Thursday, September 25, 2008

Welcome Your Madjesty! Pardon the Mess.

I just know Ava's preschool teacher thinks I'm a smelly pirate hooker. Maybe not so much a pirate. or a hooker. and probably not smelly. Perhaps just........dirty. When Gracie was a little non-mobile ball of pudge, I'd plop her in the excersaucer or bouncy chair and spend like an hour getting ready in the morning before leaving to take Ava to preschool. I would be perfectly put together with shiny makeup, bangle bracelets and the perfect necklace to match the perfectly coordinated shoes I was wearing and head out the door with the fresh springy scent of perfume trailing behind me. My how quickly things change. Now basically all I do for the two days a week Ava has school is brush my teeth, throw on a bra and head out the door with coffee breath and muffin crumbs all over myself because instead of using a napkin for their faces, I used the closest napkin I can find -- my shirt. I've actually not cared one bit and slipped on black flip flops when my tee-shirt was brown. Eeek! What have I become?!

I'll tell you...Smart. Relaxed. Coooool as a cucumber.


When it was only Ava, the house was immaculate all of the time, toys picked up, I showered every single morning like clock work and things were very much under control. Then add another little chitlin to the mix. Two's not that hard, don't get me wrong.... but when the two are 17 months old and 1 month old; It can get a bit outta control in one hell of a hurry if you know what I mean. So, I learned instead of picking up toys and crap 10 times a day and loading dish after dish every 2 hours when the kids snacked, to just let the dishes pile up in the sink and do them in one visit to the kitchen later in the day. I left their rooms messy and cleaned it all up he end of the day. I walked past the trail of baby things and dropped cheerios in the hallway and picked them all up at once, and not allll dayyy lonnng. Who ever said procrastination was a bad habit? In my case, it's common sense.


It used to drive me crazy at first, knowing things were messy, then I let go and realized: UH... it's JUST US here. MTV Cribs isn't gonna stop by and surprise me with a video run-through of my house. And I'm pretty sure the Queen of England isn't flying over for tea and crumpets at any given moment, so I need to stop flipping the frick out. And boy does it make a difference. I'm calmer and less stressed. We have kids! And I want my kids to be kids - so messes will be made and crayons and cheerios and magnets and dolls will be all over the place. The fact that two happy, funny, curious and hyper children live in this house is very evident. I'm proud of that.

3 comments:

Annemarie said...

I'm proud of you too! You are raising two wonderful daughters, your house is great, and YOU are fabulous, my dear!!

Beankountess said...

That is the second time I have heard 'pirate hooker' today.

Never heard that before...or at least not to my face. ;-)

Anonymous said...

I cannot tell you how much I love this post! You are living my life, dearie. I've got two pre-schoolers too, and I often fly into school with my hair half pulled up in a contraption of some sort, five minutes late. Grrr. Life is great though! Thanks for your honesty on this world wide web...I love it!