"Mommy, I cut myself."
My four-year-old just said that. It's 9:03. Bedtime was an hour ago. It's been one of those days.
Molly (7 years old) and Anna (4 years old) are both grounded, until such time as they learn to put their toys away. (In the meantime, I am rounding up unattended toys twice a day and stashing them in the storage area above the closet. Either they'll learn to pick up, or they'll have nothing to leave out. Either way, I'll eventually have a clean house, right?) Since they aren't allowed to watch TV, use the computer or play video games, they have to find other ways to entertain themselves. Today this meant spinning in circles in their bedroom, whereupon Anna spun face-first into the bunk-bed. She now sports a quarter-sized, dark purple bruise on her left cheekbone. They also spent a lot of time today arguing and throwing things at each other, so I was ecstatic when 7:45 finally arrived and I could tell them to get ready for bed. I tucked them in promptly at 8, read 3 stories, dished out hugs and kisses and 'love you's' all around, and turned off the light. Ten minutes later, I heard "THUMP!" followed by "Ow-ow-ow-OOOOOWWWWWW!" Running into the bedroom, I found Molly on the floor next to my overturned sewing stool with an inch-wide gash in her knee. *sigh* It seems she got out of bed to go to the bathroom, couldn't see the stool in the dark, and tripped over it. Once I got her cleaned up, bandaged, and tucked into my bed watching sports with her Daddy and a cup of cocoa, I had to get Anna back to bed. And sure enough, not ten minutes later- "Mommy, I cut myself." I didn't even ask how she did it. It's a tiny cut on her finger, maybe a papercut from her book. I just stuck a bandage on it and sent her back to bed.
Maybe after everyone is in bed, I might be able to write a real blog. As it is, it took me 30 minutes to write this because I had to stop every few words to deal with one interruption or another. The whole point of doing this was to work on my narrative skills, something I'm not impressed with at the moment. At this rate, I'm not optimistic about getting any practice in.
