as things go on

Things continue to roll around here, mostly well, some days smoother than others.  Recently Alla and I had 'achievements' of our own.  For instance, I learned that barking "shut up!" at a screaming infant (almost) never works.  Does make one feel better, however, when dealing with a child that yells because it cannot eat (due to buggers) and yells while buggers are being removed.  Or dealing with a child that is eating, pooping, and yelling at the same time.  Regardless - notice the "almost" in the sentence above?  Barking is now in my arsenal of soothing techniques.  The only downside I see to this is that the kids may think that "shut up" or "be quiet" is their middle name (paraphrased from Jaime).  Alla had a memorable first as well.  For the previous two days Alla has missed no feedings, clearly going for the title of "supermom" (or possibly "insane person" - is there a difference?).  After taking a much needed afternoon nap, I noticed suspicious yellow marks on Alla's face.  "Is that poop?' I asked.  We were in the bathroom.  Alla squinted at the mirror: "Possibly.  Definitely."  While I proceeded to clean it off, Alla muttered sleepily: "Mama does not care about poop as long as mama gets to sleep."

I honestly thought the boys were done with achievements of their own.  I was wrong, of course.  History no longer says who, but someone managed to poop on a wall while being changed in the downstairs bathroom.  The same bathroom, by the way, is small and has lovely flat walls that make the yelling reverberate ever so nicely.  Provoking daddy to bark, among other things.
This morning, around 6:15, I was responding to a noise complaint from Benjamin.  Due to the morning hour I wore no shirt (yes, this will be relevant later).  By now Benjamin has a rep as a serious citizen, who does not call for service unless he really has to.  I knew he was dry (having changed him 15 minutes earlier), and saw no spit around him.  I correctly figured he need to spend a bit of time upright to settle the giant meal he had two hours prior.  What I was not ready for is the fact that Benjamin just needed a friendly shoulder to puke on.  Which he promptly proceeded to do, with substantial volume, and immediately fell asleep, with a sense of complete satisfaction.  This put me in a rather philosophical mood, of course.  It occurs to me, that having children is like college, in some ways: you are up all kinds of odd hours in the middle of the week, and someone might puke on you around 6am.  The difference, I suppose, is that during parenthood you are somewhat glad they did.