was spent wrestling this particular toddler into snow pants, boots, coat hat and mittens 4 separate times. Each time it was followed by him stripping each item: snow pants, boots, coat, hat mittens AND regular pants and shirt. Each time it was replaced with calm words (and the wish to have 8 arms) until finally, finally the clothes stayed on. Well, not the original clothes- cause really after 20 minutes of wrestling a toddler the standards of appropriate dress fall way way down. Final outfit: no snowpants, his coat, borrowed boots and a hat from our classroom instead of his from home.
His mom's response: When I saw his snowpants, boots and hat in the classroom I wondered, where is my son? When I told her the story, she just smiled and said thank you. It doesn't really matter whose hat he wears, now does it. Love her
To the parent who ended my day (yes the same day) with this interaction: Umm could you really make sure her boots are velcroed shut. Cause there is snow in them. Don't love her.
To that parent I smiled and said ok. To that parent I thought in my head... You have no idea. No idea that while the wrestling happened above, I was so thankful that your child was able to dress themselves. I have 12 toddlers to get ready, the ones that can do it independently do. If your child had asked for help, or mentioned that there was snow in her boots- of course I would help her. But I do not have the time, energy, or desire to examine every pair of boots to ensure proper fit and velcro placement. Especially when my focus is on keeping your child from pulling her friends hair. Priorities people.
And that is why I will no longer fight the snow gods to get my children a lil fresh air. It is not worth it.
Oh and to my doctor that says wrangling toddlers for a living does not constitute a workout. I say Phooey. I am not following up my days with going to the gym. I follow up my days with opening a big ol bottle of wine. Priorities!
