A little bit of bad ruins all the good

The kids are sick. Juliette has had it much worse than Nicholas but they have both been miserable at various times this weekend. Of course my very pregnant wife hasn't been feeling all that much better so I decided to give her a break by taking them both out to the ski hill for Juliette’s lessons. The car ride up was OK but the few minutes trying to convince Juliette she wanted to go skiing was hell. After hugging her through her mini crisis, and after I got her dressed, she was eager to go. We barely made it to the class in time (they were at the front of the line at the chair lift) and then I had Nicholas all to myself. We played video games, play wrestled, read books, ate snacks and in general had a great time. Because Juliette had been sick recently I went out and intercepted her class while they were waiting at the chair lift to go back up the hill and sure enough she was ready to stop (cold toes). We went in to get warm, ate sandwiches with cheese and again had a fun time. When it was time to leave Juliette and Nicholas played while I tried to locate her skis. Basically up until I dropped Nicholas in the sled with some of the bags did the day start going bad again. Juliette wanted to go in the sled to but there wasn't enough room. She cried a little then a lot. She even screamed in between sobs, something about going in the sled. I ignored her as best as I could but even veteran parents are not immune to this type of behaviour (that's why they do it), so by the time I got to the car I was miserable as well. It took all of 2 minutes of driving in the car for them to both fall asleep and we had a very relaxing ride home. Upon entering the door of my house my wife asked me how it went and at first I wanted to say it was horrible. Then I realized that only about 6 minutes of it was truly bad the rest of the time was filled with laughter and fun. It's amazing how 6 minutes of all out tantrums can affect your mood for the rest of the day. The moral of the story is, try and remember that the cup was 94% full and remember the good times otherwise parenthood could turn out to be pure hell.

Superhuman Effort

It's amazing how difficult it is to manage kids under the age of 5 when in a kid unfriendly environment. The degree of difficulty actually increases exponentially (i.e. 2 children are 4 times more difficult to manage than 1 child). Last night I volunteered to bring the kids to swimming lessons/free-swim by myself. I had exactly 20 minutes before leaving the house to feed the kids, pack the bags, dress the kids and get everything in the car. Just packing the bags is a nightmare (swimsuits, towels, brushes, Shampoo, goggles, after-swim snacks, change of clothes for the 2 year old in case he pees in his pants, membership card). Then I need to look for free parking (required 2 laps around the block). Carry/lead/motivate the kids 100+ meters to the pool. Change myself and the kids at light speed. Deliver Juliette to her swimming classes (late as usual). Bring the Nicholas to go pee (if he hasn't peed in his pants already). Then play with both kids in the baby pool for half an hour for free swim (make sure Nicholas stays in the shallow end so he doesn't drown while entertaining Juliette and any other kid in the pool). Then move the kids (against their will) to the family change room (with one shower). Wash both kids (while daddy is still cold and wet). Dry, dress and feed one child at a time (elapsed time approx 45 minutes, usually done while cold and wet). Take a shower (short and very hot). Dress the kids for outside (and myself). Carry/lead/motivate the tired kids back into the car and back home.

Honestly it's fun just being with them and you get used to it but it still requires a lot of effort.

Fire!

We had invited old friends over for dinner to see their "new" baby, and to see them to. Juliette and Nicholas were so excited to see a new baby and they were their usual rambunctious selves. If you ever come over for supper at our house you can expect the following. Lots of good food and two very excited children who spend about 45 minutes of the visit running laps around the house with very excited screams and lots of laughter. Everything was going well when my wife and I noticed a burning smell. Almost immediately I figured out it was coming from the basement bathroom. I got there in time to blow the "fire" out that was contained in a plastic garbage can. It wasn't very big but it did manage to burn a hole through the container and fill the basement full of smoke. Immediately after putting out the fire I realized it hadn't started on its own and I told my wife to find Juliette. Sure enough she was hiding in her room unharmed but very scared. I guess what had happened was Juliette had put some tissue in the flame of a candle and then thrown it in the garbage when it lit up. Knowing she had done something wrong she ran to her room and hid. She was so upset from the entire event that it took a few hours for her to be calm enough to confirm our theory of what had happened. Of course as parents we were much more relieved than angry and we tried out best to tell Juliette that not telling anyone was the worst thing she had done. Luckily the crisis didn't hurt anyone or ruin the evening and we were able to spend lots of time with the visiting baby. Juliette and Nicholas can't wait to get one of our own (won't be long now). I guess the moral of the story is to not have lit candles around the house with young children. I realize while writing this story that it was a pretty dumb thing for me to do but it had become almost a tradition when hosting a dinner. So the next time you come over, you can still expect the hyper kids, the good food but no candles.