Best Laid Plans

With a two-hour online training session scheduled for this afternoon from 2-4pm, I spent the last couple days preparing for the event. I lined up "childcare" for Claire (playing with the older neighbor girl at her house this afternoon), and I took the kids on a special outing to Wonderscope this morning so the twins would be especially tired and sleep the full three hours this afternoon. I was confident it would all work out. It didn't.

Molly woke up at 3pm, crying, which sent me into a panic. With a full hour of my training session left, I had to devise a way to keep her quiet, safe, and yet far away from me. So she sat in her playpen with books and cartoons blaring until Lily woke up about 45 minutes later with a nasty poop diaper. While the phone stayed on mute (and I prayed no one on the call would ask for my input), I changed Lily, gave both girls a huge sippy cup of Gatorade (knowing they'd both be overjoyed by the indulgence), and left them gated upstairs with limited access to certain (somewhat baby-proofed) rooms. They squealed, screamed, cried, and generally did OK, but I sweated bullets when my input was requested on the work call and I had to run to the basement, take the phone off mute, provide my input, and run back upstairs so I could keep an ear toward the girls' (very loud) activities. And as luck would have it, my two-hour meeting ran over by a full 45 minutes, so poor Molly had no mommy oversight for a full hour and 45 minutes this afternoon (and Lily had none for a full hour). Sheesh. It's a wonder they didn't get hurt as I later determined they were standing on my bed, looking into a mirror hung above the headboard, and making faces at each other. Let me repeat - my twins were standing on my bed unsupervised this afternoon. Somehow, I don't think I win parent of the day award for that one.

And I thought I had the perfect plan to manage the kids today.

I did win the parent of the day award from Claire for taking her back to Wonderscope, however. Last August I took the girls to Wonderscope during a week-long stay at home vacation, and Claire has been begging to go back for a year. Wonderscope seems awfully goofy and uninteresting to parents but thrills young children. We spent some time in the "golf ball and ramp" room ...

... and a lot of time in the room for kids under two (and siblings) where the little ones can safely climb all over ramps and stairs and all sorts of obstacles.

Molly and Claire also liked the art room but Lily was bored and frustrated by having to sit down and concentrate on one activity. Molly, however, was the toughest kid to transition from activity to activity - she threw a tantrum each time we left a room other than when I promised her lunch after the climbing room. We had lunch at Waffle House after Wonderscope and the day was turning out perfectly until Molly's short nap and the extended training time dashed my best laid plans!