If diaper bags were accurately named, they should really be called diaper-and-spare-clothes bags. Because babies need diapers, but small children of all ages go through clothes faster than fashionistas. I should know this by now, but as you’ll see, I don’t.

Today is a typical day. I took the kids out, three of them, mine (2),  Daycare Baby (1) and Boyfriend’s Daughter (5).  We went to a neighborhood coffee shop that has

1. toys
2. caffeine
3. cakes

So it appeals equally to all four of us. How dirty can your kids get at a coffee shop? Well.

We are in the middle of a spring thaw and on the way in, there was a puddle blocking the sidewalk that we could have tiptoed through, but the two walking children went SPLASH SPLASH SPLASH through it. Get into the coffee shop, and it’s a very very kid friendly place, full of other moms and kids, so it’s wet socks off, snacks for the kids, cappuccino with an extra shot (just coffee but i’d have been game for something stronger) for me.

Hang damp socks over the back of my chair and chat to a mom friend who’s there too. She’s pregnant with her second baby so we are discussing how moms deal with more than one baby. With the assistance of much caffeine, and wailing/letting off steam/comradeship of other moms in cyberspace.  I look at the kids and my toddler is missing one boot.

Boyfriend’s daughter helpfully takes on the task of finding the boot because Toddler claims to not know what happened to it. This always baffles me about toddlers. If you lost a shoe in the middle of your day, you would notice, no? Suddenly, one of your Uggs is gone. Would you not remark on it? Not if you are a toddler. Toddler is busy with a dump truck and she goes around the other moms asking if they have seen the errant boot. No-one has. The matter is complicated because Toddler threw a fit as we were leaving and refused to wear matching boots. The moms assume we are looking for a blue boot when the missing one is actually a green frog rainboot. Daycare baby eventually happens across the boot in the back of a playhouse so I stop her chewing it and return it to the foot. Boyfriend’s daughter goes around the moms and lets them know that the boot has been found. They gamely tell her they are grateful for the update.

Meanwhile Daycare Baby destroys a banana cake and needs a new shirt, then her diaper leaks and she needs new onesie and pants, then it’s time to go home for lunch.

The children pause to attack a large stuffed Barney that is lying prone on the floor then we are out of there.

Oh, the puddle. The temperature is rising and the puddle is more like a lagoon now. Toddler launches ker-splash and is soaked from the knees down. Boyfriend’s daughter starts kicking the water on Toddler.  Toddler tries to kick her back but gets himself more wet. Toddler jumps up and down, splashing Daycare baby in her carseat. I promise I didn’t give them any caffeine. It’s one of those things that they look so happy to be splashing in the muddy water that I don’t want to stop them but it’s also ice cold and they are getting very dirty. So I wade in (Ugg boots are not waterproof) and get them out and we get in the car.

Toddler’s pants and sweatshirt are soaked and his boots are full of water, so I strip those off and cover the semi-naked child with a blanket in the carseat, that he throws at Boyfriend’s daughter. She’s not as wet, being taller and better at kicking, but her shoes are dripping and her leggings are a little wet. She starts stripping (when do they ever learn modesty?) and takes off her leggings, thankfully we are parked on a very quiet residential street. It’s OK! she says. I’m wearing a SKORT! Well, phew. I wonder if five-year-olds wake up and think, I might splash in a puddle today, I’d better wear a skort?

So I returned home with three dirty and semi-dressed, but happy children and that’s what matters, right? Wake up night-shift-working boyfriend and have him come out to our parking lot to carry our shoe-less children across our resident mud.

Then in the afternoon, the sun was shining and the temperature was pushing the high fourties, a very warm day for early March in Minnesota, so we went out again to the playground. The playground equipment was standing in a puddle of snow slush, water or mud so as you can imagine, everyone was delighted to be outside, and predictably, got filthy again. But that’s what baths are for!

My husband and I had hired a builder several years ago to enlarge our house when he and I got married. Since I had 4 kids from a previous marriage, we needed at least another bathroom and 2 more bedrooms to accommodate everyone.

Sadly, the builder went bankrupt somewhere near the end of the project leaving us in a difficult situation. Almost four years later, we are still finishing and fixing the house as time and money allow. In the beginning, it wasn’t too difficult. My 4 children are old enough to know to stay away from nails and not to eat spackle. They don’t have a desire to pick up a hammer and see what they can smash either. We didn’t have to worry about baby-proofing our building projects.

Then we had our son and life changed slightly. When it was time to do very dusty projects, we’d take him to our neighbors for a few hours until we could clean things up. Otherwise, it was simple to put him in his playpen with a few toys and do whatever needed to be done. It was slightly challenging to baby-proof our work projects and supplies, but we managed.

For a while, our project stalled due to lack of time and finances. This weekend, we decided to tackle a few building projects when the children were out with family members. It was then that we realized that remodeling with a toddler is not an easy thing to do!

Our son can now crawl out of the playpen and he’s curious. While my back was turned, he played in the paint. After a bath, he discovered a dust pile. After another bath, he discovered it was fun to play with the wall spackle. After another bath, I put him to bed and we worked furiously to finish what we needed to do.

We’ve realized we need a new strategy: we’ll need to do repairs during nap time, or hire our neighbors to watch our son at their house while we work on the house for any extended length of time. Let’s hope that this strategy works!