Oh What a Day ... (or A (Mis)adventure of a Little Sis)

If you know anything about us, you know that we don't operate on the same clock as the rest of the world.  Usually, my earliest work "morning" is 4 pm (though I'm starting a neighborhood class next month at the ungodly hour of 11 -- we'll see how that goes).  Every once in a while, however, I get called into a recording job for a company that publishes junior high school English books.  The work is fun, the company is great, the pay is good -- the hours are insane in comparison to the rest of my life.  9:30 am to me is what 3 am would be to a person who normally starts work at 9 am.  

If Vivienne wakes up when mommy is out, daddy needs to
come be her teddy bear and doesn't get much sleep either,
So it's not always daddy's favorite kind of morning, either.

And so, last night when Stephen said he'd watch the kids so I could go into the bedroom and rest, I jumped at the chance. Well, maybe I didn't jump since I was pretty darn tired, but I definitely took him up on the offer.  

It sounded like things were going well as I wound down and the drifted off into oblivion.  I got a good half hour or so of rest when I was awoken by the most blood-curdling screams little 11-month-old Vivienne could muster.  I gave it a minute or two to see if it was something daddy could handle, but it was soon obvious that it was not so I stumbled on out to join the party.  

It turns out that Jonathan is better at opening door knobs than we have given him credit for, and where Jonathan goes, his sister doth follow.  They made there way into the bathroom where there was a baby tub full of water and ready for fun.  Jonathan even managed to divest himself of his shorts, leaving himself in only a nappy.  He couldn't manage Vivienne's romper, however, so when I reached down to pick up the screaming little miss, I found her sopping wet.  Jonathan must have been engaging in one of his favorite bath time activities, washing his little sister.  I'm sure she had quite a few cups of water poured over her.  

If he had stopped there, all would have been fine.  She loves her brother and lets him get away with quite a bit.  However, Jonathan got fancy and tried to wash her hair.  Unfortunately, the baby body wash was not what he went for.  Hey, when you're two, one pump bottle looks like the next.  From the tell-tale remnants of blueish shampoo strewn about the bathroom floor, we're pretty sure he went for daddy's Head and Shoulders shampoo, and let me tell you, that is NOT a no tears formula.  That is a many, many, many tears formula.  And a baby with stinging eyes really does not want her eyes flushed out with water or wiped with a damp cloth or any other thing the Worldwide Web says to do for a baby with daddy's shampoo in her eyes.  And, from the looks of it, it got not only into her eyes,  but also her mouth because every time she went to nurse (her usual panacea), she came up again with a mouth full of bubbles and more tears.  Jonathan, being the excellent big brother that he is, ran in and got his Baby Giraffe to give her, but that wasn't helping either.  All this time she was sitting in her nappy in mommy'ss arms screaming and screaming and scrunching her little eyes closed.  

Eventually, however, she began to nurse and daddy put on Veggie Tales.  Apparently, Veggie Tales not only works on split lips (something Jonathan is becoming quite skilled at getting), but it also helps sooth shampoo-stung eyes.  She kept popping up from nursing to watch Bob and Larry and Junior Asparagus sing.  Eventually, things calmed down and she even let mommy put on her new little outfit (bought in a nine month size so the pants wouldn't fall down around her ankles) and even had time to marvel at the long sleeves.  Finally, she drifted off to sleep.  

Oh, the blissful oblivion of sleep!

After a short nap she was back to her happy self.

This morning was the first morning in months that she woke up with crusty eyes.  They're still a little red and she really doesn't want mommy to clean them, but other than that, she's back to her normal, happy toddler little self.  And all is quite, for now, until the next (mis)adventure of this little sis.  Ay-yo, as they say here in Taiwan.