Lost Minutes

I wish I could count the minutes every day spent looking for specific toys that are necessary for bathing or sleeping or whatever activity is taking place at the moment. "Mom, I wanted the Woody with his hand up" - Silly me, it wasn't any of the 14 Woody's that we own and were in open sight. It was the one that was behind the couch because he was trying to keep it from his brother. What was I thinking?

This week I had to explain the rental movie concept. Needless to say, it was a complete failure. "I WANT YOGI BEAR!" In their defense, they had it yesterday and now Daddy took it to work. I'm sure they were thinking "WTF" in toddler thought (I haven't dropped that many f-bombs in front of them that they know that yet). That was a good 10 minutes lost there, not counting the minutes it took to download the movie from ITunes because I couldn't bear my own explaining any longer.

Explanations in general don't go well. I think, Hey they're 3 now - they should be able to rationalize. I mean, they are smart enough to hide a toy from their brother and smart enough to delay bedtime indefinately...surely they can understand that screaming at me won't get the desired outcome. I tried explaining to Peyton that screaming and slamming Mr. Potato Head when his eyes wouldn't go on didn't really solve anything. His response was 'I ike it' - that's how I feel sometimes too. I have to say I remember launching a Simon across the room when I was little. I mean who can remember past 15 beeps...seriously...that game is so rigged...I digress.


There was 120 minutes I lost a couple of weekends ago. Peyton wanted to see Rapunzel. I tried to talk him out of it but he would not be deterred. 120 minutes lost, but I got this..

Then there are those minutes that are lost all too quickly. "Mom, I love your beautiful hair.." I treasure every one of those minutes even though I can feel the pain down to my toes from him pulling my hair out by the roots. The unsolicited "I love you's" and the times when they play together and let their imaginations soar. Those are the lost minutes that really count and that I will remember fondly.

TImes two plus Anything Equals Mayhem

Multi-tasking used to be a strength. It was something I touted in interviews. Yes, I can do a spreadsheet, answer the phone, and check email all at once. It was and still is something I am very good at in my 'day' job. However, even attempting multi-tasking at home is just a recipe for disaster.

One such mistake happened just the other night. Usually, I get home with the boys and I make their dinner, give them a bath, etc. It is all very well timed, until I got the wild hair to actually try to make myself a real meal before they went to bed. Let me repeat - mistake!

The evening was going great. The boys played well, riding their scooters with their helmets (i.e. skull caps). Side note - Scott has already influenced them and they want to be skaters so badly. Anyway, there were minimal fights to break up that night; they ate well. All was going very smoothly. It was that false sense of calm that lured me into deciding to make dinner. The dinner of choice was pasta with mushrooms and broccoli. Really - not fancy at all. My biggest challenge was to boil water and throw pasta in it. I wasn't making some complicated dish that needed my undivided attention.

Picture the scene: The water is in and the stove is

set to high; the broccoli and mushrooms are on the skillet and it is now time to get the boys to brush their teeth and go to bed. That is where my multi-tasking skills fell apart. When you multi-task at work, you decide when to switch from one thing to another and while you are doing task B, task A isn't screaming at you. Tooth brushing went as well as it goes every other day - Grayson complied, Peyton complained. Then Grayson asked to watch yet another episode of Curious George. When I said 'no' the 2 year old tantrum erupted - crying, rolling on the floor. All over a monkey.

I could sense the water boiling and no pasta was in it yet. I run over to the kitchen and throw the pasta in. Meanwhile, Grayson is still screaming and Peyton is pouting because I made him brush his teeth. Back to Task A - "Boys, go to bed" - The answer in unison was 'NO'. Me - "GO TO BED!!" The answer in unison again - "NO!!".

Now the broccoli and mushrooms were starting to burn. I ran into the kitchen, stirred them, lowered the heat. Back to the boys. I say calmly, 'Boys, it's time for bed, let's lay down'. NO, they shouted. Task A is really getting out of hand. Task B is sizzling in the kitchen. I'm about to lose both tasks. It's like the boys knew I did not have 100% attention on them and they were going to let me know about it. There will be no multi-tasking when it comes to spending quality time with your kids. Even if that quality time is mere tooth brushing and singing a song for bed.

In the end, Scott came home to save the day. He calmed the boys down and got them to sleep while I saved our dinner.

Lesson learned: Do what I'm doing and nothing else. It's way more rewarding and way less stressful. It's one of the hardest lessons to learn for an obsessive person like me, and I will undoubtedly make the same mistake again. Family is first, then pasta.