Hurricane Angelica, aka, the Story of Last Night

As we wrap up the last little bit of "to-dos" for the old place, and my wonderful husband also works (very) late to finish up his "to-dos" at work, many times I am left home alone to get Angelica's nighttime routine of dinner/bath/bed completed. Last night was one such night.

But oh, how much different last night was from the norm. I can usually get her settled with an episode of Dora or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while I cook dinner, but last night she did not want that. She wanted Youtube videos. Fortunately, our PS3 can play Youtube videos, so even though I can't see her from the kitchen, I could at least hear what was going on. And she knows how to operate the controller to replay the videos so I can leave her alone to do so.

Unfortunately, someone (not naming names) didn't keep up their end of the deal on Sunday night and finish doing the dishes. We have no dishwasher, so they all have to be done by hand, and just about every dish in the kitchen was either dirty, or sitting in the drying rack waiting to be put away (which someone...not naming names...said they'd do and then finish washing the remaining dishes on Sunday night). So, before I could cook, I had to wash dishes.

One thing that Angelica is REALLY into right now is hand washing. She hears water running and she yells, "MOMMY! Angelica washy hands!" Of course the sink is full of disgusting water so no, she can't "washy" hands. So I'm washing dishes, she has forgotten about youtube and is leaning against my leg whining "Mooooommmy!!! I want mommmmmyyy!!! Angelica wassshhyyy haaaands! I want mommmmmmmmmy! Up mommy! Up mommy! Washy hands!! I want mooooooommmy!" And so on, and so on. And so on.

I eventually give in and pick her up, take her back in the living room and put on another video. She's distracted for a minute. GREAT. By this point I at least have enough room in the sink to fit in a big stock pot to fill it with water to boil pasta. Pasta's easy! Thank goodness for that! I get the water in the pot, put it on the stove and get it going. I return to washing dishes.

All of a sudden, I hear the familiar sound of THIS video, which she accidentally stumbled upon clicking through the Parry Gripp channel. Not exactly age appropriate. I cringe a bit but decide, hey, SHE'S DISTRACTED. WOO!



Unfortunately, the stupid youtube ads pop up and she can't get the video to replay so she comes running into the kitchen...MOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMY.....MORE COCONUTS! So I fix it for her. Return to wash more dishes. She follows. "MOMMY! Washy hands! I want mommmmyyyyy!! Up mommy! Washy hands!"

The water's boiling.

I pick her up, take her back in the living room, put on Boogie Boogie Hedgehog and return to the kitchen. I pour some macaroni in the stock pot. There's not enough for both of us, so I grab a box of bowtie pasta (since we have no more macaroni) and add just enough to complete the two servings. I put the newly opened box of pasta back and return to washing dishes.

It gets quiet. A little.....too quiet.

All of a sudden I hear the tell tale sound of an entire box of pasta being dumped onto the floor. I roll my eyes, go into the living room, and see the (almost) entire box of bowties dumped on the floor, and Angelica walking stomping back and forth through it saying, "STOMP STOMP STOMP! Happy birthday to yoooouuuuuu!!! STOMP STOMP STOMP! Happy birthday to YOUUUUUU!"

I chuckle. What else can I do? I return to the kitchen and keep washing dishes.

I tip over a giant bowl of water with last night's cookie dough in it. It spills ALL OVER THE COUNTER and starts running onto the floor.

"Uh oh, spilly water mommy!" (Yes dear, I know.)

I grab towels, return to the kitchen, finish washing the last dish,and mop up the water. Just as I'm finishing, I see her out of the corner of my eye. Yanking on the curtains on the sliding glass door.

"DON'T PULL THE CURTA..." too late.
They come crashing down.

Oooh boy, she thought that was the greatest thing ever.

Thankfully at this point, the dishes are done, the water is cleaned up and the pasta is cooked. My nerves are shot. I put on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and we eat. Well, I eat. Angelica doesn't eat a bite of the food I struggled to cook. She sits there, falling asleep in her chair (I later ask her if she took a nap at school and she says no. That explains a lot). I finish eating and give her her medicine (for her urinary reflux, see posts from Dec. 2008 for more about that) and ask her if she wants a chocolate cookie. She eats that. And asks for a banana.

We go in her room to get ready for bath. We do bathtime. We brush teeth. I take her back in her room to put a diaper on her. She kicks and yells at me, "NO DIAPERS!". I say to her, "Ok, are you going to use the potty from now on then?" She says yes. Runs to the bathroom. Lifts up the toilet lid and then yells, "NO USE THE POTTY! HAHAHA!" and then runs back to her room.

We put pajamas on and snuggle and read stories. Daddy comes home.

And mommy collapses on the couch.