So I am cleaning the kitchen and decided to clean the fridge out when I thought (argh, stupidly) that it may be a good idea to send kids to brush their teeth.  They were barely gone for 5 minutes when I went up to check.  What do I see?  A puddle of water flowing out of the bathroom (and we have hardwood in the hallway upstairs).  Ayaan’s sitting on the counter with a huge foam of soap on his hair and red eyes while Safiya’s trying to clean soap off his eyes.

“WHAT IS GOING ON?????”, I yelled in horror.
”I am giving me spikies”, Ayaan replied.

Frustrated, I sent Safiya to bed and Hamza to change into his PJs.  And, gulp, took Ayaan’s diaper off while he was standing.  I’ve had two other kids in diapers, I should’ve known to check if his diaper was clean first.  Next thing I know, there’s mess all over the counter and his legs (use your imagination).  So I quickly clean up the bathroom, dry the floor and give him a shower.  I take him to his room, put him on his bed and rush to the bathroom to get his diaper.

So 30 seconds later I go to his room.  He looks at me with a huge grin on his face and says “I did it”.  “You did what?” I asked.  “I did it and I didn’t do it in the diaper”.  I quickly realized what “it” was when I saw the yellow puddle on the duvet (note to self: give him more water, it shouldn’t be this yellow. Second note: tell the boy not going in diaper is only good if he goes in the toilet). 

Another set of cleaning.  I change his clothes, read them all books (one by one, they are all in different stages), put them all to bed and and go downstairs to make myself some tea. I haven’t even started boiling water yet when I hear noises upstairs.  I come up and the boy (2.5 year old) has lights on and has put all his cars and trucks in a row.  I look at his bed and he’s lying there with eyes closed, pretending to sleep. 

At this point I was frustrated enough that there is only one thing to do: vaccum.  So I literally vaccum the whole house as the kids complain they can’t sleep (bedtime is 8 and it’s 7:45, I am okay.  Most of our house is hardwood anyway, just the kids’ rooms are carpeted).  Finally I turn it off and they all say “finally we can sleep”.  I go down to make tea and before I even put water in the pot I hear noises. I come up and Ayaan’s playing with the truck and Hamza’s standing in the hallway.  Hamza looks at me and (being a quick thinker) goes, “uh … I only came to tell you Ayaan came out of his bed”.  

So now I am sitting in the hallway typing this so they all stay in their beds.  Hamza just came out, saw me and ran back thinking I did not notice.  Ayaan is trying to negotiate with me “you can work on the computer if you ching (sing) me a chong (song)”.  Safiya is quiet, but that’s because she is likely reading (I don’t mind that).  Scratch that, I hear noises from her room.

And THAT, my friends, is why my hair don’t grow no more (TM).