Bath time takes a long time.

In some ways it was much easier to bath the children when they were younger. When they were smaller and had a lot less desire to shoot me in the face with water guns, we could get all three into one tub and, we parents could knock in out in a little less than an hour. Now though I bathe them solo in the morning before school. I bathe them one at a time, you just can't fit all three into a single tub anymore much less would you want to. They are starting to grasp the idea that I would rather them do all the cleaning themselves and I just play lifeguard, but still tend to play the helpless card and time is a luxury in this house. So normally I step in and make sure that they are clean from head to toe, that their hair is washed and rinsed. After the bath they get lotion and then we dry their hair and then dressed while in the bathroom with two heaters running so as to keep them warm.

Iris is the easiest of the three, she loves just to float in the water being a water baby. She likes to have clean hair and likes getting her hair dried and done. She likes the lotion after the bath, The only complaint is the warmth of the bathroom which we solve by using two heaters.

Bobby tends to just want to be the center of a whirlpool or throwing wet things about the bathroom or if the mood fits he will grab one of the many water guns and go all wild west on me. He hates getting his hair wet and will not put his face underwater. The lotion part is not easy to do on a squirming four year old.

Cooper loves a bath, likes to dunk his head, and is a lot calmer in the water than the others. Cooper likes water like a fish does. He likes just to be in it and pretend to swim and float and does a good bit of the cleaning labor himself. The lotion on the other hand in a bit of a problem since he is so ticklish.

Don't get me wrong I love the kids and all the time is precious but  familiarity breeds contempt and I am very familiar with bathtime. Don't get me started on laundry.

Lies and how they start.

The truth is my kids don't lie as much as they omit or feign ignorance of a given situation.
Not real sure when the lying starts but I do know the telling signs. I hope to keep my children honest with the family, meaning us as parents and each other as siblings. I know this is not a reasonable expectation of most adults, much less children, but I would like to attempt it.

Lies are such a complex thing. You have lies of omission, lies of misdirection, lies of false blame, lies of personal advancement, white lies, and exaggerations. It's easy to understand how a child could get confused when they see their parent lie to people about the little stuff or leaving out important details but yet expect total honesty from them within all dealings personally.

I have attempted to make a world for my children in this protected bubble of "childhood" but the reality is they live in a world governed and ruled by adults who in many cases care not about the deluding  of children. And we, as the type of parents we are, feed lies to our children about Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny for example.

I wish to raise my children to understand lies and learn to recognize lies and know that anyone at anytime may be lying regardless of appearance or uniform. What I want to teach them is the way to understand the reason for lying and as useful of a tool it is to provide the grease for social exchange to also see the irreparable damage to trust and more that they are capable of.

Singing the songs of madness.

The kids have started a new game that they do. They sing in some nonsense words at each other to the point of ignoring all other things around them. It must be the funniest thing in the world cause they use it to crack each other up to no end. I think the point of origin was Bobby since he thrives on laughter. Basically they sing "meeean meee meeannee ......" over and over and over until a parent steps in and stops it. They do during meal times, in the car, during the baths, even the grocery store. And as loathe as I am to stop my children from laughing I seem to have a thirty minute limit before I am ready to loose my mind. I don't understand why it's so funny other than my children delight in tormenting me and their mother.

Homework always in the morning.

The kids go to school for a half day from 12 to 3 and I guess to train the kids and the parents they get homework assignments. For now at any rate we always do the home work in the morning since they have such a late start in the days. I know that this is going to change next year when the kids are rocking the full day. I would like if the kids liked to do their homework and as for now they don't mind doing it as long as I stay with them and watch them do it.

cooking

The kids love to watch me cook. If they hear me in the kitchen they come running and watch what I'm doing. I let them stir and beat eggs and help out where they can. It's nice at this age since they constantly want to show how capable they are and are eager to do things around the house. Now this can sometimes be a problem since they tend to get underfoot and around hot items like stove tops or pans out of the oven. I don't wish to dissuade them because I would like to ingrain these habits early on. As it stands I have three little helpers that want to clean up and set the table and do all manner of house related skills, and I need to cherish this time. The only thing that the kids don't want to do is clean their room our play room. I mean we do it everyday before Mom gets home and yet they still resist my efforts to make them more autonomous with this action. Why is it children will work and show what good little helpers they are but yet so loath to clean their own areas. It is the mystery of the ages.

School is back in session.

After two glorious weeks the children are headed back to school. I am not going to lie and say I am not relieved. It has been utter chaos since the onslaught of Christmas. The children have doubled the amount of mess and by mess I mean toys. We try to do a purge before the holidays but it never seems enough. Seriously, I don't know about you but during the gift apocalypse it was difficult to find the kids under the strata of wrapping paper, the only way we could find the children was by shaking a box of candy and they would emerge from their various piles like cats running to a can opener. The number of boxes and ribbon could have wrapped my house three times over and it's not like they only had one instance of gift getting. The kids had three different chances to get spoiled. Our house and both sets of grandparents so I can assure you that the children were well provided for.

So for the first time in two weeks the wife is at work and the kids will be in school and I will have three hours to myself. I'll most likely be doing laundry.

My daughter and her christmas doll.

My daughter got a baby doll for Christmas. She got a crib and a stroller and changes of clothes and all manner of other accoutrements required to raise a plastic baby. She loves this doll and carries it with her everywhere.

This past weekend I decided to ask her about the doll and if she liked it. She assured me that she did and when I asked for the doll's name my daughter looks at me and says "Peach."

I said "Peach?"
And looks at me like I'm deaf and says real slowly "PEACH!"