Today, Ali has been causing me all sorts of grief. I went to pick her up from one of her final preschool days to find out from her teacher that she was complaining of being tired all day. The teacher said that she basically stayed in a blanket and read books to herself in the corner instead of participating.
At first, I was sympathetic. “Ali, are feeling okay? Did you not get enough sleep?"
“Yeah Mom, I’m tired. Erin kept waking me up last night.”
I knew that this last statement wasn’t true considering that Erin was out like a light by 8:00 pm, and I would have heard her if anything was wrong because I am the lightest sleeper in the world. I also remembered that Ali was the first one out of her room this morning. At about 6:30, I heard her creep down the stairs and start watching TV.
Giving her the benefit of the doubt, I didn’t say anything and took her home. That’s when it started.
Within 5 minutes, she had transformed from a lethargic slug to the Roadrunner zooming throughout my house. Except, instead of “Meep! Meep!” it was “Mom! … Mom! …”
I’m sure that she said more, but I couldn’t understand because she kept moving from room to room while words flew out of her mouth.
I wasn’t the only one who was bothered by her running around, though. After a few shoves and bossing from her big sister, Erin began scheming. I watched as she transformed into the Wiley Coyote.
What I heard next was a quick thump-thump-thump of someone running up the stairs, then a loud thump and some crying. When I came around the corner I pieced back what logically must have happened with my two Looney Tunes:
Erin, the Wiley Coyote, climbed up the stairs as if they were a cliff and waited for Ali, the Roadrunner, to come flying along the same path. However, as Ali reached the top of the stairs, Coyote Erin made a quick shove and did what was impossible in the cartoons – she successfully pushed the Roadrunner off the cliff.
She didn’t fall more than a step though, and no one was hurt, but both kids were sent to time out.
That’s about when I passed out from exhaustion. Pregnancy tends to kick in full throttle at about 2:00, and I become useless without a nap. It wasn’t long before both kids were bouncing on my bed.
“Mom…MOM….MOOOOOOOMMMM!!!” shouted Ali.
“Wake-up mom,” said Erin in her little whisper voice as she patted my face.
Despite my efforts to play dead, the kids weren’t going to let me sleep any more. I got out of bed and told Ali that if she wanted to do anything fun today, she was required to wear clothes. She reluctantly obeyed, and I started the kids cleaning up some of the toys so that we could start a fun activity.
Ali started working on the toys that were spread across the floor while I cleaned the kitchen, office and living room.
Finally, I told the kids that it was time to have some super fun.
“Ali, go and get all of your broken crayons.”
Ali rushed like a mad woman to the computer desk where she kept her secret stash of crayons. I took the normal supply out of the cupboard and started sorting out the broken ones with Erin. It didn’t take long before we had a nice pile of crayons. Most of the broken ones already had the paper peeled off because that is something that my toddler enjoys doing in her free time.
While the kids ripped the paper off of the rest, I put tin liners in the cupcake pan. I had the kids put the colors that they wanted to mix in the tin of their choice.
“All the pinks and purples are mine!” exclaimed Ali.
Erin just started to whimper in the background until I handed her one of the “cool” colors.
Once the kids were done loading up the tins, I slipped them in the oven at 400 degrees and let the kids watch through the glass as the crayons slowly melted. They thought that part was especially cool. The problem was once the crayons came out of the oven, they needed to cool down. The kids were not a fan.
“It’s taking too long.”
“Waaaaaaaaaawaaaaa”
“I don’t understand how we can color with those paint things. Are we going to dip our fingers in them?”
After about 5 minutes of this, I wanted to rip out my hair and run screaming the opposite direction. Luckily, that’s about when Matt came home. Thank goodness for small favors.
I got frustrated enough with Ali that she was sent to time out until dinner was done (3 minutes later), and told Matt what had happened at school today. Once Ali got out from her room, Matt promptly told her that she was going to bed right after dinner. We didn’t want her to be “tired” tomorrow, right? Of course not…
I thought that the idea was brilliant. Not only did it punish Ali for lying to her teacher about her lack of energy, but it also gave me an extra hour tonight to get a little peace and quiet.
Ali started complaining again about how tired she was and how she couldn’t move from one space to another.
“Ali, if that is truly how you are feeling, we are going to have to take you to the doctor.”
“Will he give me a shot?”
“Probably”
Her fatigue suddenly disappeared, but we still put her to bed soon after.
The crayons eventually cooled to a solid state. I peeled back the tins to find that they definitely do look like Reese’s peanut butter cups. I will let the kids color with them tomorrow.
In the future, I will probably do this again, but with something else to distract the kids during the cooling time. The wait was just too much.
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