An hour in the life of 2 year old Triplets

The sounds from the loft were shattered glass followed by piercing screams from Cliff.

This is what Mike and I heard when we were visiting with a friend. I ran upstairs to find a terrified Cliff, scared Ava, inquisitive Jenny, and enthusiastic detailed reporter Ethan.

Cliff had knocked over the floor lamp and glass was everywhere. No one was physically hurt so I began to comfort Cliff and Ava and tell Ethan not to step on the floor. Simultaneously I had wrangle Jenny who was investigating the glass shards by walking through them. Mike came and took Ava and Cliff and I got Jenny and Ethan down the stairs safely. We put up the gate and set the kids on their bar stools for an early dinner (this is a very effective incarceration technique that we use frequently when we need to get something done.)

Our friend left and Mike was late for drumming in Cedar so left shortly thereafter. I had made rolls and they were cooling on a cooling rack and I gave each of the kids 2 to eat while I went upstairs to clean up the glass. I picked up all the big shards and got the vacuum for the rest. The vaccum was struggling so I looked and it was clogged with who knows what. I took it apart, cleaned it out and finished cleaning. I heard strange noises and hurried downstairs only

to find......

My 2 girls had climbed on the counter over to the rolls. On the way they had found a metal straw which they thought would be perfect to make holes in the rolls. They also had found a box of toothpicks. They divided them up amongst themselves and began toothpick art. Jenny's roll looked like a porcupine. The other thing they discovered is how fun it is to crumble rolls and disperse the crumbs as far as they can from their seats.

so...

I moved them to the recently cleaned loft and put the gate up. Now I could clean up the kitchen. There was a knock at the door. Our friends Britte and Paul showed up. I invited them in and offered them a couple of the rolls I salvaged and apologized for the mess. They left after a few minutes and I commenced cleaning up. It got cleaned up and I went up to the much too quiet loft.

Sigh.

Only to find they had gotten my leather diaper bag/purse. They had pulled out and spread all of the contents i.e. grocery store ads, my wallet, odds and ends, a drum stick (which I had purposefully hidden), receipts, etc... I love my children and I love being a mother and sometimes it's ok for your children to go to bed early.