Big Bird's Nest, Tag Team Goes Pro, and Manners 101

Good news - I feel better.

Bad news - It was one of THOSE days!

Remember my plan last night about taking Nyquil and dropping into bed. Well, that did happen. However, when I went to get Annie up this morning, I found her in her closet. She'd pulled her old crib bumper out of a plastic bucket and snuggled into it like a nest. Now, before you go nuts, there's absolutely NO way that she slept like that all night! That was my first thought and I about burst into tears! I'm not a heavy sleeper - even under the influence of Nyquil. I would have definitely heard her migrating into her closet! I think she probably made the move when I got up to get a shower this morning and opened her door. Anyway, that was the first drama of the day. Granted, it was kind of funny after the initial shock wore off but at the moment, I really thought I'd failed as a mom and not heard her last night!

My day at school was what I'm going to call the "new normal." There are just so many changes that I'm not sure which end is up and which end I should be kissing!

When I got home, it all broke loose. Grant informed me that he had NOT received his band equipment today eventhough I wrote a check and sent it in on the very first day of school. He swears he turned it in but the band director said he never got it. Great. Then, Grant tells me that he lost his language arts workbook. I would have believed this coming from Dasha but Grant is pretty organized and hasn't ever even lost a library book. So, I emailed his teacher to find out what the replacement cost of the book was. While I was emailing this teacher, I got an email notification that a grade had been posted to Grant's account of NHI which means "not handed in" and gets a zero. What? I hate when the kids tag team me in the crazy department and I don't realize when they're changing roles! Once again, Grant promises that he turned the paper in. I gave him 24 hours to try to figure it out on his own before I start calling teachers.

(Note, while all of this is going on, Annie is at the top of the stairs wailing because I told her that she couldn't bring her paci downstairs. The rule is that the cork is for bedtime only - and for when I really lose control and don't care what anyone has in their mouth)!

So, I moved my assult on to Dasha. Last night, I discovered that Dasha had several assignemnts that weren't complete. Yes, I'm a deliquent mom and don't even peek in bookbags until 10:00 on Sunday night! So, I just wrote a big note and stapled it into her agenda and basically told the teachers that she'd take whatever she had coming to her! Well, what I didn't know was that one of the things that she "has coming to her" is a book report that's due Friday over a book that's at least 150 pages long. Um, yeah. Then, the book report format is going to take us years to complete! I'm thinking that there's going to be a lot a crying for the rest of the week about this deadline. And, this was only one of four assignments that she hadn't turned in. When I questioned her about the others this morning, she simply said, "Oh. I guess I just forgot."

Now, I really didn't see this coming. In the past, the big kids have worked as a team and they take turns being crazy. Annie maintains a consistent state of crazy but I expect that so I'm not shocked when that happens. However, the big kids seemed to have changed their game plan and they've decided to BOTH play the crazy card on me. Can I buy Valium over the counter? I think I'm going to need something stronger than Crystal Light to calm my nerves!

To top it off, Dasha just finished up a project where she had to cut pictures from a magazine and glue them into categories. I gave her some OLD Southern Living and Martha Stewart magazines. For some reason, she thought she also needed to remove pages from my new IKEA catalog. Seriously? I'd been saving that catalog to look through when I could peruse the pages without any sticky little fingers trying to treat it like a Where's Waldo book! I thought I managed to Lamaze breathe through the whole situation and move on until Grant came downstairs (he'd been at scouts) and informed me that he had to do the same project but with things about Britain. What? I left him on his own to figure it out. He's probably cutting pictures from the IKEA catalog (even though that's Swedish) and will then move on to find some other treasure to hack apart. I don't even care as long as he gets the darn thing done and goes to bed!!!!

I did manage to feed the girls before the magazine drama hit full tilt. Dinner actually was quite amusing tonight, though. I'm trying so hard to teach Annie table manners. I've given up on having her sit in her chair so I'm just requiring that she stay in one chair and not play musical chairs throughout the meal. Tonight's lesson was supposed to be eating with your mouth closed. She didn't get it. The poor thing kept trying but couldn't figure out how to chew and keep her lips together. I'm not sure how to help her figure it out but she finally just told me that it was ok if I saw her food in her mouth.

I did give up and let her eat her pizza like a wild animal. It wasn't like it was a DiGiono pizza or anything fancy. I guess eating a $0.99 pizza with your mouth open is better than letting caviar or something expensive dribble out of your mouth! Hey, it's all relative tonight.

So, with Annie in her bed (and not in the closet in a nest like Big Bird), Dasha in her bed reading her book for the book report, and Grant still cutting out random items from magazines, I'm calling it quits for the night. Hopefully, tomorrow will bring less drama!

Good night, all!

PS - Dad bought the laminate for the floors today! He didn't even remeasure the area! AAAHHH!!!!