I was home alone with the twins tonight for bedtime. As a general rule, this is not a big deal. But here's how pajama-ing (always immediately post-dinner) went tonight:
I took Logan out of his high chair, the evidence of his baked sweet potato all over his hands and face. I cleaned him up in the sink, changed his diaper, and set him down in the living room.
Carter's turn was next, and he was, unsurprisingly, equally in need of a good wash in the sink. While I was performing this task, Logan decided he was feeling a little peckish and crawled into the dining room, found the bowl of sweet potato he had tossed on the floor during dinner to save for later, and proceeded to have a after-dinner snack. Cue Logan's second wash.
With Logan freshly washed, I gave him a toy and sat him beside me, grabbed the pajamas I had previously prepped, and began dressing Carter. While I was thus occupied, Logan tossed the provided toy aside and ventured into the dining room once again and located another bowl - the one under Carter's chair this time - and investigated. Satisfied that the sweet potato inside was as tasty as his own and equally moisturizing to his skin, he flung the bowl a distance of about 12 feet and chased it, giggling. I quickly zipped Carter's pajamas, dropped a toy on his lap, and scooped Logan up before he reached the bowl. I put it on the counter next to the first one. Confident that both bowls and baby forks were now safely out of reach, I sponged Logan down for a third time and returned him to the living room where his pajamas were waiting.
By this point, Carter had become bored with the toy I had given him, and as soon as I began wrestling an indignant Logan into his pajamas, Carter made a beeline for the glop of sweet potato that had escaped the bowl Logan so gleefully tossed. I saw it happening but decided it wasn't worth dropping Logan on his head to make a dive for Carter, so I let him reach it and watched as he triumphantly smacked the glob in front of him and smeared it on the floor. He was so proud of himself.
Clearly, I don't have time to clean the kitchen or mop the floor before getting the babies in bed. Just as clearly, not doing it elongates the bedtime process when I am outnumbered by little people. So what's a mama to do? In this situation, there was not much to do but laugh. So that's what I did. And it felt great.
