5/10/10

Hmmm...just typing out the date made me realize that it has been one month since my dad passed away. :(

The girls had a rough night last night. Hannah & Hailey just couldn't settle down enough to stay asleep. Hannah was having nightmares and she kept waking Hailey up. Then Hailey fell out of bed and for some reason couldn't find her way back to it. By the time I got in the room - it was chaos. (I have to say - Emily slept thru all of it). I got up with them no less than 4 times. Pete got up once with Hannah and just couldn't calm her down. When I went in there I asked her if she was hot (I put a tshirt under their pj's last night so I was going to take it off for her). She said 'No mama! I cold!' which made no sense to me because she is always hot and she sweats so bad. So I brought her downstairs to check her out and as soon as I unzipped her pj's she screamed at me 'I cold!!!!' She peed through everything. So she was indeed cold. Poor baby. I changed her and once she was dry and comfortable she slept the rest of the night.

The morning. Oh boy. Let's just say I'll try to keep this civil knowing that the girls will probably read this one day. Pete set his alarm for 5:30 because he knew he had to leave the house at 6:45 to be at a conference for 7:00. The alarm goes off and he turns off the alarm. But goes back to sleep. Ok - I'm game! I ask him what his plan is and he says he's tired and isn't going to work. Fine by me...I'll sleep an extra hour!

Yeah so at 6:30 Pete wakes up - looks at me and says 'I gotta go!' He got up out of bed, got dressed, said goodbye and left. Yup - left. Left me with 3 kids to get up, dressed, fed and out the door...plus get myself showered and dressed. Ok - I got this. I showered, had the girls hang out in my room while I got dressed and then we all went and picked out their clothes for the day (Hannah was very precise as to what she needed to wear). We all came downstairs, I got them dressed, got their milk, put them in their chairs and then I went back upstairs to straighten up and grab a few more things I needed for work. Hailey flipped out. FLIPPED OUT. She was screaming at me for leaving them alone and crying that she didn't want me to work and simply just flipping out. Did I mention she flipped out? So I come back downstairs and look at her like she has 3 heads. I ask what her problem is and she looks at me like I'M nuts. She said 'Mama - sit down!' as she pointed to my chair. She was in the right. I always sit down and eat breakfast with them. It's our routine. But I couldn't - I had to get ready and there was no time. By this point - I had already called work to say I'd be about an hour late.

I finished getting ready - with one more trip upstairs and lots of 'I'm ONLY going upstairs for one minute!' talking...to which Hailey kept saying 'one minute mama! one minute!' It was cute and frustrating at the same time.

Getting shoes & coats (it was cold out today) on, then getting 3 kids, 4 bags, NO COFFEE and 3 babies out the door was a mess. I'm not gonna lie...I need time to prepare for mornings like this. I would have had everything ready last night...including myself. Clothes would have been picked out, I would have showered, their bags would have been in the car...but this was not planned. When Hailey realized she forgot her baby in the living room - she went to get it...but she walked backwards telling me 'don't leave mama - one minute. don't leave. one minute' with her little finger in the air as if to motion 'one minute'. Then she had to go out of my sight for a second and she hesitated and said 'Don't move! I coming!' and she ran to grab her baby and ran back. I have no idea where this insecurity is coming from. I always say goodbye when I leave - never leave without a kiss and a hug. I hope it's just a phase.

We get to the car. Hannah gets very angry that I didn't buckle her in on HER side of the car - I did it from inside the van instead of outside. It was cold. It was windy and I had to get the other 2 in the car as well. Ok - they're all buckled and I get in the drivers seat when I hear 'sunglasses!' Shit. I forgot their glasses. They're in the house. We're in the car. I can go in...but they'll flip - and if they flip - I won't be able to calm them down and the 20 minute ride will seem like an hour of hell. Or will it? I say 'I have to go inside to get your glasses. That means you have to stay in the car alone. Ok?' Hailey said NO! Hannah said yup and Emily didn't care. I knew they needed their glasses so I knew I was going in no matter what.

What would you do? Just go in I'm sure. But I needed to avoid a meltdown. I was close to one myself - the morning was not a good one, we all had a rough night don't forget, no sleep means we're cranky and impatient. To this point I had kept my cool and done everything I could to maneuver around the meltdowns so we could have a good day. Simply going inside and leaving them in the van might seem simple to you - but to them and to me...it was a touchy situation.

I went inside...and could hear the screams from inside the house. I got their glasses, came back out, opened the door and right away Hailey was yelling 'DON'T LEAVE!' and I simply said 'Would you like to go buy a donut for breakfast?' Instantly I had 3 smiling faces - all of them saying 'Yeah...yeah...yeah...'

I love you Dunkin' Donuts. I love you for saving me the stress of a very long ride today. I love you for giving me the caffeine required to get me through 1/2 of my morning. And I love you for not putting sprinkled munchkins in the box.

I went through the drive thru - got a coffee for me and munchkins for them. Then I pulled over - let them choose their own 2 donuts and we were on our way.

I got to work an hour late. No big deal...again.

Worked.

Came home.

Had dinner.

Played.

Bed. They were tired tonight...and they fell asleep rather quickly.

This post has only a few details of how off our day can be if things don't go exactly as planned. I know that there are mothers out there that get their kids off to school everyday. They get themselves ready for work and they do it all alone. There are even some fathers out there that do this. But this post is just an example of what it's like for us. The girls are hypersensative about routine and schedule. If something is off - they don't know how to deal with it. And I don't know how to deal with them. But hey - it's a learning process and we all had to compromise today. I'd say it worked out pretty well. Donuts and all!