I couldn't help it

I couldn't help but write this. Two posts in a day, woohoo! But I had to.....

You see, if you read the preceding post, you'll know that I just told all about how much grief Alexander gives his father. And you'd know that I had to stop writing because the offending party woke up. And I HAD to write this because now you need to know what happened next!

Apparently the few moments the baby was fussing while I wrote "Speaking of the devil...." were too many moments for Bryan, because as I rose from the keyboard to retrieve my youngest, my husband walks out into the hallway, child in arms. And I laughed out loud. Quietly, mind you, because Christopher was still asleep, and if you'd seen the awake two you'd have been quietly laughing too. They both looked COMPLETELY miserable, both scowling, both bleary-eyed. Still giggling, I took the baby from Bryan, who did an about-face and collapsed back into bed. I wonder what time HE went to sleep....

I sat down with the baby. Within the next 2 hours, he did EVERYTHING to me that I had just written that he does to Bryan. I couldn't even get one thing all cleaned up before he threw up or pooped or slobbered on the next thing. It was a few hours of a perpetual cycle of stinky mess cleanup. And in spite of the fact that I changed my clothes 4 times today already (and it's only mid-afternoon at the moment), I laughed all morning. It's like Alexander was in there asleep and telepathically knew what I'd been up to, and noting my amusement had said to himself, "Wow, Mom really likes that. I think I should share with her!"

So even as I was cleaning the drippy poo off my legs and shirt, and while I washed all 5 loads of laundry (No, I didn't do a load for each messy thing, that just prompted the loading of other things I should have washed anyway), I laughed to myself. I am of the opinion that "It's better to laugh than to cry", so while some things cannot be laughed at, if there's an option to see the funny side, I like that one better. I also like the saying "Those that can laugh at themselves will never cease to be amused." So I laughed at the irony of my circumstances this morning, and was thoroughly amused the entire time.

I still have a HUGE pile of laundry to fold and put away, but I have NO intention of doing it today. I did a bajillion (yes, really a bajillion, I'm a Mom) other things today, and the finishing of the laundry is going to wait until tomorrow when I can pawn my kids off on their great-grandmother. However, I've washed my hands, done the dishes, and used cleaning wipes several times, and I still can't get the smell of baby poop off my hands. Yuck. I have slightly more sympathy for my husband now. Slightly.




P.S. Among my bajillion other things I did was play hide-and-seek with Christopher, with Alexander in my arms. Let me tell all of you inexperienced or otherwise unwarned mothers out there: Do Not, EVER, hide yourself and your newborn in a dark closet. In spite of the fact that he was digging his fingers into my arm, could smell me, and was chewing on my collarbone, the kid has no comprehension of the fact that I still exist when he can't see me, and he panicked. Thankfully the dog gave us away by trying to get into the closet with me. Oh well.