Chicken Juice

Leah is my little helper in the kitchen. She usually drags a chair from the dining table and brings it to the counter to "help" me cook. I usually enjoy the gesture, but tonight I was annoyed....

It's been one of those weeks, and it's only Monday.

I am talking to my mom on the phone about this and that, and nothing too important. I look over to the sink where my little helper is sampling the food. I thought it was the cooked food, until a second glance revealed a different story...

After the second spoonful, I realize what is going on....

"Leah, are you drinking chicken juice?" I wanted to vomit. Seriously!

I defrosted the chicken on a plate in the microwave. I set the plate in the sink with the defrosted chicken juices on it. I turn away (for a few seconds) while talking to my mom, to turn around to Leah using a DIRTY spoon to shovel in DIRTY chicken juice from the plate in the sink.

WHO DOES THAT?!?!

I will wait now to see if she gets food poisoning....

Mr. Mom?

It is an on-going fight, er, I mean, conversation in our household about who has it harder. The stay-at-home mom or the dad who busts his butt at work. I will stand by my story that when raising toddlers and under, moms win- hands down. But all of a sudden there has been a turn of events and I will admit when I was wrong, or when all of a sudden, I stand corrected.

Now that the kids are a bit older and in school, I must say, staying at home has become somewhat of a luxury. Not to say there isn't hard moments, or moments you want to pull your hair out....but it seems easier. This is probably because of all the hard work I put into my kids for the first formative years. They are well oiled running machines now.

I must have made a pretty good case about my job being harder though. For a while there, I had Bobby convinced that mine was. He had witnessed one too many meltdowns and wondered how I stay sane. Patience is a virtue. I think I finally got this under control. I got the hang of it. Waiting out the tantrums, the crying, the fighting between siblings is all part of my everyday. That is why I may be done with having anymore...I GOT THIS, for the moment.

We go shopping on the weekends and I am like, "What the heck is up with all these crowds?" I must say shopping during the week has it's perks. My husband used to come home and ask how my day was. I would unwind and tell him about all the mishaps. Now when he asks me, I am like, "Everything was great! I worked out during the no-kid zone, had lunch with my best friend and got to wax my eyebrows with no sitter needed." He says sarcastically, "Wow, sounds like a rough day!"

Then he tells me about his day and I have to admit...it sounds awful. He has to manage adults that act like babies, and you don't even love them because they aren't your babies. You just have to deal with the whining and crying.

I have to admit, on this blog, not to his face that... he wins. I wouldn't trade! Not for a day or a week. He can stay at work and I will manage the home front.

Although the other day, in another discussion about who has a more challenging job, I think he declared me winner. Leah had a whining day. From the time she woke up till she went to bed, everything she said was in a fake cry voice, you know the one. Sounds like nails on a chalkboard. He was loosing his patience. I was calm and collected.

He looked at me and said, "I will trade you jobs and be a stay at home dad, just as soon as Leah graduates high school, no problem." Ummmm, I think that is called retirement.