Sunday, March 7, 2010

Beware The Small People

On Friday, Little Miss had a day off school (again, whee!), so we had a playdate. In fact, we sort of had two playdates, as we also invited a friend's son to join us since said friend broke her foot and is pretty much down for the count for awhile.

Picture me with three four year olds running amuck in my house for three hours. Two of the three were boys (because, after all, Little Miss has no interest in girls an only plays with boys now), and Little Miss plays like a boy anyway.

They were all pretty well behaved, but three children running around playing requires an active eye. One child had to go potty, so I showed him where the bathroom was and resumed monitoring the other two until he requested my help washing his hands. All was good.

A little while later, the same boy announced he had to go potty again, but this time he wanted no help. No worries. I kept playing with the other two children, and the little boy returned shortly thereafter.

At lunchtime, one boy's babysitter arrived to pick him up. We came up from the basement when we heard her, and she was in our foyer petting one of our cats. She asked if I knew that he'd been outside. In fact, he was sunning himself in our driveway when she pulled up and the car scared him.

Ummm, no. I didn't know that my indoor only cat was outside. I thought quickly and headed to the powder room, across the hall from my garage. Where the door was still standing wide open.

Of course the babysitter had found the ummm less intelligent of my two cats sitting in the middle of the driveway. After calling briefly for Roar (no grief on the names here, folks, Mister Man was only just three when he named Meow and Roar), I realized that he was outside, too.

Whee! Fortunately, he came running from the bushes to the side of my house once I called him, and he was redeposited inside, safe and sound.

Note to self: keep track of all small children and don't trust potty breaks.

After we ate lunch, I returned the little boy to my friend with the broken foot. She was in the process of trying to build and iceberg cake for said child's birthday party the next day, and she was requesting some assistance from me. She didn't believe me when I told her that I don't build or carve cakes for a reason, but between the two of us, we came up with some workable solutions.

While I was in the kitchen helping her figure this out (and racing into the basement to find a toy dinosaur I could wash and stick next to the cake before it fell over), Little Miss and her son were playing nicely in the other room. All was well.

I gathered up Little Miss when it was time for us to go, and luckily I didn't even need to ask Little Miss to put her coat on since she'd never taken it off for whatever reason. In fact, she even had put on her mittens.

We climbed into the car and began backing out of the driveway. I heard Little Miss shaking her mitten. Yep, I heard it. It jingled. In fact, it sounded rather like money. I sighed and pulled over, requesting to see the mitten.

Little Miss refused and pulled the mitten close to her chest. Fortunately, she quickly saw reason, and I began collecting the coins from Little Miss's mitten that she'd stolen from my friend. The only good news was that they were all pennies.

*sigh*

I decided against returning to the house and making my broken footed friend in the wheelchair let me in again, as we were fortunately going to see them again at the birthday party the next day. Instead, I placed the coins in my pocket with a mental note to return them.

Note to self: Little Miss doesn't get the value of money and apparently has no compunctions about taking them from other people. Have a little chat about thievery and respecting other people's property.

I'm feeling like a great trying-it-out-SAHM this week, can you tell?

20 comments:

Tara R. March 7, 2010 at 4:43 PM  

You didn't have to test out all the SAHM scenarios in one day.

Seems that you survived though, big brownie points.

Pat March 7, 2010 at 5:58 PM  

When it would be almost time for my hub to come home from work, I would begin thnking hard about, "What did I get done today?
...three little boys and I'm a SAHM

Mrs4444 March 7, 2010 at 8:07 PM  

LOL-It could be a lot worse! haha

Upstatemamma March 7, 2010 at 9:23 PM  

Good for you!! It sounds like you are doing an incredibly awesome job. We have cats we have to watch out for - one jets out the door whenever we leave it open too long. And they are both completely indoor cats.

Claudya Martinez March 7, 2010 at 9:26 PM  

You are awesome!

Alexis AKA MOM March 7, 2010 at 11:56 PM  

Wowzer girlie that is one heck of a day! You really packed it all it all in.

Oh man Cole was bad about taking change from people, he'd sneak it home and put in his underwear drawer .. yup got that from mom well except the part of taking it from others. Thankfully he grew out of it, but now Caden is bring it back ... lol

WeaselMomma March 8, 2010 at 5:54 AM  

No worries. We all get put through the wringer some weeks.

Connie March 8, 2010 at 8:03 AM  

Having extra children at the house can be a great break for mom while they all play together or a real circus!
Roar and Meow are great names. When my son was 3, he named our 2nd cat "More cat"

Now we know why Little Miss kept her mittens! :-)
Have a great day!

septembermom March 8, 2010 at 8:20 AM  

That was a workout kind of day. I give you kudos for handling all those little ones. Your cat sounds like the Pied Piper that the little ones just love to follow. LOL.

Sherry @ Lamp Unto My Feet March 8, 2010 at 9:11 AM  

Wow! WHat a day! LOL! I heard our friends named their new cat "kitty". :D

Roxane March 8, 2010 at 12:13 PM  

Sounds like you've got a pick-pocket on your hands! You need to train her to recognize $100 bills and just go for them! I mean...no! that's not a good idea ;)

Michelle March 8, 2010 at 9:04 PM  

Tara - I wasn't TRYING to test them all out, I was just lucky. Although I have a feeling there are one or two more left - oh, did I mention puking child on the way to school? I may have to blog on that one, too.

Pat - I know I'm not the only one. I just feel like I should be able to do more. I can when I'm working!

Mrs4444 - Oh I know it could. I just keep reminding myself of that. At least we're all happy here. I think. For now ;)

Upstatemomof3 - Yikes! I'm lucky that our cats don't run outside. When the door is open, they sort of peer at it but do'nt make a break for it. That's what freaked me out more.

Unknown Mami - And you are too kind!

Alexis - In his underwear drawer? That's funny. But I suppose it isn't so far off from sticking it in a mitten.

WeaselMomma - You mean it isn't always going to be like this? Oh thank goodness!

Connie - More cat? I like it! And more kids in the house? Well, I know for sure that I wasn't meant to be a mommy of more than 2. I get a little flustered after awhile when there are 3+ in the house.

Kelly - At least I got a workout somewhere. It was my gym day, but the days of school really mess with that!

Sherry - Awww, what a fun name. I named the cat I got when I was 2 Caesar. I think all small children should get to name at least one animal in their lives!

Roxane - Yeah, that's what I need. This is the child I worry may someday go to juvie. I don't need to encourage it ;)

Anonymous March 8, 2010 at 11:42 PM  

You had better pace yourself if you are going to make this staying-home thing last for a little while!

The money thing drives me nuts! Cooper is in that same phase - he knows that money is important and shiny, and looks for it everywhere we go (he has a real knack for finding change every time we go out.) Let me know if you find any good resources for explaining money!

Karen March 9, 2010 at 7:16 AM  

That explains exactly why the sanity of a SAHM is always in question, but that of a working mom isn't. Working moms get time away from the chaos to recharge the sanity tank.

Karen March 9, 2010 at 7:16 AM  

Oh, and I'm glad the less intelligent cat wasn't hurt! Silly thing.

Michelle March 9, 2010 at 2:35 PM  

Nichole - Oh, I've actually got a few on money (books), but she doesn't care yet. In fact, her piggy bank is currently empty of coins because she's given them all away to my mom and to Mister Man.

Karen - Oh no doubt. I figured that out Day One of my previous stint at trying the SAHMdom. And yes, the less intelligent cat is fine - although the babysitter LOVES the cats and would have looked out for him had he not moved.

Unknown March 9, 2010 at 8:38 PM  

I saw a lot worse form some of the Son's friends when they were that age - including the one that always had a screw driver and would immediately start removing the cover plates on plug-ins for a period. He had a belief that there was a treasure behind he plates. {*grin*}

Michelle March 12, 2010 at 10:19 PM  

Dan - A screwdriver, huh? I'll have to remember to hide ours... then again, they're located in the garage, so I may be in trouble with that one boy! Did he ever find any treasure?

Melisa Wells March 16, 2010 at 6:22 AM  

Hey, at least the cats came back after being outside, and it wasn't the four-year-old running around out there: can you imagine how badly you'd feel then? :)

Michelle March 26, 2010 at 10:17 PM  

Melisa - Oh amen amen! I would definitely have heard the four year old, as I was listening to him in the bathroom - I just missed the garage door opening. Hmmm.

  © Blogger template 'Solitude' by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP