Supermom Capes Only Hold So Much Power...

We've all had those days....you know, the ones that as you begin the days journey you realize that dawning the Supermom or Superdad Cape is a necessity to get all that needs to get accomplished accomplished...and with glowing results at that....

Wellllll....I had one of those days and I must say that by the end of the day my Supermom Cape was, well, worse for the wear...a little frayed at the ends one might say! ;)

Now I must note that this happened almost 3 months ago, before the therapeutic influence of Camp Intentional...had the events occurred today that cape and I could quite confidently have rocked the days events.

However, May 25th looked a bit different.

The day began as many do with morning baths for the kids, one too many reminders to brush teeth, a missing tennis shoe for Luke, some spilled milk by "Short Stuff", some scrambled eggs and pancakes woofed down by both, a squabble over packed lunch versus buying, and a perpetual search for Luke's backpack...you know just the usual stuff, not so much a big deal...

However, on this particular day I knew that I had a lot on the agenda and as I flew about the house to ensure both boys were dressed and ready for school I saw out of the corner of my eye the hem of ..."The Cape", the Supermom Cape ...saved for special occasions such as this day. I decided that today if any day was reason to pull old faithful out of the closet this was it, she has seen me through a few busy days.

On the agenda for the day, once the morning shuffle and double drop off was ensued, was to hit the local Barnes and Noble to meet up with some of the families I work with to collect work samples and perform a few assessments, pick Reid up from preschool, take him to speech therapy, put him down for a nap, teach an online 1st grade vocabulary development lesson while he napped, pick Luke up from school, go grocery shopping, make dinner, and freshen up for a marketing event I was hosting at a local coffee house for prospective families that evening for our school.

So.... I grabbed that cape and slipped on my 3 inch sassy brown shoes because just because I was wearing the "teacher hat" that day didn't mean I needed to look like a school marm and we were off to tackle the day...2 cute boys, a mom, a cape, and super sassy shoes...we were good to go!

Well the day began without a hitch ....until I received a call during my last meeting before I was to pick Reid up that he had a potty accident and well...he needed "poop patrol" to come take care of him. No biggy right?... any Supermom can tackle this without even a flinch. I politely brought my meeting to a close and the cape and I flew out of there.

After the preschool poop clean up....Miss Heals and Super Cape now headed off to speech with Short Stuff... do you like that I give myself a nickname here?...kind of just fits so I'm going with it. But, Reid zonked right out on the ride over...I am talking zonked, but that's okay that's what the cape is for...I tightened the knot at the top of the cape and did a little song and dance and viola he was up and alert for his lesson.

However...that little number to get him alert for his lesson worked a bit too well and he was in rare form the rest of the day...did I mention he was going to be napping during my online 1st grade vocabulary lesson???.....Ummm, yeah, that didn't work out so well. My only resort was to put an Elmo movie in and supply my guy with mounds of toys to keep him occupied while I closed myself off into my office for the lesson. But instead he found...a pencil....and a blank wall....sigh, pictured below.

But wait...that's not all folks. Apparently his 1st potty episode was just a teaser, as from my office I could hear him saying...EEWWWWW, EEWWWW and well, yes you guessed it, he pulled his pull up off and was staring at some eewwwy evidence that the first potty episode at preschool was only a prelude of what was to come. Yikes, I had to give my students a quick little drill to work on, put myself on mute, and put the cape to work once again to fly about the house to find the pull ups and wipes and then execute a diaper change in a nano second. See, I just knew today was a day for that cape...good thing I followed my mother's instinct.

However, as the day went on and we picked Luke up from school and headed to the store and I had to break up squabbles in the back seat and turn down requests for all things yummy and sweet to make their way into our cart, and superacrobatic like catch flying produce Reid was chucking from the cart...I could feel my supermom powers starting to weaken. I looked at that cape, invisible to all others, but to me I saw a few frays starting to form at the ends and even a few little holes from those sassy brown shoes that caught the bottom of the cape...darn those heals but I still thought they looked cute.

Sooo...when we got back home, unpacked the groceries, tidied up the house, and I heard Luke shout out for about the bazillionth time, "When are the steaks going to be ready" in a not so patient tone and I in stunned silence witnessed my toddler rip open and completely DUMP a brand new bag of spaghetti all over my bedroom floor....I stood frozen for a minute, I then untied Miss Cape and thanked her for her help during the course of the day but assured her that from here on out I was taking over...

I ordered the boys out of my room and for Luke to get his homework out as I cleaned up the spaghetti. In a rather sassy, attitudinal way if you will he informed me he only had 1 small thing for homework.....and then Bingo, call it the straw that broke the camel's back, call it whatever you want....that's when it happened....I resorted to....yes, I can barely even write it....SENTENCES. I. made. my. boys. write. sentences...a lot of them. I hated my 6th grade teacher Mrs. Sanguinetti for making us write sentences and here I was in the comfort of my own home with my beloved little guys banishing them to sentence torture.

Luke was a bit stunned...but complied and wrote, "I will not have an attitude". I had no intentions to have Reid write sentences but he popped up in the chair next to Luke and pointed to himself and said, "Reid"....so I thought, "Sure, okay buddy....you bet you deserve sentences too", so Reid's said, "I will not spill spaghetti on the floor ever again!". ....the only problem was, THEY LIKED DOING THEM!!!! Reid even scribbled on Luke's sentences when he was done with his.

That night when I was home from my marketing event and my boys were snuggled angelically in their beds I plopped exhausted into my own bed and curled up with that imaginary Supermom Cape and giggled.... Oh how I love those boys...even when they are rascals! ...and then reminded myself that these are actually the days that I am going to miss when they are big and grown!

1. I love my boys.

2. I love my boys.

3. I love my boys.

4. I love my boys.

5. I love my boys.