The Things I Say

Written by Rowonna McNeely – Saturday was actually a relaxing day around our house for the first time in a long time. Kiera was the first one up. She yelled for me to come to her room where we cuddled and giggled until she announced it was time to move to the living room and watch cartoons.

Kiera and I decided to let Daddy sleep for a bit longer and we burrowed under blankets on the couch. It wasn’t long until we decided that it was time for breakfast.

I made my way into the kitchen and began to search the pantry for breakfast ideas. As I was searching, I managed to knock a full bottle of cooking oil to the floor from the top shelf of the pantry. Thankfully and amazingly, it missed my foot. But, it did make a loud enough noise to wake Aaron and quite possibly the next-door neighbors.

After assuring Aaron that the house was not falling apart and I had no injuries, we decided to make pancakes.  It was a perfect family morning. Kiera came in the kitchen and helped measure ingredients and mix the pancake batter. From there, we took turns making shapes with the batter as it cooked.

After breakfast, Kiera went to play with her baby dolls and I gave Aaron the look. You know the one I am talking about? It’s the can-I-please-go-back-to-bed-since-I-let-you-sleep-in-for-awhile look.

“Seriously?” He replied.

“I’m exhausted!” I defensively responded.

Rolling his eyes and laughing, he said, “Go ahead. You’ll be cranky if you don’t get a nap.”

He knows me too well. I motioned for my cuddle buddy, Ziggy, to follow me into the bedroom and without any struggle I quickly fell asleep.

Now, usually if I take a nap, Aaron or Kiera come wake me up within an hour. This time, they didn’t and I slept for three solid hours. It was amazing. I woke up feeling refreshed and ready to conquer the world.  Well…physically anyway.

Apparently, my brain was not in agreement with the rest of me. You’ll understand in a minute. I climbed out of bed and made my way to the playroom to check on Kiera and Aaron. I peeked in and saw them busy organizing and playing with the toys. Well, Aaron was organizing while Kiera was playing.

“Want me to fix lunch?” I asked the two.

“Yes!” Kiera responded enthusiastically.

I laughed and headed into the kitchen to warm up some leftovers. As I stood in the kitchen, contemplating the things I wanted to get accomplished over the weekend, Aaron walked through.

“I’m going to the bathroom and then I will help you.” He stated.

Not even a full minute later Kiera came running through the kitchen. “Where are you going?” I asked.

She quickly stopped in the doorway and spun to face me. “I have to go to the bathroom.” She replied and turned on her heels to flee the room.

“Well, you have to wait. Daddy is in the bathroom.” I responded.

I have no idea what it is but if Aaron steps foot in the bathroom, within a minute or two, Kiera suddenly has to go. He has tried letting her know ahead of time but she will claim that she doesn’t need to go. Within a few minutes, she is knocking on the bathroom door, complaining about how bad she needs to go to the bathroom.

In fact, a few days ago, I was so frustrated with her that I told her if she had to go that bad then she was just going to have to go outside. She actually considered it. That was not the way I saw that going, by the way. I was grateful Aaron came out of the bathroom before she decided to take me up on that.

Now, back to me standing in the kitchen. “Well, you have to wait. Daddy is in the bathroom.” I turned from the kitchen sink to make sure that she was not heading to the bathroom to beat on the door.

She stood in the doorway for a brief moment and then said, “Can I go pee outside?”

“No. It is too cold outside.” I said. And that is the moment that I realized my brain had not fully kicked back into gear.

I didn’t say something brilliant like, “No, we have a perfectly good bathroom and you need to be patient.” or “No, you can wait just a few minutes.” or even, “You are not going outside to use the bathroom!” Nope. None of those even popped into my head. My response was,  “No. It is too cold outside.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I wanted to smack my forehead. It was almost one of those out of body experiences. I saw myself say the words and wondered where they came from.

Thankfully, any further response was forgotten as Aaron walked out of the bathroom and Kiera ran for her turn.

I’m constantly amazed at the things I say to my child.

Before I sign off for the day, I want to take a moment and say thank you to all of you who continue to follow and read our weekly column. It’s been two years since I decided to begin writing about our life. I sincerely hope that we bring a little laughter to your day.

Here’s to kicking off another year!