More On Balance
or lack thereof….
Usually I have Addy’s nap, which is generally 2 hours, to do all the things I need to do without distraction. I LOVE 2 hour naps but there is generally no way that I can fit in all the things I need and want to do during those 2 hours alone.
Yesterday was no exception. I knew I had to work outside on this building project during the nap, for sure. I also really wanted to start writing my contribution to this month’s Roundtable discussion and I really wanted to get SOME content on this blog, too. I can usually jot off a quick blog post or answer an email really fast. So those things aren’t hard to do throughout the day but yesterday I knew I’d need more time than I had.
When Addy went up to play quietly in the gameroom near her brothers, I thought I’d grab a few quiet minutes to update my blog. Right after I hit “publish”, Dalton came downstairs - very calmly - and said “you might want to see the baby. She, and everything she is near, is covered in paint”.
I forgot Rule No. 1 of parenting: quiet = not good
I’m actually a little baffled and amazed at the sheer extent of painting involved here. It is like someone literally coated her every inch with paint. I’m fairly sure she decided it was “lotion” based on the application patterns! haha. I only wish you could see her hair in these photos!! At least she managed to avoid her eyes. I wish she had managed to also avoid my cream carpet or any number of books on the bookshelf nearby.
A quick bath and we were back in business.
I, on the other hand, have resigned myself to never having freetime and never mastering the fine art of Balance.
March 14th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Oh, how easy it is to forget the rule of quiet does not = good. Addison just CRACKS ME UP! Easy for me to say, I’m not cleaning up all that paint! I love too how Dalton just seems to casually mention how you might want to check on her. Too dang funny!
I hear you on the balance thing, though I sure am in awe these days of those of you who have several kids, homeschool, keep the house functioning, etc. I’m in over my head with one baby and two cats and can’t come close to keeping up… Thank goodness these little ones manage to keep us laughing, eh?
Also - love your Obama widget - I think I’m going to have to find something like that for myself!
March 14th, 2008 at 11:50 am
I am a firm believer in BALANCE…..
NOT…
There simply does not exist such a thing….
Love the painted baby though!
March 14th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
um yea, quiet and kids of any age is never a good thing…….lol
March 14th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
For the Obama widget, just click on the button at the bottom of the widget. It will take you to a site where you can choose which widget or feed you want and it will automatically generate the code for your given platform (WordPress, MySpace, etc.). Simple and easy. That’s how I got the widget for my site.
March 14th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Oh my gosh! That is awesome and funny, but only becuase I didn’t have to clean it all up! I still think that quiet equals not breathing, but we’ve only been home three months and I’m obviously still a paranoid freak about that.
I love the last photo - Addy looks so pretty!
March 14th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
Sometimes, okay, most of the time, quiet does not equal good, but it almost always equals funny… after cleaning up the mess and looking at the situation a few hours later. The most recent oh-oh at our house was finding that the 5 and 6 year-olds were giving each other pirate beards and moustaches with a black ink pens. It took quite a while to wash that ink off.
March 14th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Haha Nicole - at least it wasn’t a sharpie!!!!
March 15th, 2008 at 3:54 am
Oh! At least it was washable paint? Right? On the carpet? I often find myself forgetting that rule about quiet not being good. Sometimes I even find myself thinking, “Ah, they’re being so quiet. How nice.” By the time I come to my senses it’s too late.
March 15th, 2008 at 7:27 am
I think every family has one fingerprint/playdough/magic marker tragedy…. it is a right of passage… you were smart enough to photograph the evidence…. now you can break them out when she calls you in 20-30 years with the same story.
March 15th, 2008 at 10:21 am
I probably should not admit this but I am laughing so hard right now! I hope with all hope that it was washable paint and that it comes out of everything else!
March 15th, 2008 at 10:28 am
Oh boy, it’s the CUTE that saved her! Yeah, I have nothing even close to “balance”…
March 15th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
I love how Dalton came down to inform you. Your photographic evidence is greatt! I love how you thought to take photos. She looked so cute; a great capture of childhood.
I too hope that it is washable paint.
March 16th, 2008 at 8:55 am
HAAAA!
i love that little girl:)
March 16th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Looks a little like the older self tanners
March 16th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
That is awesome. And she already knows how to work her charm! Check out that smile. Love the pictures. She just gets prettier all the time!
March 17th, 2008 at 6:09 am
She is so adorable. Were you able to get the paint out of the carpet?
March 17th, 2008 at 7:39 am
Uh no, not entirely. There are still remaining shadwos to forever mark our carpet
March 17th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Dalton sounds like a complete crack-up. You “might” want to see the baby??! Might? You know, maybe you do or maybe you don’t. No hurry at all… just when you get around to it. Too funny. (Well, at least from where I’m sitting.) I’m firmly convinced that God makes children and puppies cute so they can escape serious harm after incidents like this.
By the way, the term Balance is completely foreign to me. Maybe one day I’ll discover it.
March 17th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
That is about one of the cutest things I have ever seen! Oh, but I’m so sorry about the mess. Ugh. Someday we’ll achieve balance, right? Someday the kids will be grown. We may have grandkids running around, but hey, we can give those back at the end of the day! ha ha