My oldest son who is not quite 3 (although has been known to tell people he is 2 and soon will be 5) was in need of a haircut. At this point I have dubbed myself as the barber for my two boys. Although for those who know my youngest son who is 1 year old, he is still quite bald (he may need a haircut by the time he is 3). I started cutting my oldest son's hair at around 1 year old. I was told by a friend to stick him in a highchair and give him something to eat and then cut away. So what was my choice of distraction, a lollipop! Clearly, I had not thought this through. Hmm.....sticky lollipops while cutting hair. Despite the mess this trick seemed to work quite well. And the next time a haircut was mentioned a lollipop was asked for, so this became the tradition. And now even though baby boy #2 does not need a haircut he also gets a lollipop during the hair cutting.
So today, as I cut baby boy #1's hair and he happily sucked on his lollipop I was not surprised to see the hair sticking around his face and on his hands. But as I looked over at baby boy #2 who was running around the kitchen thrilled to have a lollipop, I was a little perplexed at the fact that his little mouth and hands were also covered in hair! Well, needless to say the first thing that follows haircuts and lollipops is always a bath. But as I herded them in to the bathroom they were not ready to give up the lollipops. I thought about it for a moment and put them in the tub lollipops and all. I mean really is there a better place to eat lollipops? There really was nothing to get sticky in the bathtub, I have to say I thought this a bit ingenious!
I called medic hubby who was on the way home from work. We talked a minute and he asked what the boys were doing. I said "Oh, they are eating lollipops and taking a bath". I didn't think how strange this sounded and it was only 9am. So, I had to explain the scenario a bit. I then discovered this was a little more complicated than I had anticipated. The first issue I found was they liked to dip them in the bath water and swirl them around, which is gross. The second issue was safety pops are no longer safe when the entire stick is wet and bends. My 1 year old had stuffed the lollipop stick and all in his mouth. Well....so the idea wasn't ingenious. The lollipops were confiscated before finished to much protesting. Hey, you live and you learn.
So, a little later as soon as medic hubby walks in the door, I pounce on him with the idea of rearranging some furniture. Poor guy he had just got home from working a 24-hour shift and I was full of ambitious ideas. He is a good sport and agreed to my suggestions and began helping me move things around. I was explaining to him that I was still trying to find what worked in this house and how to make it efficient. To which he responded "this isn't a business". I was slightly offended. I informed him that this IS my career right now and I do want things to run smoothly and efficiently.
Later I was thinking about it and I think my job title might as well be "chaos and clutter control". This is what I feel like I am doing most days. I am simply getting us from one day to another with as little chaos as possible and trying to keep the clutter under control so we don't lose our sanity. For those of you who have children you understand this. I can remember my view was completely different before children. Things actually stayed where you put them! I can remember visiting friends' houses who had kids and thinking #1 it smells weird in here and #2 what a mess, there are toys everywhere. Now, I totally get it. I mean there are many days where you cannot walk through our house without stepping on a toy or cheerio every step of the way. My 1 year old son has officially been dubbed the tornado by medic hubby and me. He is full speed ahead, climbing up on things, pulling things down, emptying cupboards and squeezing into tight spaces. I find that household chores take 10 times as long as they should and as soon as I turn my back something is pulled down or emptied out.
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