New Heights

Noses are dripping, ears are plugged, babies are screaming and I'm looking for a beer. Well, not yet. It's still early but hey. Can't blame a girl for fantasizing.

3 boys with ear infections, one with bronchitis. The funny thing is it's not that big of a deal. We've been here before and we'll be here again. As I have said all too many times these days, it's amazing what you get used to.

Poor Dylan has ear infections in both ears. You would expect me to say that he's crying and fussy and just plain miserable. Of course, he is but he's also taking it to another level. Literally. Have I mentioned that Dylan is a climber? The child needs a neck brace to keep him from focusing onward and upward. The ground is apparently too boring for him so he's decided to commit every ounce of his strong, little body to climbing chairs, tables or whatever is high enough to make me scream bloody murder when I spot him on it.

While at the doctor today for the second time this week, the pediatrician was amazed how Dylan's being sick wasn't slowing him down a bit as he climbed into a chair and began typing on her computer. (I was holding Evan at the time so it was hard for me to stop him.) Once we got home, he immediately pursued new heights and I decided that I wasn't going to chase the little punk all over the house. Rather than letting his aggravatingly dangerous behavior turn me into psycho, crazy mom who needs a beer NOW, I decided to take the opportunity to be creative. Rather, I tricked the kids into thinking we were just going to have fun and be crazy.

Since Dylan's main objective is to climb into a chair and onto one of the two dining tables we have, I used gates to prevent him from getting to one of them and I took the chairs from the other one and made a "train" in the living room far away from the table. While my oldest son pretended to be taking the train to the playground, Babies R Us (my little consumer) and various other locations, I brought out tons of colorful cups and put them on a small table for the twins to fight over. When Dylan felt the need to climb, he climbed on the "train" or he climbed on a slide that I brought in from the backyard today and placed in the middle of the play room. Who says they have to be outside, right?

All in all, I felt that I was having one of those moments where I think I'm doing ok as a Mom. They're happy. I'm happy. We're all having fun. I could have focused on their being sick and stressed out over and over again about what Dylan was up to now. Instead I challenged myself to make the best of it and I think it worked well enough. It wasn't rocket science and it wasn't the most creative idea I have ever had. If anything, the best thing I did was find a way to take back my house in a way that everyone still had fun. I'm content and the day is almost over. Although it's still early enough in the day that I could still turn into psycho mom, I'll try my best not to.