The Great Chocolate Fiasco of 2011

One of the most comedic moments in my parenting career happened just the other day.  Allow me to share the laughs with you:

We had finished school for the day and it was a beautiful afternoon.  Josiah had just been nursed and was sleeping in his swing.  Abby and Corbin were outside swinging, as well.  I took about 30 minutes to spend some quality time with the two middle boys.  Daniel, Samuel, and I built some towers (and knocked them down) and read probably 4 or 5 library books.  We snuggled for a minute and then I told them to go play together for awhile.

"Ahhhh," I thought, "everyone has been fed and attended to.  This is the perfect time to go get the dishes unloaded and loaded."

I walk in the kitchen at the same time as the boys run past my feet.  I assume they are just going to run through the kitchen and into the living room (NEVER assume), so I turn my back (NEVER turn your back) and start unloading the dishwasher (NEVER unload the dis....wait, that explain a lot...).  Perhaps 2 minutes had passed at the very most when I realized it was much quieter than I would like for it to be.  All Mommies of boys know that quiet is a very bad thing ...

I start to head to the back part of the house thinking they are probably in the school room, yet again dumping out the art supplies and learning manipulatives to "do school", but realize that the sound I am hearing is them laughing and playing in their own room.

"Wow, that is great!" I think to myself.  "I really need to praise them for being so good and playing nicely together where they are supposed to be!"

(HA HA HA.  Oh, the silly things that I think in my head.)

I turn the corner to their room and am greeted by THIS:

(nether regions have been blurred for those who might be offended by male toddler nudity - something I don't even notice anymore ;)

"WHAT ON EARTH IS THAT?" you might be wondering.  Well, let me tell you what went down during what we now call the Great Chocolate Fiasco of 2011.  

Daniel wanted to make a pie for his family (that boy loves pie).  Samuel wanted to help.  Samuel got the economy sized tub of Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Powder down from my baking shelf.  Samuel stripped naked (not sure when in the lineup that happened...).  Samuel took the lid off and thought, "Mmmm....chocolate.  I'm just going to pour this whole thing in my mouth!"  Samuel dumps chocolate down his entire body.  When he realizes that it is not sweetened, he decides, "Eh, what the heck!?  Let's just make an art project out of it."  Just for the fun of it, a few more pictures:

He was ever so proud of himself.

Such an evil little laugh for such a sweet little boy!

"Did you see what I did, Mama?!  Isn't it great!!!?"

If I had thrown some sugar and flour and a few eggs in the bathwater, I'm pretty sure I could have made a cake...

He smelled so good for days ... made me want to kiss him even more :)

By far the biggest mess this Mama has ever had to clean up ... and that is saying a lot!!

The funniest thing about this whole disaster was my own reaction.  In the past when we had situations like this arise, I would usually yell or gasp or cry first, then take a few pictures, then maybe make a comment in the midst of my stressing and pouting about how SOMEDAY I will look back on this and laugh.

Not this time.  The laughter was immediate.  I'm tellin' ya ... they have made me so crazy that I now laugh at the most inappropriate times.  I walked in on those boys and laughed so hard there were tears streaming down my face, and I couldn't stop laughing for the rest of the day!  Even while I cleaned up super soft chocolate powder from a beige carpet, I laughed.  It was the best laugh I have had in a long time. :)

It made me think, and it is so much more fun to laugh about it now AND later, rather than waiting for that "someday" to come.  I did talk to the boys about how we only make pie when Mommy is helping, but I also giggled and teased and joked with them about it.  I'm hoping that when "someday" comes and we are all sitting around the table with little grandchildren running under our feet, that while I am laughing at the memory of the chocolate atomic bomb that went off in my house, my boys will be laughing at the memory of their crazy Mama laughing so hard she couldn't breathe as she is on her knees cleaning it up. :) 

THAT was a very blessed mess! :)