Oh darling Miles

Miles
Miley-Moo
Middle child

You always keep me guessing. And you keep me on my toes. And praying.
Miles, if you had been our firstborn, we might have only had one child.

I now realize what an easy kid Mason is.

Miles is all boy. He is SO curious. He is always ready to explore. He is always ready to have a good time.

Rest is not in his vocabulary. Doing things half-way is not in his vocabulary.

So, here's the story.

The last few weeks Miles has stopped sleeping during naptime and has destroyed played quietly in his room. Yesterday, I put Miles down for a nap. He acted tired all morning and fell asleep for just a few minutes on our way home from picking up Ch1ck-fil-a for lunch. (Yes, I packed up 3 boys into the car just to go through the drive-thru to pick up lunch and my beloved sweet tea! :) It is just that good!!)

After about an hour and 15 minutes, I heard some noises coming from the boys room. I went in to check on Miles.

He had been in their bathroom, which was why I had not heard him. At all. (I normally double check to make sure the bathroom door is locked to avoid this whole story. Apparently I forgot to double check it.)

Miles had gotten my favorite, beloved vanilla handsoap from the bathroom and had used about6 of 8 oz. It was all over his bedding, the door knob, toys (lots of toys), books (be still my heart, don't ruin books!!!), the wood floor, the rug, all his clothes.

It was everywhere.

I have to admit that my first instinct was to freak out and yell at him.

But the first words out of his mouth after I said "oh Miles, what did you do?" was "sorry mommy". COME ON!!! That was enough to melt my mommy-heart. I made him sit in his chair and I took a deep breath and decided to find the silver linings.

So, here are my silver linings....
His bedding was covered in soap, but it really needed to be washed and that is done now.
His toys were a soapy mess, but they needed a good cleaning.
It may have taken me 30 minutes to clean up, but I had over an hour of 2 boys asleep and 1 quietly watching a video and I just enjoyed the quiet house.

I could have had a bad reaction, but I kept my cool and just cleaned up the mess. I am proud of myself and the example I was able to be for Miles.

As I was cleaning, I have to admit that I purposefully looked for the silver linings and wrote this blog post in my head. I also have to admit that once I checked my reaction and decided to just deal with the mess, I really, really wanted to go get the camera and take pictures. I decided not to only because the soap was white and wouldn't really show up anyway. :)

So, after I cleaned up some of the mess, I got Miles dressed. I grabbed the first shirt I saw and put it on Miles. I sent him to the den to play while I finished cleaning up. This is what I saw a few minutes later:

All of that playing and "cleaning" he did in his room must have really worn him out.

In case you have having trouble reading his shirt, the one I just threw on him without looking, here is a close-up....

"I make NOISE and TROUBLE"

Fitting, no?

Here is the pile of laundry waiting for me.

And, here and the toys and books that got a good cleaning today. :)

Yes, we did spend the time talking about not playing in soap and staying in bed during nap time. I am pretty proud of myself and the way I handled the situation. I think that I am coming to terms with the fact that I have 3 boys and our house is not going to look perfect and my life is not going to always be quiet and neat.

Or quiet.