Kate Wicker

Storyteller & Speaker

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I hope your day started out less messy than mine did

If you leave a toddler with a spinach-very-berry smoothie for 2.2 seconds, it not only poses a potential choking hazard (never leave a child unattended while eating or slurping). But it just may also leave you at risk of having a mom meltdown when you discover your kitchen looks like a scene from a very gruesome and very gory horror movie.

messy thomas

This morning, it was Thomas v. his sippy cup. Thomas won. Big time.

My two older children were asleep during the incident, but one child was present at the scene of the crime when it all went down. When I asked my 3-year-old why she didn’t call out for me when she saw that her little brother had opened his cup and started playing with his smoothie rather than drinking it, she told me, “He was very quiet. All I heard was a ‘ssss,’ ‘ssss.’ I didn’t know he was doing that.”

Clearly, she’s not my most observant child. Nor has she learned that silence plus a toddler almost always means trouble or a big, big mess.

Hey, at least he tried to help clean up after watching Mommy wipe down every surface and mop the floor.

thomas cleaning up

 Yes, the photos are very blurry. I was in a state of shock, and I’m pretty sure my hand was trembling slightly as I attempted to capture the messy moment with my smartphone. And, yes, there are few rogue Kix still on the floor. This is my life in all its messy glory.

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· February 5, 2013 · Tagged With: Child 4, Mom Humor · Filed Under: Kate's Blog

Comments

  1. Colleen Martin says

    February 5, 2013 at 9:39 am

    Ha! I wrote about our hectic morning too. Fo some reason when I think of you I think of spilled smoothies :)
    Colleen Martin recently posted…Reality A.M.My Profile

  2. Terri says

    February 5, 2013 at 3:17 pm

    As my husband would say, “It’s hilarious when it’s somebody else’s kid.”

    LOL!!!

    Hugs to you, Kate. I hope you’re recovering okay. That’s a story for the holiday repertoire when your kids are grown and groaning about the trials of having their own children.

    “Oh, you think /that’s/ bad? Let me tell /you/ what you did one fine Tuesday morning…”

  3. Kris says

    February 6, 2013 at 2:27 pm

    Now you’re a real boy-mom!! Just wait……!

Hi, I’m Kate

I’m a wife, mom of five kids, writer, speaker, storyteller, bibliophile, runner, eating disorder survivor, and perfectionist in recovery. I'm the author of Getting Past Perfect: Finding Joy & Grace in the Messiness of Motherhood  and Weightless: Making Peace With Your Body.

I’ve tried a lot of things in my life – anorexia, bulimia, law school, teaching aerobics, extended breastfeeding, vegetarianism, trying to be perfect and failing miserably at it – and through it all I’ve been writing. And learning to embrace the messiness of life instead of covering it up, making excuses for it, or being ashamed of my brokenness or my home’s sticky counters.

Nowadays I’m striving every single, imperfect day to strike a balance between keeping it real and keeping it joyful.

 

“She could never be a saint, but she thought she could be a martyr if they killed her quick.”

―Flannery O'Connor

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