Magic Card Mayhem

On a typical morning, when my husband has a 12pm to 8pm work shift, he gets up with the kids. This is mostly because of my love of sleeping late, his love for me, and so that the kids get some Daddy time because they'll be asleep when he gets home. Every other week he works this shift, and at least once or twice I offer to get up, so that he may enjoy the fulfillment of a few extra hours of zzz's. Today was supposed to be one of those mornings. To my pleasant surprise, the kids slept in till 8am, making my morning quite a bit less groggy. Still, as semi-alert as I happened to be, as I took the kids into the living room for their morning diaper changes, I missed a crucial detail as I passed through the kitchen. Even though that small detail was missed by me, it did NOT get missed by my toddlers. Hannah, the first to be done with her diaper change, happily returned to the kitchen while I focused my attention on changing Hailey. Then my darling 4 1/2 yr old pipes up:

"Look what Hannah did!"



I hate those four words with a passion. Those four words never mean anything positive. Its never "Look, Hannah put her toys away!" or "Hannah dressed herself!" No, those four words always mean Hannah has managed to UNdo something. So upon going into the kitchen to inspect the damage, I assumed I'd be looking at the contents of one cupboard or another magically spread out across the laminate floor. This morning I was in for a new surprise however, and it DID happen to be a magical one, also it happened to be entirely my husband's fault!



My husband plays a card game called Magic. He and his friends have played it for years. In those years, they have amassed a very large collection of cards. From time to time, usually a night or two before they are about to get together to play the game, my husband will bring out his cards. After the kids are in bed, he'll sit at the table, arranging particular cards into various piles that they call 'decks'. These decks are usually no less than 100 cards in size, and can get a fair bit larger from what I've seen of his organization. You would think that, after this carefully designed organizational routine, my dear husband would then put these piles and piles of thoughtful consideration into a safe spot at the end of the night. Safe, as far as Magic cards go, is NOT the kitchen table. In fact the kitchen table has not been a safe spot for anything other than indestructible plastic since both Hannah and Hailey learned to scale it like a mountain a few months back. Can you see where this is going? Would you like a visual aid?

This is just a little bit more extreme than a game of 52 card pick-up. It is also waaaaay beyond what I signed up for when agreeing to get up with the kids. Therefore, to prevent any more damage and destruction as both Hailey AND Dakota would love to help with, I got all three kids into their respective seats and placed their breakfast before them as a distraction. I ignored the disarray long enough to make myself a cup of tea. Less than 45 minutes after I had left our bedroom, I returned once again, waking my dear husband from his slumber.

"As a public service to you, and your investments," I announced to him calmly, "I am offering you the opportunity to go and clean up the result of your error in judgement before I get the girls out of their highchairs, and preferably before they start throwing soggy cereal at your pretty display of Magic cards."

So up he got, quite quickly I might add, dashing to the kitchen in his boxers to hastily gather together his Magic 'the gathering' cards before any more dastardly harm could befall them. As for me, as I sip my tea in the comfort of our quiet bedroom, in front of this computer, well I believe the morning has gone quite nicely so far!