ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER!

This happened last night.  

Jonah just finished a 20 day 

course of antibiotics- need I say more :(

Then this happened.  

Andrew is gone for four days 

snowmobiling up north, need I say more...

So then this happened.  

Not my finest moment, I admit...

So what I realized during my post-toilet disaster/blowup analysis is that when things are firing here on all pistons, the boys and I work pretty great together.  Where we have problems is when something unexpected happens, and that's when we have a breakdown of our pretty-easy-flowing dynamics.  

Now as tempting as it is to blame these breakdowns on the boys, I came to understand last night that I expect them to act differently in a time of "crisis" than I do during normal times.  However, I haven't taught them the skill to make that adaptation.  

When things are going smoothly around the house, I am able to be at pretty high alert level and be on watch to guide and direct their behavior so it doesn't go off the rails.  But when something like a toilet clogging happens and I get distracted busy dealing with the crisis, then I can't guide and direct the boys like I usually do.  Their behavior is still the same as during non-crisis, it's just they don't have me around to keep them in their "good behavior" boxes.  

So I think what I need to work on is a crisis strategy for them.  When my attention has to go to clogged toilets, broken dishes, dog getting sick etc, I need to let them know they need to go to a spot and just sit and wait for me as I deal with the mess.  Perhaps they can grab books and read, but what is most important is they need to stay out of my hair for a bit and out of trouble for a bit.  The TV can be a good babysitter during household crisis times, but like last night, I couldn't leave our bathroom "waterfall" to even get to the TV to plug the boys in.  So instead I was trying to clean up this awful mess with the 2 of them stepping and touching stuff that they should not have been in the vicinity of-hence the 3rd image of me screaming like a madwoman.  

So we will work on some crisis strategies for the next time Mount St. Toilet erupts in our home or some other such similar disaster.  Because it isn't a matter of IF it happens again, just when it will happen again.  Next time we will be armed and ready!

Update to last night:  The amazing thing about the boys is this morning, they don't wake up holding a grudge at their crabby mother who put them to bed quite abruptly last night.  They wake up ready to hug and cuddle and tell me they love me despite the fact I wasn't very nice to them last night.  What an amazing lesson to me about unconditional love and forgiveness.  I tell you pure hearts are these boys' greatest gifts to this world!