Yesterday was an eventful day, jam-packed with activities. Mommy ran a half-marathon (in 2 hours, 3 min and 7 secs) while Daddy was in charge of getting the kids up, dressed, fed and to the finish line. He did an admirable job including getting a little ponytail in Aisling's hair, but didn't make it to the finish line in time. To make up for it, we took the rugrats to a park while I wolfed down some food on the park bench. The children spent an hour in the sunshine, climbing up the slides and swinging around.
Then we headed home. The three monkeys helped Daddy wash the cars and supervised him mowing the lawn. At some point, they trooped inside for a midday meal before heading outside again. I saw Devlin and Daddy play a bit of driveway hockey while Ceilidh pushed a stroller and Aisling get into some mud. Next, we set off to meet our ultimate frisbee team for a practice. While the adults tossed the disc, the kids ran around in the warm sunshine. The frolicked in the dirt and rolled around in the grass. Afterwards, we all congregated at our abode, which meant more fun for the children.
At some point, I realized that no one had much a rest, let alone a nap, including Aisling. I think she dozed off in the car for 10 minutes early in the day. This of course, would mean a disaster at some point. While we rushed to get dinner on the table, we noticed that both Aisling and Ceilidh had fallen asleep on the couch. Well, it was either let them sleep, and then have them wake up at 9pm and not go back to sleep until much later, or clench your teeth, and rouse them now. Since I was exhausted, having woken up 5:30am for the race, I voted for choice number 2.
We got the tub filled, and we each grabbed a child, woke up them up and put into the tub. Ceilidh was upset, but I managed to calm her down. Aisling? No way. She was very, very upset at having been woken up. She was even more upset at having a bath. While Daddy tried to wash her quickly, she fought with everything she had. Which meant, holding onto my shirt while I tried to grab a hold of her slippery body. Her arms and legs were flailing in every direction. Water and bubbles went everywhere.
Why did we force the bath? Well, given her lack of rest, I would have forgone the wash, except, she had spent the ENTIRE day in the dirt, sand, grass. At one point in the day, she resembled Pigpen from Peanuts.
Getting her out of the tub didn't soothe Aisling at all. She maintained her outrage. She fought the towelling off, she screamed while we held her down and diapered her, and putting her into pjs was like putting pantyhose on a feisty octopus.
Finally, we were done. I brought her downstairs, handed her a bottle and a soother. She promptly chucked the soother back at me, and threw the bottle at the wall. Then, still screaming, she took off her pants and top, and pulled off her diaper. While laying the floor, kicking and crying. There was no calming her. She slid across the floor, on her back until she wedged herself into a corner where she stayed, crying. I checked on her every minute or so, just to ensure she wasn't peeing all over the floor. Eventually, her sobs subsided into hiccups. And then there was silence. I went in, and she was walking towards me. She came easily into my arms and cuddled for a moment, before allowing me to diaper her and re-clothe her. She took her soother and bottle of milk without comment and snuggled in.
I guess, until she's good and ready, she will not allow herself to be directed into doing anything she doesn't want. Great. Another stubborn kid on my hands.
No comments:
Post a Comment