Baby Tornado - Wouldn't Change a Thing

It has been 16 years since I had a full blown toddler in the house for more than a short visit. I have to say that I am exhausted!!! 
 
I know why God gives babies to the young. We had 7 adults to follow the one toddler around and we all had our turn. 

I guess when most of my kids were small, we had a smaller apartment so chasing them wasn't hard. By the time we had the younger two, we had the older girls to help with that part of parenting. 
 
If I look at it that way, it has been 26 years since I was in this position of having a toddler running around and no one else to help with the running. 

In almost every room there were signs of her being here. Toys left in all corners. I smiled each time I would find something she love to carry around in an odd spot. The 'maracas" which she absolutely loved, a child song book that was just the right size for her to carry or pieces of cereal that would get stuck on her clothes from being in the high chair were strewn all over the floor in many rooms. 
 
We couldn't decorate the tree or put up any of the traditional Christmas things because she can climb now and get into everything. Our stockings would be pulled down causing the holders to topple onto her head. The nativity is glass and the tree is just the right height for her to pull everything off! I pulled out the ornaments after vacuuming tonight so we can hopefully decorate the rest this week. 
 
I washed laundry most of the day and a bit yesterday. Just lots of towels, bedding, cloth napkins, bathroom rugs and our regular laundry.kept me quite busy today. Picking up toys, straightening pillows, afghans, washing off finger prints, vacuuming the floor and putting away the dishes were some of the other things I did today. 
 
Princess Five showed up many hours after Princess One's family left and came in to the messy upstairs and commented that she thought I hadn't done much as the upstairs still looked the messy part of baby tornado. 

I then shared that we have three sinks and three LARGE mirrors in the basement that were all toothpaste spotted, hair in the tub, laundry times four or five loads all washed and folded, bathroom floors done, garbages emptied and scrubbed clean and drying, toilets cleaned and I had worked myself into a sweat. She then called me a "Hard working mama!"  

I spent the evening working on the upstairs and for the most part got most things finished. I have one bed that needs to be made but all the laundry is put away and I even got some things started for a project we want to do tomorrow. I will share that I am really tired and looking forward to sleeping in my clean sheets. 

I also repaired a santa decoration she snapped while visiting but you can see it won't be the first time it has been repaired. This time however, I used screws to repair it so hopefully it will be the last time that I will have to repair it.

Thank heavens we had some left over turkey soup I made from our Thanksgiving turkey. I don't know that I was up to cooking much. I have been shifting some of my thyroid medication and I am really feeling sluggish today. Perhaps I should go back to the 1/2 a pill rather than a 1/4. The thyroid is such a tricky gland. 

I LOVE having family but it is nice to get back into a routine and I am super grateful that my family all returned to their homes safely and that they are feeling better. 

I do miss all the animation that family brings home but as I manicured Princess Five's fingernails for a Christmas performance tomorrow, I could tell she liked having some "one on one" with mom as when the rest of the family is here, her attention goes from being the center of my world to being one of seven that need my attention. 
 
I know she likes having them home as well but she gets displaced from her room and has slept in several spots the past few days. I wonder what things will be like in a few years when more of the girls are married. I put in a full bed in one of the rooms and none of the girls want to share beds so they swap and take turns on the bigger bed, vs the bunk etc. 

I think I will need to empty the rooms out of all furniture and just have bigger beds in all the rooms. If I put bigger beds, there isn't room for much else in a few of the rooms. I guess they really don't need dressers for short trips so maybe that is what I will need to do. 

I am grateful Grand Princess One is so healthy and smart and such a joy to all she meets. I look forward to LOTS more grandchildren in the future!