I wait a few seconds before crawling from under the covers. I look over to see Grant in the bed (again) curled up and oozing funk all over my pillow. Ugh!
"Mama, where are you?"
I drag myself from bed and go to get Annie only to find that she'd exceeded the load limit in her diaper during the night and her pjs, sheets, and blankets were soaked. Might as well get a load of laundry started before getting those eggs and that milk. After doing that, I changed Annie and headed downstairs to start my morning job as a short-order cook. Annie insists on sitting on the counter to oversee her menu. She even will tell me to put salt and pepper in her eggs. Grant has also taught her to ask for garlic in them "like Daddy makes." Thanks, Grant!
7:30 a.m. - I haul everyone else from their bed (oh, wait, or MY bed) and get ready to go to the gym. I was hoping things would go like yesterday and I'd get to watch a couple of episodes of Glee and walk myself into oblivion. NOT! The gym was packed at 8:00 for some reason. I wanted to go earlier today because yesterday, the Kidz Klub area looked like the outside of a hive of killer bees ready to swarm. I couldn't begin to guess how many kids were crammed in there!
Anyway, I finally got my treadmill and Grant got an elliptical. We figured we'd swap out after a few miles. However, he grew bored and wandered on to other things. I didn't worry. I just kept walking and watching. Then, he came back and said he was bored AGAIN! The little bugger just kept coming back. I was ready to tell him to go park his duff on the bench out front. Anyway, my magical moment alone was lost so I gave up. We picked the girls up and headed home.
9:00 a.m. - I headed to get a shower and left Grant watching Annie and Dasha unloading the dishwasher. Midway through shaving one leg, Grant frantically threw the door open and started yelling at me. Between the water pounding my face and my iPod volume blaring, I couldn't hear him. I resorted to turning the water off, finding a towel and going to investigate the problem (still with one shaven leg and conditioner still in my hair). Dasha had dropped a bowl which had broken into a kazillion pieces and she had simply thrown away the big chunks and left the little shards on the tile floor. Grant was "concerned" that Annie was going to step on them. I think he was more about 20% concerned about Annie and 80% set on getting Dasha into trouble. The whole incident wouldn't be so aggravating except that she dropped the lid to my one good soup pot a few weeks ago and it shattered. She didn't want to tell me so she just threw it all away and then when I went skidding onto the tile floor with naked feet, I was the recipient of some nice glass splinters. Anyway, I parked Dasha on my bed with a book and sequestered Grant and Annie upstairs away from the glass. I hopped back in the shower to get the remaining conditioner out that had not run onto my face and into my eyes. I am still, in fact, walking around with only one shaven leg. I think I need to start alternating which leg I shave first. Then, when these things occur, I could at least even the job out!
10:30 a.m. - I was toying with the idea of going to the zoo today. I have some free passes but by this time, I already felt like I was living in a zoo and really didn't care to risk the temptation of leaving my own monkeys behind at the Atlanta Zoo. We cleaned up a bit and then got lunch ready.
11:30 a.m. - As Annie and I played in the floor, I noticed that the back side of her teeth were almost black. It was embarrassingly gross! How in the world could they look like that? She's never been fond of letting me brush them but I thought I was doing a mediocre job. I knew what I was up against but there was no time like the present. I went for a toothbrush and toothpaste and found a loud bright show on TV to try to distract her. She started off sitting in my lap screaming. By the time it was over, she was laying on the sofa with her head hanging off backwards turning herself blue. Ugh. I gave up for fear she'd make herself pass out. As soon as she was free, she ran straight to Grant. He took her upstairs and put her to bed.
12:30 - I enforced nap time for everyone. I made a few phone calls only to find that the civilized world gets to take a lunch break from 12 - 1 and they don't answer the phone. Perfect.
2:30 p.m. - I know I need to make a WalMart run but it's the last thing I want. I tell everyone to find their shoes. Annie asks, "Where going?" When I tell her we're going to the store, she informs me that she will walk and not ride in the buggy or stroller. Nice. I just love it when the two year old draws the battle lines before I even know we're going to battle! The WalMart run just about unraveled what was left of my nerves. Yes, I let Annie walk. Grant pushed the buggy and Dasha bumped into everything in her path including a very pregnant lady who gave her the evil eye. What could I do other than apologize? Dasha's personal space seems to be more and more of an issue lately, too. Anyway, Annie demanded a cookie (she's used to Publix) and I tried to divert her attention. The last thing I need in the house right now is cookies! I finally gave in and she picked a dozen cookies from the bakery. Why oh why have my parenting skills gone down the toilet? I can't begin to tell you how many parents I've grumbled about after watching them give into their child's whims to simply make their lives easier! Now, I'm one of them! It cost me $2.99 to avoid a full blown tantrum in the WalMart bakery. Maybe it was worth it today but tomorrow, she might be asking for a pony!
5:30 p.m. - As we sit down to eat, Annie decides that she doesn't want water. She wants Sprite. There isn't any Sprite, though. It's not a common commodity in the house but it is at Grandma's. However, she went into hysterics AGAIN because she wanted Sprite. I set her down from the table only for her to fall in the floor and continue her tantrum. At that point, I just put my plate in the sink. Hot dogs aren't on my top 100 list of food anyway and I sure didn't want to try to eat one while being serenaded by a screeching two year old. I don't really remember how the stand off ended but I can tell you that she didn't get Sprite.
6:30 p.m. - I give up. I tell the kids to get their shoes on. Poor Grant. I could see the look of worry on his face. I think he's always wondering exactly when I'm really going to snap and lose it! We ended up going to the park for a couple of hours. While watching Dasha and chasing Annie is exhausting, there's no whining or tantrums and I know that they'll be worn out in time for bed. (Oh yeah, there was another tantrum with the putting on of the shoes! One of Annie's toenails was hanging off and I needed to clip it. She only wanted Daddy to clip it though. Hmmmm.... Not gonna work).
9:00 p.m. - I try to quickly shower Annie off just to wash the playground funk off of her. While I wash her hair (she screams like you're water-boarding her), I gave her the poufy thing with some soap to wash her legs with. Of course, when she starts flailing about the water in her face, she puts the soap in her eyes. Duh. I know better! Mark that down as tantrum #142 today. She turned herself blue for this rendition, too, though!
9:30 p.m. - The monkeys are all in bed. I still have mounds of laundry to finish and some paperwork to get done but, hey, it is quiet!
And this, is a day in my life. With the drama with Annie today, there wasn't much time for emotions. I'm just numb today. Maybe that's a good thing. Annie's pleas for Daddy to cut her nails about pushed me over the edge and Grant's demands about how to correctly season the beans and cook the hot dogs echoing Eric's words about did the same but I think my sheer frustration shadowed any chance of that happening. I'm SO ready to go back to my school routine. At school, everyone has something to do and we're not sitting at home trying to figure out what to do that's cheap (free) and I have a bit of a break! Going to the pool isn't too much fun for me because Annie hangs to me like Velcro and you can't take your eyes off of Dasha. The park is great once it cools down. Bowling doesn't work out too well with all three. Even inside playgrounds like Chick-fil-A aren't great because Grant doesn't enjoy that too much, Annie gets lost in the tubes, and Dasha has a hard time even climbing through them. The library is good for at least once a week. The spray park in Roswell is good for a once a week trip, too. I'm thinking about trying the dollar movie in the morning. I figure I can let Annie run loose in the atrium while the big kids watch the movie if she won't stay still (highly likely). I'm running out of coupons for free activities and even the cheap ones are at least $40 for all of us to go! Any suggestions? Man! How many more weeks of break? Blah!
A broken spirit who can bear it?
Proverbs 18:14
Proverbs 18:14
No comments:
Post a Comment