Thursday, July 16, 2009

When the Two Year Old Discovers the Sink Sprayer

I did really well, when first informed of my high cholesterol. I virtually cut out sweets, chocolate and ice cream. Plus, I was exercising for at least a half hour, five times a week. Then came my birthday and I began to splurge on food choices. Since hubby's birthday falls two weeks after mine, the concessions continued. Then, I strained my back muscles and didn't feel comfortable enough to exercise for almost a full month. I have slowly been getting back into it and now try to exercise every other day.

I find this so difficult. It is summer-time. The livin' should be easy, right? Well, I do the best I can to fight off the food temptations (hard when little boy whining seems to bear a higher pitch message, apparently only audible to myself, calling "Dark chocolate will make this feel better!"). And, you can imagine how tricky it is to carve out a half hour of exercise time with a two year old and four year old.

So, this morning, as soon as the little boys were set up at their breakfast station (yes, I'm a slouch - I lay a vinyl tablecloth on the floor in front of the TV and pull YS's chair with booster in and set MS up with a TV tray), I headed downstairs to pop my exercise video in. At the half-way point, I went to check on the boys. YS was finished eating and wanted out of his booster & tray. I obliged, assuming he would continue to watch TV with his brother or, at least, would occupy himself with train play until I finished. (When one has a two year old, one should NEVER assume!)

Back down I went. I didn't feel like doing it. I really felt like lying down on the couch and watching TV with them (even if it was something as insipid as Dora the Explorer). But, when I finished, I was glad I had taken the time.

As I approached the kitchen to refill my water bottle, I found YS standing on a chair at the sink. He had figured out how to turn on the faucet (had only turned on the HOT valve!) and was spraying water all over the kitchen with the sink sprayer (a small hose attached to the sink, which is very useful for rinsing dishes and... now I know... flooding kitchens).

You know that you are a blogger, when your first impulse, upon catching your child in a compromised situation like this, is to grab the camera. Still, I didn't manage to get very good shots. Sorry, they are blurry.





(This last one is a horrible shot, but I was trying to show what all the wooden cabinets looked like.)

Silver lining to this rainy cloud??

  1. I was able to exercise in uninterrupted bliss.
  2. I didn't have to pay $60 to get into the Indianapolis Zoo's splash zone.
  3. It lit a fire under me to accomplish several cleaning chores I hadn't planned, like
  4. washing the kitchen floor,
  5. washing down all the counter tops, cabinets and underneath the sink,
  6. scrubbing both sinks, and
  7. washing all the laundry after finishing the dozen towels used to mop up the mess.
  8. Plus, I felt fully justified in splurging on a Dairy Queen dipped cone tonight after dinner!

I'm hoping there are no repeats, though. While I accomplished 4, 5, and 6, YS read books quietly in the confinement of his crib (interspersed with shouts of: "Can I get out yet?") Boy am I glad we still have that crib! Hubby keeps asking every night, "when is he going to start sleeping on his toddler bed at night?" Still, I chuckle, because this escapade is quite tame compared to the antics MS used to routinely pull during his second (and even third) year!

3 comments:

Wendy said...

Gah! Next time make him clean it up! At least the parts he can reach, and to the point of what he's capable of for his age. I figured this out (far too late, I admit), that making a 2-year-old work really hard on cleaning up his or her own mess DOES make them think twice next time! Once I walked in on Dolly and a towel, and she nonchalantly, "I made a huge mess, Mom, but don't worry. I'm cleaning it all up." :-)

Unknown said...

Oh Wendy. I'm so impressed that you were able to roll with that. My kids also drag dining room chairs into the kitchen and no good ever comes from that.

That's why I'm able to shower in under four minutes.

Like Wendy above, I do try to force them to clean up their mess (along with me) but it doesn't seem to act as much of a deterrent.

Grrr!

Re: the toddler bed. My four-year-old is still in her crib and she loves it. She truly feels like it's her apartment and she is not ready to let go of it. And that suits me just fine.

Now her 9-year-old sister is jonesin' to switch bedrooms with her so she asks me almost daily when we are getting rid of the crib.

I tell her never or 50 years. Whichever comes first.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Wendy! Never a dull moment at your house with those little boys!! Loved your list of positives! ~Karin