Just sing, sing a song...

I was home with the kids today (Erin had a vacation day) and our plans to go for a walk or have a water day were crushed by the rain. There are few places I can go with all three kids by myself, especially needing to be back early for naps (as if!) since today was OT.

The kids had a lot of energy today and seemed especially ornery. It all made me think of a story my mom told me long ago. It is one in which she got in trouble from my grandma over something she was singing to me. I was around two or three years old at the time. Apparently, as the story goes, my grandma was babysitting and during my bath time I broke out into song. The melody was very sweet and almost lullaby like - "you drive me up a wall... ohhhhhh ohhhhh... you drive me up a wall...." At the time she told me, I thought it was hilarious. One that she got busted and two that I repeated as I did.

As I laughed about it today, given the kind of day I was having, I was seeing it in a whole new light. Though, like most parents, I had my parenting ideals outlined before (keyword: before) I had kids and I do feel that I have done fairly well at holding to them... admittedly I have my moments of well... loosing my mind let's just call them bad moments.

Mom, today I pulled a page from your parenting book and I decided that in the right tone I could say some things... and save a wee bit of sanity...

eh hem, la, la, la... (sweet lullaby melody) "Oh sweet little one, please stop jumping off the arm of the sofa like I have told you a trillion times before... it's making me wacky... darling little boy if you throw your sippy cup at me one more time, spraying milk all about... ohhhh ohhhh... you'll be washing the hard wood floors until you are twenty two... with your tongue... oh you angelic creature don't test me again like that... la, la, la... you are driving me up a wall..." (Ethan of course said: "mommy, that's silly, you can't drive up a wall!" Sigh...)

Go ahead (as Arnold would say)... I dare anyone, whose spent a day with my darling little angels wild boys and has had small children of their own in the last decade, to bust me on this one.