Broken Glass & Birth Order

My whole life I've heard people refer to birth order and it's importance, "...She's such a first born...Typical for a youngest...Only child syndrome..." I never really understood all of it, but what I did understand, I completely agreed with. This morning I discovered the difference between a 6-year old, first-born girl and a 5-year old, second-born boy!

Tuesdays are Bible Study days. Shane brings Zoe to school so I can get everyone dressed, out of the house and to bible study on time. Today started out no different. I came downstairs with the triplets outfits - ready to let Ty know his outfit was waiting for him, too. When I came into the playroom, Ava handed me something small and shiny and said, "uh oh!" What was it? GLASS! A tiny piece of broken glass.

After calmly and quickly taking it from the peanut, I frantically scanned the room. Cole was sitting quietly watching Blue's Clues. Ty was sitting on the couch fiddling with something. Eli was standing next to Ty on the couch. What's broken? Is there more glass? Where'd Ava get this?

"Ty...where'd Ava get this glass?"

"Eli did it!"

"Eli did what?"

"He broke the picture!"

Apparently, SOMEbody threw a ball ("a hard one") in the family room....and hit one of the pictures over the couch...and broke the glass....and somebody ELSE didn't feel the need to come upstairs to tell his mother. Seriously? My 5-year old didn't feel that broken glass was important enough to stop watching Blue's Clues and come get me. Zoe would have run upstairs the minute the ball flew...regardless of whether or not it hit something!

That's when something glimmered in Ty's hand and caught my attention. He was playing with a piece of glass too! Hello????? Isn't he 5????? What on earth was he thinking????? (FYI: See on the picture of the broken glass there's a piece that looks like a moon? That's what Ty was playing with!) I scooped up the babies and brought them downstairs to play. I grabbed the glass from Ty and ordered him downstairs to play with the babies while I cleaned.

Everyone's fine. The glass is cleaned up (I found a few "lost toys" and my nephew's pacifier in the process). But as I was finishing, the phone rang. About 5 minutes into the conversation, I heard someone coming up the stairs...COLE...followed by Ty!

"Ty, did you forget to shut the gate?"

"I wanted to answer the phone."

"Are all the babies out?"

"...I guess...?"

Ty opened the gate and let them out! HELLO????? Isn't he 5????? What on earth...????

By the time I got them rounded up and put them back into the "Gated Community" (a.k.a. The Family Room), they'd created a mess with Shane's CDs (which brought back SERIOUS memories of Zoe and those blasted CDs) as well as emptied the majority of the board games from the kids' game cabinet.

Ava's damage this morning

Zoe's mess circa June 2003 (with a little help from cousin Sammy)

When all was said and done, 45 minutes had past...the kids were still in their PJs...my coffee was cold...my "To Do" list had grown...and Bible Study had started...without us...

Hope your Tuesday went a little more "as planned"!