I am not a meteorologist and nor do I play one on TV, but I think it was roughly the same temperature as the surface of the sun outside today. There was no way I was taking the LP out to play on a day like this. I needed to catch up on a few duties domestica anyway, so that made today an LP Rebellion Day. Much like how prison inmates plan a riot or breakout when the guards are distracted, so too do the LP plan mayhem when there is cleaning happening. I am certain that the second they see the vacuum cleaner appear, they give each other a pre-arranged signal that It Is Time. I've tried saving any cleaning for naptime. Somehow these two can sleep through Daddy's band practicing in the house but the second the vacuum cleaner is plugged in, they are awake. Today's rebellion was especially stellar...an entire bottle of hand sanitizer dumped onto the bed in the guest room, a drawer pulled out of the nightstand, all the play food in the kitchen centre dumped onto the floor, the newspaper shredded and, my personal favourite, the air conditioner adjusted to 30 degrees Celsius. I was trying to figure out why the house felt so hot when I knew the air was on...oh, it was on all right. It was just set to "fry".
A detente was needed and needed quickly. In order to appease the rebels, I offered a Dance Party of Peace. We put on a CD of children's songs and danced around the kitchen together. LP2 was soon giggling (and there is nothing like baby laughs to make you laugh, too) and kicking his feet. LP1 was dancing around in circles and shouting at the top of her lungs. The whole time the three of us were dancing together I was thinking "why haven't we done this before?" We truly had so much fun. The CD itself leaves a little something to be desired, though...Auntie J brought it back with her when she returned from Korea. There are something like 25 songs on it, designed for ESL students. It turns out that songs for ESL students are great for babies and toddlers...but not their parents. The LP like it because they are simple songs, each song is repeated twice and the music is upbeat. I don't like it because the words to some of the songs are seriously wrong. For example, the second verse of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" goes something like "Cut, cut, cut with scissors". WHAT? I don't think so. I won't even go into how the third verse talks about making a ball of dough out of glue. There are some children in Korea walking around singing very wrong lyrics to popular songs.
We Hokey-Pokey'ed our way through the CD and I kept it on throughout their dinner, too. In order to assure a deep and lasting peace, I thought one more New Thing would help. Normally after dinner each LP is bathed separately. Each bath is usually quick as we rush to get jammies on and ready for bed. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't mind lingering longer in the tub. I decided that tonight I wouldn't worry about the time or what we had to do next. Bathtime was moved up a bit and both kids had a bath together for the first time in a long while. Now that LP2 can sit up on his own it is much easier to have them in the tub together. But this wasn't going to be your garden variety bath...
I don't think I've ever put so many bubbles in the bath before! The LP were delighted. It wasn't long before we were making bubble hats, bubble beards and bubble mustaches. They were splashing each other, attempting to eat the bubbles and covering their toys in them. There were so many bubbles that they out-lasted the kids! I let them stay in the bath for as long as they wanted. LP2 eventually came closer to the side and lifted his arms as a sign that he was done. Once he was out and wrapped in his towel, LP1 decided that she, too, was ready.
If there is just one thing the LP are really teaching me to appreciate, it is how fun the simple things can be sometimes.
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