Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Choosing Laughter Over Tears

The last couple days have been challenging. I've mostly laid about feeling sorry for myself. I try not to complain too much (other than to my husband and my mother) but I just have to say that I haven't been very happy lately. My body aches, I can't get much sleep, I have very little motivation, I feel depressed, blah blah blah.

Add to that the care of a toddler. Jenny is a very good, often obedient, adorable, curious little girl. She's no different from any other toddler. She likes to explore, find things, open things, see how they work, etc.

Also totally normal is my usual reaction of *sigh* and feeling a little irritated at having to clean up another mess after having just cleaned up the last one, especially when I can't bend over easily and it's quite the challenge to get up off the floor once I'm finished scrubbing it.

So in my emotionally fragile and bodily awkward state I have had to make the conscious decision to not get upset when I find a new mess that isn't your typical toys-all-over-the-floor mess. Yesterday and today Jenny tested that resolve, and I am happy to report that my initial gut reaction was laughter rather than tears.

Yesterday's mess wasn't too bad. Jenny found a bottle of lotion (orange coloured and mango scented. What girl wouldn't be interested?) and squeezed out about half its contents and smeared it all over herself, her clothes, and the carpet.

I caught her, busted up laughing, and ran for the camera. She was very pleased with herself as you can see from the little smirk on her face.



Then this morning Jenny was watching Winnie the Pooh in the basement and I was upstairs checking my email. After a few minutes I heard her voice at the bottom of the stairs calling "Washa hands, Honey!" (She has started ending most of her sentences in "honey", and now I realize that I call her that all the time.)

I thought she was coming up the stairs, and so didn't investigate immediately. Then she stopped calling and went back to Pooh. I figured I needed to go check and then I found this.



That, my friends, is glitter glue. Don't ask me how she got it, since I store it on a very high shelf. She had got it on our tv stand and brent's tool box, ground a generous amount into the carpet, smeared some on the couch, and on the stairs. Not to mention what you can see in the picture: on her clothes, her face (including in the crease of her eyelids), her hair, and her hands.

"Washa hands, honey" indeed.

Well, again I busted up laughing and ran for the camera. She very helpfully showed me where the lid was and happily stripped off her clothes and got in the tub. This makes the fourth bath in two days.

4 comments:

Jennifer said...

The good news is that it looks like your smudge or "halo" look is gone! What did it end up being?

Menner said...

I cleaned the lens with a microfiber cloth, and that seems to have taken care of it.

I was a little surprised because Jenny had not touched the camera and I was very careful to not touch the lens either. It just came out of the box with weird-looking grease spots on the lens.

Hopefully that's all it was.

shelley said...

that is hysterical. Of course, that's cause it's you and not me. I have had similar disasters in my home over the years. The ones I laughed at initially I still laugh at. The one big one that I had a breakdown over I still can't laugh at because I can't stand to think of my toddler's face as I reacted badly. I'm so glad you are able to laugh and grab the camera. So much better for everyone now, and for memories years from now.

Camera looks much better.

Wendy said...

So cute Jenny has started saying Honey after her sentences. It reminds me of when Jared was really little and would ask for "hole jins". What are hole jins? Ganine would ask him, "Do you want me to hold you?" But it would come out more like "hold ya" or if you slur it together - hole jah". Thus the phrase hole jins was invented. We still use it around in our house.