Tuesday, June 15, 2010

A snail's pace, A hedgehog's race

Sometimes the shortest journeys can seem like the longest ones.

Today's journey was a short one, but I sure was relieved when we made it to the end of it all in one piece. The journey today- a 6 min. bus ride to an 11 o'clock appointment. Sounds easy enough, right? The ride is short and the appointment isn't early in the morning. That means plenty of time to have a cup of coffee, eat breakfast, finish up some chores, and then head out the door. But, not with 3 children it doesn't!

How come children move at the pace of a snail when they know you are in a rush and are on the verge of being really late? Maybe panicking and saying, "go go go go go go!" really makes them think, "slow down slow down slow down!" In this case, my son was moving like a snail before I hit the "go go go go go" phase. OK, maybe I should have made my children take a bath the evening before. But in my head, I thought it would be much easier to bathe two happy and well slept children in the morning, than two crabby, already past their bedtime children, in the evening. Yes, it might be easier on the nerves in terms of crabbiness, but in terms of snails and a time crunch, the nerves go crazy.

By 9 o'clock, things were looking good. I had finished some chores, my day care child had arrived, and I had just let in the bath water for the boys. All on schedule. If it wasn't for the snail pace. After several small arguments, by the time both kids were in the bathtub it was already 9:30. Still, I felt a sense of "We can do this." After making sure the baby I look after wasn't getting into anything that could harm her, I ran around the house doing the check list, while the boys got clean in the tub. Snacks, check. Extra diapers, check. Wet wipes, check. Toys for entertainment, check. Money for the bus, Check. Überweisung (can't think of the correct English word at the moment) for the appointment, check. Clothes laid out for after the bath, check. Towels in place, check. Every thing's good and ready to go. But, did I mention that snails don't like to wash their hair? Discussion, whining, discussions, difficult, difficult...time is ticking....it's 9:50 one child still in the bathtub, one out but not dressed, a baby crawling around my feet and we have to catch the bus at 10:08. If we miss it, the next one doesn't come for another 20 min. If we miss that one, we're screwed and miss the appointment. I'm starting to panic. Have reached "go go go go go!" I don't know how, somehow, through all of the chaos, everyone got dressed from head to toe, we jolted out the door, ran to the bus stop and made it with 4 minutes to spare. After paying for my ticket and settling the boys into their seats with a baby in my arms as the bus starts moving, I plopped down and let out a sigh of relief..."Yes, we did it. phew!" From then on, the journey was a piece of cake. I watched the people around us smile at the baby and grin at the kids, forgot all about the trouble we went through to get there, and thought that as long as we make it to the appointment, the ride home will be smooth sailing.

That seems like it was ages ago now. There was still a busy afternoon and evening to the day. But, it has now come to an end and as I walked the dog tonight, I spotted out of the corner of my eye, lit by a street lamp, a hedgehog scamper out into the street and waddle his way across to the other side. And I thought to myself, "where is your journey taking you, Mr. Hedgehog? and how much trouble will you have to go through to get there?"


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