Alyssa is a big fan of bedtime stories. She has a repertoire of stories she wants to hear – Princess Alyssa, who lives in a big castle and has a horse named Storm, Dr. Alyssa, who is the local vet and takes care of the zoo animals, Butterfly Princess Alyssa, who flies with the butterflies. You know. But tonight Daddy started the wrong story.
“No no no Daddy. It goes like this:
Once upon a time, I had water in my hand. And it farted!”
Ah, children.
I walk into Ryan’s room on Monday morning; he’s still sound asleep. I flip on the light to wake him up, and so I can get some clothes out for him.
Ryan: “Dad…! What the heck are you doing?”
A week ago, Michelle went in to check on Alyssa, because Alyssa usually kicks off her covers before finally going to sleep, and then she’s ice cold in the mornings. Alyssa is also not a very sound sleeper, so she half-woke up when Michelle covered her up.
Alyssa: “Oh… hi, mom. I was dreaming. The sprinkles are getting checkmarks.” (very serious face) “They are getting checkmarks for the rest of their lives.”
Yesterday, Santa Claus called the house to talk to Ryan and Alyssa. They talked for a while about what Ryan wanted for Christmas, and then:
Santa: “Ho, ho, ho… that’s wonderful. Would you like to talk to Rudolph now?”
Ryan: (not missing a beat) “I don’t think reindeer can talk, Santa. They’re not people.”
I’m feeling very blessed these days.
Yesterday I decided to treat myself to a new nail polish – Boucle Berry. It’s a purple-y mauve and looked really nice. I never paint my fingernails, just my toenails, and with springtime nearly being here I thought it would be great to have fun toenails again.
Alyssa was watching me paint my nails, and of course, we had a girly moment and painted her toenails too. When we were done, I put the nail polish on the counter next to the sink in our master bathroom.
Today I was downstairs working while the kids were taking a nap. Stephen was outside washing the dogs, and asked me to get a towel for him. On my way back with the towel I peeked in on Ryan, who was sound asleep. I peeked in on Alyssa as well, and found an empty bed!
I started hunting through the house, and finally found her in our master bathroom. She’d opened the nail polish, and had painted her toes purple. Then she’d emptied the entire contents of the polish in a gigantic circle on our carpet.
I stared at her in horror for a minute, and then just turned and walked out. Emergencies really aren’t my thing, as my brain usually melts into oatmeal and I panic. True to form, I went straight outside to Stephen and said, “Oh my God, you’ve got to see our bathroom.” I followed him upstairs.
When I got up there, I found Alyssa standing in our bathtub, with Stephen trying to find something in the closet to work on the giant purple stain. I waved him off. We are now doomed with a stain that can’t be fixed.
I’d been toying with the idea of putting ceramic tile in our bathroom one of these days (far down the road). Looks like today is the day.
