Mondays are usually pretty routine around here. Yesterday, however, was far from the ordinary!
The day started with the ongoing saga over Baby Sarah. Baby Sarah is Madeline’s baby, though loving sister Kayla has been her primary caretaker for the past couple months. It all started back in November when Aaron and I were Christmas shopping. We kept seeing really cute baby dolls at the store. At the time, Kayla had four baby dolls at home and Madeline had just one. So one day, Aaron went shopping for the girls and brought home a new baby doll for Madeline and a Dora puzzle for Kayla. Dora is super cool in our house and is usually favored above all others. However, in this instance, the baby doll won. Madeline was thrilled with her new baby, yet so was Kayla. Soon the girls were “sharing” Baby Sarah, though most of the time she was in Kayla’s possession. Our plan didn’t work so well.
Yesterday morning we couldn’t find Madeline’s other baby, and she was asking for Baby Sarah. Kayla said that she was still playing with Baby Sarah (Baby Sarah had been in her room for several weeks), but I told Kayla is was time to return her to the rightful owner. This, of course, did not go over well with our eldest, who gets her little heart set on things. But I would not relent.
After about an hour of crying and talking it through (and after Kayla had apologized and had a heart change over her behavior), I asked Kayla if she would like to use some of her Christmas money to buy a new baby doll. She said yes, as long as the baby was just like Baby Sarah, with a pink blanket and everything. And Kayla would name the new baby Sarah, too. Once again I had to draw the line. “Kayla,” I said, “you can buy a baby that looks just like Baby Sarah, but she has to have a different name. It would be too confusing to have twin babies who not only looked alike but also shared names!” Kayla was quite heartbroken over this, but finally she decided on a different name for the baby. I asked her what it was, and she told me she wanted to keep it secret until we bought the baby. (She must have learned that from her mommy and daddy!) Kayla assured me the baby’s name wasn’t going to be Sarah, and I warned her that it would be possible that Target wouldn’t have the same exact baby anymore. Kayla seemed ready to handle the task at hand.
After going to story time at the library, we drove to Target for our shopping adventure. Sure enough, Target didn’t have an identical twin. Kayla was set on the fact that the baby had to have a pink blanket like Baby Sarah, so we found the only baby at Target who had a pink blanket. We took her to the check out, spent Kayla’s $10, and headed home with two happy girls in the car. Madeline held Baby Sarah, and Kayla held her new baby—affectionately named “Baby Saga.”
So that was our first adventure for the day. The second adventure was giving the girls showers Monday evening. Aaron had a grad school class last night, and with the remodeling of our bathroom, our bathtub isn’t easily accessible right now. It had been a very long time since the girls had a bath, and I knew we couldn’t wait much longer. I began to talk to the girls about how we would wash their hair in the kitchen sink and then wash their bodies in the shower. They were both very excited, so that was a good start. The hair washing went great and was actually easier for me than washing their hair in the bathtub. Kayla showered first and did great (she had some experience with showering from her swimming lessons), but I wasn’t sure if Madeline would like it. I thought I may even have to go in with her and hold her. But she was eager to go in and ended up liking it just fine. Success!!!
Our final adventure involved the major storm that passed through our area last night. I had just finished putting the girls to bed around 8:45 (a little later than usual) when my friend Sarah (from the Lansing area) called. We only talk a couple times a year, so I was really glad to hear from her. As we were talking, a thunderstorm started. Soon hail was hitting the windows like I had never seen before and the tornado sirens were going off. I quickly checked the radar on my computer and realized I needed to get off the phone, get the girls out of bed and head down to the basement. And that’s when we came upon our next adventure. Our 124-year-old basement, which usually stays dry, was flooding! So there I was trying to carry the girls over the water to the small, raised area where we keep the washer and dryer. I set Madeline down first and then went back to the stairs for Kayla. But as I was carrying Kayla to the other end of the basement, Madeline started running toward me and ran right through the water, drenching her pajamas. Aaron called at that point saying that class had ended early due to the storm and that he would come home as soon as it was safe. Then the power flicked out but thankfully came back on. Aaron arrived a little while later to help with the flooding issue, and finally, around 9:15, we started putting the girls to bed again. And that’s when the power went out again—this time for good. So we lit a bunch of candles and spent some time hanging out together! Madeline was so cute. She would say “it’s dark here, Mommy,” and then she would walk over to the light switches. It’s like she was thinking “why don’t you guys just turn on the lights?” We tried to explain it to her, but it’s a tricky concept even for Kayla to understand.
Aaron got a call at 6:50 this morning that CMU would be closed until noon today, so we got up and began lighting candles again. Aaron was preparing to head out to buy ice so we could tackle the food in the fridge and freezers when the power came back on! All is well now, and we are preparing for what most likely will be a less adventuresome Tuesday. 🙂
Wow! That sounds like quite the adventure! I’m glad that everyone was safe and that no one got hurt. Sorry to hear about the flood in the basement. Those can be really frustrating! Good job on keeping everyone calm though Jen 🙂