Spilled milk

Back in my husband's stay-at-home-dad days, his #1 nemesis was a glass of spilled milk. The man could roll with pretty much any punch thrown his way by our then toddler son and infant daughter. He had both the kids on a GREAT schedule. The house was clean and organized. And a hot, homemade dinner was served every evening promptly at 5pm. The man had things under control and was cool as a cucumber doing it all. That is until someone spilled their milk. That right there put him over the edge. You know the-barely-sane-pulling-my-hair-out stay at home parent cliff that you didn't even realize was there until you inadvertently stepped off it! Yeah. That one. After a while our son was demoted back to sippy cups. Problem solved. And daddy was sane once again.

Fast forward a few years to last night. It is 5pm. I am just finishing preparing my gourmet meal of mac n cheese, frozen peas and sliced bread. The baby is in the high chair screeching for food despite having puréed squash up and down her and the chair. The big kids are actively trying to scatter 500+ tiny beads all over the dining room floor. And in walks my husband. Clearly I am not the superior stay-at-homer:)

Small tangent here: my first response was not "Yay! Daddy's home!" It was "What are you doing here?"  Oops. Not exactly the most loving greeting. But in my defense I thought he was supposed to be on call! Meaning he wouldn't be home until after the kids' bedtime. Meaning I had scheduled our day accordingly. We had gone to the park with friends and attended storytime at the library. We had taken late naps. And we were going to enjoy our lazy, kid friendly meal followed by a "family run" and bath time. 

I was just a tad disappointed because that meant my busy fun day had been in vain. And it is actually TODAY that needs to be filled to the brim with activity so the hours don't draaaaaaaaag. Plus I would have made a real meal to enjoy as a family - NOT boxed mac n cheese! Oh well, I guess the kids and I will enjoy our spaghetti without daddy tonight. 

Ok. Back on track. So there we were, trying to collect all the wayward beads, quiet the screaming babe and get dinner on the table before the peas thawed and were no longer served frozen! We semi-accomplished all those tasks and sat down together as a family. At which point I made a snide "just another day in paradise"  comment to my better half. He laughed. And then it happened. Something worse than spilled milk! I didn't think it was possible, but apparently it is. 

'It' being a very large potty accident. I mean ALL OVER the dining room floor. The girl told us as she started going to the bathroom and we could hear it pour off of her chair to the floor. It was seemingly never ending! One would have thought she had been holding it in all day. Saving it for her moment to shine. The shear volume was unbelievable. The fact that less than 10 minutes prior I had asked her to please use the bathroom and she refused, infuriating! Even my cool as a cucumber husband lost it a little:) 

Bath time came a little early last night. And my floors got a good (long overdue) thorough scrubbing thanks to my sweet, hard working husband. Which by the way is pretty much the only way my floors get scrubbed. Sure I spot clean them as needed. But he scrubs them! He's a keeper for sure:)

So today the kids and I might just venture out to the grocery store post-nap. Or if the thunderstorms stay away, maybe we will walk to our favorite 'Summer 2013' stomping grounds. Or maybe we will just stay in and enjoy our shiny new milk and pee-free floors. Time will tell.