While I was putting M down for bed at 6:30 I could hear my oldest kids (3.5 and 5) playing in the bathroom sink. They were using their outside voices and occasionally screaming at the top of their lungs. Sometimes they were hollering in joy and other times in horror at their siblings selfishness.
I gave M an abbreviated nighttime routine. I sang to her for only about 10 minutes and then headed into the bathroom to survey the damage.
The bathroom sink was filled to the brim. Bubbles were piled high over the sink and were flowing down to the floor. Some Kleenex tissues were floating in the sink along with an empty toilet paper roll. I began to get angry. My first thoughts were: "What a mess, and what a pain in the ass to have to clean up."
I stopped and took a breath. I looked at the kids faces and they were beaming. They were so happy to be playing with the bubbles. They had handfulls of bubbles in each of their hands. L was trying to pile T's open hand up as high as she could with bubbles. I reached my hand in and pulled out a perfect circle of bubbles. There were hundreds of little bubble worlds in the palm of my hand. I began to sing: "I've got the whole world in my hand."
The kids kept on playing.
"Come on L, I will fly you into your room so that you can get on your pajamas."
L jumped up into my arms and I flew her onto the bed.
I went back to the bathroom. "T, please let the water down. "
I scooped up the Kleenex boats and tossed them in the trash. So much for the brutal cleanup. I flew T into L's room and we read our nighttime books.
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