Parenting on those days!

Sometimes being a parent is hard. I knew becoming a parent would mean, changing diapers, being up in the night (or all night sometimes!) dealing with tantrums, sticky fingers and messes, but somehow I thought it was easier to solve those problems. Even when I had just one baby, I only had just one kid. Only one kids mess to clean up and deal with. Nobody else to worry about if I left the mess behind while I cleaned up the said child.
Now I have 2 kids. When one makes a mess the other one joins in. For example, today as I was changing a diaper, the other child decided it would be a good time to get into the nail polish and paint himself and whatever else he could find. Not realizing this, I put the other child down and she wandered off. I quickly tidied the room I was in and went to see what they were up to.
 Literally I was only out of sight for 2 minutes.
I went into the bathroom and there they were happily painting away. After I got over the initial shock, I stuck them both in the tub, clothes and all while trying to find something to clean the floor with. Realizing it wasn't going to come off easily, I wiped up what I could, and proceeded to clean the kids off. I stripped them and while cleaning one child, the other one decided to poop and play with that. While dealing with that mess (thankfully its all contained in the tub), the other child who I was trying to clean turns on the tap and sprays water everywhere. Now I finally have them mostly cleaned and they are having a bath, while I am sitting here trying to figure out how to attack the now dried on mess they created. Oh and its lunch time and someone needs a bottle and a nap.
I love my kids but somedays I do not like them very much, and I seriously wonder what I was thinking when I wanted kids. I somehow assumed that being a parent at some point I would get some decent sleep and could deal with all problems and tantrums in a calm and collected manner-every time. When I have been gone out of the house with full time language study and have not gotten a decent nights sleep, somehow that idea of being calm is a fuzzy memory. Its survival mode somedays.
Although I do have to be honest, today has not been all bad. They are happy to explore their creative selves and at least they were playing together nicely for a change. When I first came in the room to survey the damage I did get a warm welcome of hi mommy!! Big smiles and giggles. Don't you like our artwork?
Somehow it does help me stay somewhat calmer than I might have been otherwise. On the other hand though, it is infuriating when you are trying to measure out some sort of discipline and they just laugh themselves silly as they think mommy is just oh so funny.
Just a typical day in our house. Well nail polish is not a normal occurrence but messes are. And for the record, I really do love my kids and I know that in a few years time (ok more than a few) they will be gone and have kids of their own and Im sure in some strange and twisted way, I will be missing those messes. Because along with the messes they make, there is also bed time story cuddles and sloppy wet kisses and I can fix all their problems (generally speaking) by sitting with them on my lap and comforting them. I know they won't want to sit and cuddle with me for too many more years. So I will treasure this time and hope that I can find a good scrub-brush and nailpolish remover to get rid of the mess they made today.