Today

I thought I'd just relive the day for the sheer torture of myself and hopefully entertainment for you. I got up this morning after a restless night interupted twice by a hungry baby and decided to take a shower. There wasn't any water so that was okay. We have city water, surely it would be back soon. I proceeded to the kitchen and went through the usual charade of asking my adorable blondies what they wanted for breakfast and having them change their minds several times in the course of only a few minutes. After they both had an arrangement of pancakes, cereal, yogurt and blueberries with milk and juice I started my tea. Yes, I trickled the water out of the faucet for at least three minutes, but I DID collect enough for tea. You will soon learn that tea is a fundamental part of life in our house. Without it, there would definitely need to be locks on our knives. Well, the girls decided tea sounded good too. First Kait wanted a cup of my tea which was a quick and easy fix... then Eden decided she'd really like to have Chamomile since it was her favorite. Kaitlyn quickly changed her mind... again and I dumped her tea back into the teapot and made them each a cup of chamomile. I would like to add here, that of all of the breakfast items today, the chamomile tea and the reheated pancakes won.
After breakfast cleanup I was really getting anxious to do school and have it out of the way but my dear little chub monkey Nick wasn't the least bit interested in a nap. Once the word "school" crossed my lips, the girls were all over it like a chicken on a june bug. I thought maybe we could swing it so we did Yoga with Nick in between us. That went well. We matched and paired socks carefully cuffing them with Nick adding a fair amount of drool to the process from his propped position between my legs. Then it was time to paint the salt dough art we created last week. I knew they'd remember it but I was just praying they would forget. Twas not to be. With Nick hanging on my hip I got aprons and newspaper and PAINT out. Paint in my house almost always turns into a free for all. I just can't keep a lid on it. No matter what. I chose four containers of contrasting colors and told them to stick with those and carried Nick off to his room with lead feet. I knew I was making a mistake but I really wanted him to nap. Kait came in to squeeze his cheeks and ask if she could sit in the recliner which I politely refused and sent her packing back to work on her "project." I finally tossed the little fuss monkey into his crib praying he'd just figure it out and go to sleep. I went back in the kitchen and found all of the paint out. Of course. Who could I blame? There were streaks of yellow paint in the red glitter glue bottle and all of the red and white were being mixed together to create pink which is really a much better color anyway. We wrapped up the painting process without much ado. We all worked on our phonics for a few minutes and I admitted defeat and went and scooped up my poor squalling Nickster. I nursed him to sleep and patted his back until he gave up the ghost.
Then the girls made a marathon telephone call to their grandmother to give her directions on how she should manage a birthday party she's throwing for a friend this weekend. I heard alot about how Eden thought Grandma should dress and whether or not there should be a fashion show. I was incredibly heartened to hear it because it's a 50th birthday party for a friend of hers and my little golden girl didn't even ask to be invited or seem to consider it an option. She just wanted to share some tips Grandma might not have thought of. The conversation piddled on endlessly with poor Grandma trying to wind it up at least four times before being coerced into having a conversation with the baby doll Saraphina...(I really don't know how to spell her name, Eden can't spell yet and she named her.) I finally interceeded and told Eden that Grandma probably had other things she was working on and Eden immediately demanded to know if that were true from Grandma.
At 12:45ish our water came back on! Halleluja! I took my shower.
We loaded up after lunch and went to my friend Knelly's house to play. She has three kids the same age as my kids. It's complete pandemonium when we get together but we do it anyway. This time was NO exception. Kait is pretty much potty trained... I took her to the bathroom right away when we arrived and she went. Twenty minutes later, we had a little accident. No problem I had spare clothes. Twenty minutes later we had another little accident. No problem, we cleaned that up and Castle (Knelly's adorable boy) kindly loaned her a pair of shorts that are hysterically a size 3-6 months but just fit a two year old better. LOL! I have no idea how Knelly made this discovery. Meanwhile our four year old princesses marched in and demanded a shovel for a frog hunting project. Knelly delivered them with two wooden spoons which we did not analyze. (Insert red sirens). The four year olds were conspicuously quiet after that but Knelly and I were determined to have girl talk time so we didn't even check on them... A little later, Knelly kindly decided to make some applesauce for the kids. I was standing in the kitchen with her and she pointed out that the girls were on the patio. I looked outside and saw my beautiful blondie in a pink Sleeping Beauty dress with black hands, making handprints on the vinyl tablecloth on the patio. I wanted to crawl under Knelly's dining table but it doesn't have legs yet. She is a bargain hunter like me and found a beautiful table that needed legs and had the legs made. They're being delivered tomorrow but for the moment, you just can't crawl under a table without legs.
We dashed into the back yard and there they were. They had a small hole dug in the flower bed where they had been as they later explained, digging imaginary toads. I asked Eden if it had been her idea. She allowed that yes it had been her idea. Knelly and I looked at each other and felt the hysterical laughter reverberating silently between us. Knelly sternly announced that she and I were going inside to get them some towels to clean up. We went in the kitchen and dissolved into laughter. Not because it was okay but because it was so ridiculous and so totally our fault. I told her that this is just what Eden does and I don't know why and I'm sorry. She told me not to worry, that her daughter is exactly the same and we both have the same struggle. I solemnly marched Eden out while she wept about having to leave her friends house. Of course she didn't weep with regret for her actions. That never happens when Eden makes her messes. Maybe a psychologist will read this someday and tell me why.
We went to Tuesday Morning and bought three dish towels for my kitchen to hang when I'm showing the house. Yes, our house is for sale. Isn't that funny? I'm showing a house, I've been planning a yard sale for three months, I'm homeschooling my children, I have two dogs and my husband is working 70+ hours a week. CRAZY! Which leads me to the final chapter of my day.
We met Jody for a nice uneventful dinner on the patio at Chipotle. Jody told me after my day I should just forget grocery shopping and let him help me tomorrow. Jody headed off to work and I got into the car and on the phone to plan a mini-shower for a friend in the neighborhood. I contacted everyone but one person and most agreed to come tomorrow at 12:30 for a brunch style get together. Scones were requested by the honoree so tomorrow I am suddenly planning to make fratata, scones, fresh fruit and some kind of a drink, find a gift bag and do something special. At that moment I resigned myself and headed towards Walmart.
Yes, Walmart. We arrived at 6:42 and I mentioned to Eden how nice it would be if we could make it through in less than half an hour since I had a list. How funny that seems now. An hour and twenty minutes later, and of course another bathroom trip later we arrived at the car. I think I must have been visibly sagging by then. I loaded the groceries, sat in the drivers seat and nursed Nick. The girls opened the sunroof and offered salutations to every passerby despite all discouragements. Finally, Kait got down and informed me she was the mommy and I needed to get out of the seat so she could drive. Ya know, if she were taller than 34 inches I really would be tempted to let her have a go at being mommy for awhile.
Despite his dry diaper, replete state and Eden making up hysterical songs for him, Nick cried the whole way home, and in the last 5 minutes of the drive Kait joined the chorus because her sandal was crooked. As we turned the corner into the subdivision Eden hollered over the din "Guess what all you crying people? We're almost home!"