Mustard

Here is yesterday's and todays stories. I called a friend who lives close to me, to meet at the park that morning. I then decided that we'd walk to the park and bring the kids sand buckets. If I brought a stroller either both kids want in and there's no room or neither want to ride and I'm pushing an empty stroller. So we walked without a stroller. It took us a long time to get to the park. The kids had a bunch of their tantrums along the way. Ethan and Sophia are both so independent that they hate holding my hand to cross the street and so I have to hold a squirming Sophie under my arm with the buckets and drag a resistant Ethan across all the streets. When we finally get across the main street, Ethan throws his bucket in protest and it breaks. When we finally get to the park I throw his bucket away telling him that, if he didn't throw a tantrum his bucket wouldn't be broken and I wouldn't have to throw it away. Thinking it might teach him a lesson. Or at least hoping it might. Turns out he could of cared less that it was now gone forever. After the park I get home in time to make lunch before Brandon gets home. I started making lunch. Within a few minutes of being occupied from getting back, the kids got into the fridge. Unknowing I go back and check on lunch cooking on the stove. I then hear the kids laughing. I look and what do I see? Sophie has the mustard out and is squirting huge yellow mounds on the coffee table while they dip their fingers in it and eat it. I then look at the floor and all across the living room floor and rug are huge squirts of mustard. It's everywhere!!! Ahhhh!!!! Just a few days ago I had cleaned up the berries, chocolate syrup, and ranch dressing from the carpet and now this. She also had left a big pile of mustard in front of our bedroom door. Why? I just keeping asking myself why? I really feel that I'm the only one who has to deal with all of these kinds of problems on top of the normal ones. Brandon assures me that I'm not, but I really feel like I can't name anyone who has problems like this. Have any of you experienced these types of things? Brandon just tells me no one talks about these things. I on the other hand need to talk and get these things out of my system. I mean everyday it's something for us and it isn't because we aren't attentive watchful parents. Believe me, you have to be sharp and aware with our kids. I wake up this morning and discover sour cream smeared across one of our couch cushions. I wasn't the only one home when Sophie did that one. Yesterday the kids put my cell phone underwater and now it's broken. It's always something. I really do try to be on top of things and keep a close eye on my kids. Just in those few moments when you think things are under control so you move on to doing something else, like making dinner or cleaning the house. That is when things start to get messed up. Purses get dumped, gum gets completely eaten, wallet contents get thrown around, and the house gets trashed within less than 10 minutes. Just enough time to clean the bathroom. I went to the gym yesterday and took the kids to the "play place." They seemed to really enjoy playing with all of the kids there. I'm glad to see them playing better with other kids. They usually are the bullies. If someone bullies them Ethan especially could careless and just plays with them anyways even if they are telling him to go away. My favorite parts of the day from yesterday were: Ethan reading the Star Wars text in the beginning of the movie he watched that day. It sounded like this: "The boy went fast and then the boy raced and going fast and...mumble, it was so fast, mumble, mumble. Hey Mom, I'm a good reader." I filmed the clip of him this morning so he didn't do it as well as last nights "reading." Another highlight of the day was when Ethan, who likes to have me look at him when he's talking pulled my face to look at him. If I'm not making eye contact with him he says, while holding my face and turning it to look at his, "Look at me, look at me. I love you Mommy." And he brushes my check. Sophia is now doing the same thing since she's at the copy cat stage. What also made my day yesterday was seeing Sophie twirling around in her dress. She's getting really good at it. My sweet reward today is when Sophie kept saying Hi to a particular lady every time we saw her up and down the isles. The lady then stopped me and asked how old 'he' was. I told her that 'she' is 2 and Ethan is 3 almost 4. We started talking about her kids and her relatives kids. She was a really nice lady. She then told me to enjoy them now because time flies and then they are all grown up. I thanked her and thought about how people say that a lot and I already feel that it will be like that for me when my kids are all grown. I'll miss all of the messes they make and the sweet moments and funny things they say. I'll miss the hard times too at least I might;) At the check out Ethan turns to the guy bagging the groceries and asks him if he could have a balloon and a candy. Ralph's really spoils them and gives them one almost every time we go. The guy ended up making a balloon for them and was really nice to Ethan, who surprisingly was being very polite. I had them thank him about a dozen times. They had been really good at the store this time but it was only our first stop which they tend to be okay with. Ethan has carried his balloon everywhere with him since he got it. The simple things make his day.
By the way, does anyone have any cleaning tricks for getting mustard out?