A Shower a Day, Maybe!

  When you have four kids it can be tough to keep up on your own personal hygiene.  After all, there is breakfast to get for everyone, get them ready for school, get myself dressed to actually take them to school and hope I don`t bump into any other parents as I forgot to brush my teeth.  I have dishes from the previous night to put away, clean up the dishes from breakfast, sweep up the Corn Flakes that were spilled on the floor, maybe laundry (that reminds me, I have a load in right now), and who knows what else all before 9:30am.

  My oldest is in grade 2 so he is gone every day.  My twins are in SK and are only in school Tuesday and Thursday`s with the occasional Friday thrown in.  Even with them home I need them ready as I cannot leave them alone while I take my oldest to school, which I don`t agree with as I rarely know where or what they are doing anyway.  Kidding, I know what they are doing and would never leave them, intentionally.  So, it is now 11:00 and I would like to get a shower, brush my teeth and put fresh clothes on as I am probably still wearing the t-shirt that I slept in.  To make this work I put a movie on that the kids picked and away I go. 



Dad put it here yesterday

  Do you ever get that feeling that something is going on and it is probably not good?  It seems that every time I get in the shower I end up hearing footsteps running up the stairs (my shower is in the basement) and into the kitchen.  As I lean out the shower and shout for everyone to sit and watch the movie I can only hope no one gets hurt.  Soon after, my daughter walks into the washroom and says "we were watching the movie dad", which I ask "who was upstairs?"  "no one" she says.  Needless to say, I did not shower the next day for fear of what would happen.

  Two days later I turned on the shower and hesitated before getting in, which was smart on my part as once again the footsteps took off up the stairs.  When I stepped out of the washroom, with my towel on, my son Mutt looked up, said hi, and carried on watching the movie.  As I quietly walked up the stairs I could hear a chair being dragged across the floor and someone climbing on.  "They are up there" is the last thing I hear as I peer around the corner to find Frick, my daughter, standing on a chair reaching for the squishy candies (fruit gummies) that were placed out of reach, or so I thought.  As I make myself seen my son, Frack, takes off through the dining room and around the corner, like I had yet to notice him.  After helping my daughter down and explaining the dangers of climbing I give her a squishy candy, after all she is 3 and has not listened to a word I just said.  I now search out Frack and question him about his motives.  "It was her idea" as he blames the 3 year old, which could actually be true, but unlikely.



See there it is, quick he's coming

  I did manage to get my shower completed, although every day is a crap shoot as to who will sit still and who will sneak off to look for adventure.  To date nobody has been hurt, I don't smell like Oscar from Sesame Street and I have actually managed to shave once or twice, a month.  With my kids I have two that just want to have fun and two that seek adventure, the type of adventure that they know they're not supposed to seek, but it's worth the risk.  Personal hygiene or the house being ransacked, it's a flip of the coin.