She sat at the kitchen table to eat her cookie and then told me she was making pieces for my party (I'm doing one of those food parties on Wed night*). I "um hm'd" her because I was busy mixing and making the official party food and wasn't paying a ton of attention other than to think "awww, how cute!"
* If you are a member of my family who lives nearby, I meant to invite you, I just didn't do it early enough and then by the time I remembered to do it, I felt like it was too late. So I didn't send an invite. An invite I wish I had sent.
Well, about 10 minutes later, she had progressed to making crumbs. (I should have figured that where there are cookie pieces, there will be cookie crumbs.) And was she ever successful. That one cookie produced way too many green, red, and white crumbs and left a coating all over her shirt, skirt, table, chair, floor... everywhere. They were kind of pretty at first glance. Less so when I remembered that someone would need to clean them up. And even less so when Katie announced, "Mom, you were right. I have to go potty." (This is in response to my inquiry before the whole crumb party began.)
At this point in the mess, I couldn't just tell her to go like I usually do. This required a plan and speed. A plan because by now, Katie was covered in crumbs and I did not want to spread them around the whole house. And speed because by the time she acknowledges she's gotta go, she's really gotta go. So we worked it out pretty well. I didn't see any crumbs on my newly cleaned bathroom floor and I think we contained the mess to the kitchen. Whew.
And then, after Katie was done with her hand washing and had found a suitable pair of shoes to wear (some cute purple boots in case you were curious), she was ready to sweep the floor. Because part of making a mess is cleaning it up. She swept, she wiped, she picked up. By the time she was done, the crumbs were mostly gone. I did a final sweep while she danced around the kitchen in her "slippery shoes" and then we were finished.
It took me about an hour and a half (it felt like FOREVER) to make 6 dips and two bread things, deal with the potty break, AND clean up the kitchen.
The food is ready and it looks pretty good, when I'm able to forget that mayo is the base for many of the mixes (for some reason this grosses me out).
One of the breads (a cranberry oat mix) smelled so good I wanted to take a little, teeny, tiny piece of it right then and there. But I didn't. Because I have a feeling that by the time I got home from work the next day, the tiny square I took would have multiplied into half of the pan being gone. Can't wait for tonight so I can try the stuff.
Katie is also excited. She's got Cubbies (even though I'm debating keeping her home so she can tell me when Jake does something "dangerous" and so she can play with Donovan and Marshall while their mom hangs out) so I told her that when she's done she can help me hostess. She's very excited to ask people what they want to drink. She's in charge of the water and I have a feeling that a lot of people are going to be very thirsty for water once she gets home.
So, tonight should be fun.
I wish this morning had been fun... or at least go as planned. I wanted to get to work early today so I could leave early and get a jump start on last minute stuff I need to do (like vacuuming. That could only be done a day in advance if the room was declared off limits and had an invisible barrier so no one could enter. That's just not possible so vacuuming tonight is on the schedule). Well, of course I hit snooze on my 6 a.m. wake up call (aka cell phone alarm) and of course my alarm didn't go off again. So my eyes pop open and I have the too rested feeling that only comes from oversleeping. My cell phone confirmed it. It was 20 minutes later than I get up to be on time to work. Ugh. So anyway, I won't be leaving work early.
But maybe Katie can learn vacuuming 101 this evening. She is 4 and a half now... and she loves Cinderella. Oh! I think she's even got a Cinderella dress up dress in her closet... By golly, I think I've got a plan!
Meanwhile, at work today we're having a potluck. I've eaten my way through about 6 of those tiny wieners wrapped in bacon and lovingly surrounded by brown sugar, one brat (that word always looks weird when it's written out), one spring roll (homemade so I couldn't turn it down), a special K bar, two little cream puffs, bread and dip, slice of fruit pizza, chips and homemade salsa (and some cheese). I think that's it. And now I feel a bit sick.
I planned to do the 30 Day Shred this afternoon over lunch but that might make me actually be sick so I'm going to stick with the elliptical instead.
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