I took a 25 minute nap...

And this is what happened:

A was doing pipe cleaner art while watching tv and Z was asleep so I told A that if she was all right with it I was going to lie down for a bit. We had a birthday party to attend at 2 and I just needed a quick pick-me-up nap. When I got up I heard Z talking so I went to check on him. He had coloured all over (and I mean ALL OVER) the wall next to his bed with a brown crayon. It's spectacular. It may have put me off naps. And then I came into the living room.
A had taken a pair of scissors (kid scissors, of course) and cut the fuzzies off all the pipe cleaners. And then she cut the metal parts into tiny little pieces. All over my new couch. (Yes, I got a couch and I love it. The kids are allowed to sit on it but not eat on it or jump on it. And they know it.) I had put a thin blanket folded in half on the seat of the couch so that it might protect it a little bit. And protect it, it did. Because A had cut through it with her scissors and made holes in it. But not right through into the couch cushion covers. Which is good. I may have had to sell her to the gypsies.

The couch is the first nice piece of furniture that I have ever bought myself. I know that buying something nice while I have small children and expecting it to stay nice is just dumb but as I wrote in a past entry, I'm tired of doing things for long term and giving up short term pleasure when the majority of my life ends up being short term (even when it's 'supposed' to be long term).

My neighbor who lives upstairs, we'll call her AB, is the single mom of a four year old boy. The kids usually get along pretty well and our parenting style is very similar which makes it easy to hang out. This morning AB was pretty irritated because she slept in a bit and her son was mad that she was sleeping and stepped on her head in bed. I would be pretty irritated too. I used to get pissed when I had a cat and she stepped on my head and she weighed way less than a four year old boy. When AB told her mom what happened her mom told her to be thankful that was all he did. I mean, he could have completely destroyed the apartment. And she said that made her think of me and the awful paper/glue/popsiclestick/puzzle piece mess that I had at my place a couple of weeks ago and she felt better. I texted her about the pipe cleaner and crayon mess. I hope she can see the humour in it and also be happy that her son doesn't do that kind of thing.

My kids are watching The Lion King one and a half again. For the zillionth time since I bought it a few weeks ago because I needed some quiet time and am scared to lie down unless they are both completely asleep. I'm sure you can understand why. So I am taking advantage of that time to do this writing and then I am going to make dinner. Fancy dinner. Chicken fingers and frozen peas (that they eat frozen). And then they are going to sleep at Baba's and I am going to watch an R rated movie with lots of violence and swearing and sex (the kind of thing I can't watch when they are here) and have a nice night in. And maybe, just maybe, by tomorrow I'll have it in me to deal with the crayon-wall without curling up into the fetal-position in a corner.