Setting the scene: Ugh. I don't know whether to grouse about allergies or a sinus flair up, but for whatever reason, my nose is in direct opposition to the rest of me and my sinus' have also begun to wage a war. (afternoon update: I now have a horrific cough to go with the runaway nose...grrrrrr). They say when you are pregnant, you are more susceptible to this. Whatever. I don't like it. I feel weary and GRUMPY (and we all know I do dumb things when GRUMPY).
So, you can only imagine how happy I was when my sweet E came up to my room this morning where I'm trying to catch the last remaining moments of sleep and says, "Mom, A has spilled some orange juice. But it's okay," she says, putting her hand up to me as if giving me the sign for "Stop right now before your emotions spiral out of control. "It was an accident."
It turns out that A was trying to get her sisters and herself some orange juice. A very nice idea. Alas, she spilled the entire contents of the pitcher on the counter, herself, and the floor. HEAVY SIGH on my part; plus, who doesn't like a 3 year old reassuring them several times that it's all okay because it's just an accident. After assessing the situation (with a pounding sinus headache, let me just add), I asked if A had permission to do this from Dad (who, as President, left earlier to help out with the HOA's neighborhood beautification day, but to give him credit, he did give the girls breakfast before he left). Of course, the answer is no. She says they were just thirsty. And by the way, she also informs me that her pajama's are sopping wet.
Meanwhile, it takes me a second to see that O is kind of whining and pulling on the footie of her sleepers. Yes. She has walked through the creek of juice and has now meandered all around our main floor, both on the wood part and on the carpet. The happiness of the moment is, as you can imagine, SEEPING through me.
Long story short: I clean up lots of juice off lots of floors, with a very minimum on yelling, so I was pretty happy (in fact, I only screeched once when O started to cross the orange creek) even though I am not feeling my finest and am grumping about cleaning things up...does that make sense? Anyway, during the whole process, I'm talking to A, trying to explain why I am so frustrated: next time, you need permission to have o.j. and, of course, my most recent explanation of things: I'm not mad that you spilled the juice. I'm upset because of what I now have to clean up.
It's at this point that E pipes up and explains to A that the many times she's wet her pants over the last two days (I have no idea why, but she makes it into the bathroom and then can't get those dang pants down in time! But it's okay, because it's just an accident), that I'm not upset with her peeing her pants, I'm upset at having to clean the pee up on the floor. And it's so true.
The other day, I even spilled some leftovers on the floor and I found myself calling me by name and for saying, "for crying out loud!" So, see, my girls are in good company...because there are indeed accidents. I'm just upset about the extra work of having to clean up said accidents.
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