On My Own

I had a glimpse the other day of what my life is going to be like once I leave the cushy confines of my parents' home where I have the incredible and under-appreciated help of my mother. I was left to fend for myself with two youngsters, one who was having digestive problems and one who was having a hard time keeping himself entertained. By the end of the day the house was a disaster. Toys strewn about. Empty bottles and sippy cups left here and there. An unfinished dinner left by a milk addicted two year old still sitting on the table two hours after dinner had been officially declared over. Quite fun. I gave Emily a bath to ease her discomfort. I have to admit that I wasn't paying much attention to what Aidan was doing. He's pretty good about keeping himself out of trouble. I heard cupboard doors opening and closing and his constant jabbering, but thought nothing of it. When I turned around, this is what I saw:Aidan had pulled all the ketchup bottles out of the cupboard (no, we do not refrigerate our ketchup and yes, we have three partially used bottles of it), along with the mustard and pancake mix and arranged them nicely by the phone. I guess he thought they needed to get some fresh air. I suppose I'm lucky the thought didn't occur to him to open them up and squeeze their contents all over the house. He also pulled out all the red potatoes with which he spent some time trying to put them in various containers. Now it makes sense why he kept telling me that he didn't like potatoes.

Earlier in the day, Aidan was drawing while I, of course, checked email and blogs, but it wasn't until later that that I noticed this:

(Good grief, he needs a haircut...)

I guess he doesn't want to be Tigger for Halloween after all. I didn't realize he was into Harry Potter...

All in all, it was an okay day. I didn't lose my cool even once, which is surprising because I was exhausted. I was even able to get Aidan to help clean up all the messes he'd left around the house before getting him to bed on time! And I did it all by lonesome. Not bad, not bad.