Coming Of Age As a Mom

Tonight I realized that I’m truly no longer a novice at this mom stuff. How do I know this? Let me tell you what just happened in my home this evening.

It all started when hubby got home, the little people were restless (read: bratty) after an entire day of being cooped up in the house – damn the rain! I guess they just couldn’t hold the naughtiness in any longer. Anyway I made dinner and we all ate (except the kids who turned their noses up at everything except the ketchup and the iced tea). After some playtime I gave the little people bathes and then it was off to bed. As usual, hubby took the kids up to bed and read them stories. All was quiet… which is unusual… and should have piqued our suspicions… but it didn’t. We wanted to believe that the little people were asleep because we wanted a little peace and quiet. How foolish of us. We’ve been parents for 4 and a half years, we know that peace and quiet is always the sign of mischief! Eventually – an hour and a half after kids were put in bed – we hear crying upstairs, hubby goes to investigate. I listen from the bottom of the stairs. The moment I hear him say, “Where is that blood coming from?” my mommy senses kick in. I walk up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, hubby is cleaning something off the baby and looking for blood. I immediately see that it’s coming from her knee, as evidence by the two streams of blood that are down to her ankle. Hubby sees her knee about the same time I do. I wipe her leg off, see that she’s still bleeding, instruct hubby to hold the towel on her leg while I go get ointment and Band-Aids. After a quick trip to my bathroom for Band-Aids and ointment I return. Looking over the baby, who is no longer crying, I realize that she’s got something all over her legs, kind of soapy feeling – and I’ll have to clean off her leg before I put the Band-Aids on. While doing the clean up, I ask hubby if the kids broke something and what is all over the baby. He says no he doesn’t think they broke anything and that it’s foot scrub and toothpaste that the little people were spreading over the guest bath (the info on the tooth paste part came from the oldest who said “Sorry mamma about the toothpaste on the floor.” At least she told me what it was.) I ask again if there was anything that was broken because the baby has three puncture wounds in her knee. He looks around and discovers something in the tub – part of a game (a sand timer thingie). There are pieces of glass in the tub and on the floor. Sheesh Nothing like kids causing a little chaos before bed. Three Band-Aids later (had to make it hard for her to pick them off) a change of jammies and a sippy cup of milk spiked with Tylenol, it’s all over (and quiet for now). Anyway, I realized that I’ve truly come of age as a mom, I didn’t get upset when I saw the rivers of blood down my toddlers leg, I was able to calmly give everyone orders on what to do, I could clean off the baby and bandage her wounds while lecturing the oldest about the naughtiness that they were engaged in tonight and make a subtle threat as to what will happen if they get out of bed again tonight. And it all took less than 15 minutes! Wow! What a night!