Since Mason was very little Jonny would be getting ready for work and ask him if he would be the man of the house while he was at work. Mason would eagerly agree and send daddy on his way. It's been a cute little moment between them for some time now. As was Mason telling daddy to go to work and make money, lol He started that when he was 20 months or so and then it was "go work, make money" :)
Tonight was no different. The boys huddled up on the couch, Jonny with a bowl of cereal and Mason with his DS and the usual you be the man of the house spiel. I got in on the conversation this time and asked Mason will you be taking to garbage out tonight? scooping the poop in the back yard? and the list went on a little. He hesitantly said yes with a little smirk on his face.
Now these are not necessairly duties that are soley Jonny's but more like duties that I do not enjoy and he will pick up the slack on so I have to do them as infrequently as possible. Thank you dear!!!
After dropping Jonny off at work I tell the kids on the ride home that when we get home it's bath's, jammies and hopefully we'll put the laundry away (it's been sitting in my room in baskets for almost a week now and daily dumped on the bed to search for the clothes we need and then later that night when there just wasn't time enough to do it, it went back into baskets and waited till the next day) and then if everyone is behaving we'll have a story and then bed.
After we were all in the house I reminded Mason to close the door, make sure it was locked and to close the blinds. He did with a proud little smile. I then asked him to let the dogs out back (something that the kids are asked often to do) and he asked if he needed to go out and pick up pooh. lol no honey. But let them back in and make sure you lock the door:) To which he grumbled, do I have to do everything, is that was the man does? Oh honey you're filling the role perfectly! lol
Mason and Connor had a bath together and I was getting discouraged because Connor was crying, I could only find pj bottoms for him and Mason was throwing cup full's of water up in the air in the bathroom. Abby was holding a mirror unstably (I swear she would have dropped it if I didn't step in) Madelyn was brushing her teeth, kinda not really and I was trying to talk with my mom on the phone. It was a mad house! No one was cooperating with anything they were asked or were supposed to be doing. Sorry mom I'll try to talk to you later.
Mason out of the bath, Connor crying because I'm not holding him, gasp! Mason not in a stitch of clothing, please find something to put on! The girls being not so cooperative in the bath. And then in one instant, Mason was dressed, Mason please go and play with your brother for a min. Get the girls washed up and let them have some play time in the bath. Let the baby out of his dungeon (crib) and tackle the laundry heaped on my bed. And who was so helpful doing that? You guessed it, Mason! If Connor hadn't found a ball of yarn to occupy himself I'm sure he would have been eager to get in on the laundry fun also.
Mason helped match socks and fold clothes and sort them into their baskets (each kid get's their own and put's it away). When all the clothes were sorted Mason was a wee bit disapointed that there was no more laundry and asked a few times if I was sure there was no more. Aw honey I'm sorry I will wash more tomorrow and we can do this all over again. I asked him to carry his and his sister's baskets to their respective rooms, he's very proud of himself being able to carry laundry baskets on his own now. Bless his little muscles I get that boy to help bring them down to the laundry room and upstairs again, truly a blessing for a woman who can do a couple loads a day and still rarely catch up. He then put his clothes away and went room to room picking up dirty clothes and filling, or over filling a basket with my promise to wash them the next day.
I was so proud of my little man and all his help this evening. I truly could not have done it without him. In all honestly we probably would still have been in a chaotic state had he not helped me. I love that little man!
We read a story, that he reread to his baby brother when I realized that I hadn't brushed hair after the baths. Oh my.
So all in all I could not have accomplished baithing 4 kids, brushing everyone's teeth (except Connor's 6 little one's, his tooth brush has walked away!), hair, laundry not only sorted but put away and read a story and enjoyed it! Connor even put down what he was busy with when I started to read and crawled up into the bed with us and for the most part cooperated instead of trying to eat the book like he does! lol
All of that is pretty tough to accomplish when I have Jonny working along with me. Mason will definitely have his fav school lunch tomorrow, french toast fingers' with sausage and maple syrup for dipping. Anything for the Man of the house!
