Perfect World: We leave our blankets in the crib when we leave the crib.
What We Generally Hope For: They take their blankets to the living room with them and leave them on the couch.
This Morning: We hauled the blankets downstairs. We hauled the blankets around with us. We stomped on the blankets. We wrapped up in the blankets and tripped on the blankets. We fought over the blankets and knocked each other down. We had breakdowns loading the car and wound up taking the blankets with us and screamed when we had to release them to go into daycare.
What We Generally Hope For: They take a cup of milk, drink it, and leave it on the couch.
This Morning: We threw down the milk and followed on any adult's heels using our new word "juice," alternating with screams. This started a general juice chant from the children. I managed to find one abandoned juice cup by the time we left; two are fermenting in the back of my car, and I will forget about them until I see someone guzzling from them on the way home tonight; and one is lost somewhere in the pile of toys.
What We Generally Hope For: We sleep until 5:30 and creep around our own house. At 6:40 we divide and conquer. He goes to the boys room and gets Nicholas ready while Ben snoozes. I go to the girls room and pluck Elaine from sleep taking her downstairs to get ready while Alida snoozes.
This Morning: At 6:20 both girls start screaming to get out of jail right in the middle of him trying to eat a bowl of cereal and me doing laundry. The more leisurely act of eating was trumped by dirty laundry duty, and he got to share his meager corn flakes with the birds up there. That extra 25 minutes we generally hope for is when we get their toothbrushes ready, vitamins lined up, get cars packed, drink a cup of coffee, finish getting dressed ourselves, find all of their shoes and coats, and tune up the cartoons for the other hopeful part of our morning. We finished all of that this morning while babies chased us around screaming for juice.
What We Generally Expect: Nicholas will wake happy. Benjamin will wake a grump. Elaine will be okay once she gets juice. And Alida (at the current time) will walk around screaming and throwing herself on the floor in various dramatic fits that have no meaning to us what-so-ever.
This Morning: Nicholas didn't want to get out of bed or anything else for that matter until he remembered that he needed to start hoarding toys, then he took off in his socks only to scream at the girls for taking his gloves, to find his Ironmen, to stuff it all in his medical kit, and then start going after Ben's comic book. Benjamin was a grump, but stayed to himself once he got some juice and a comic book. At least he stayed that way until Nicholas started a fight with him. The girls, well they were up at 6:20, and that was plenty of time for both of them to dream up dramas to fling themselves to the floor over.
What We Generally Expect: Someone will linger upstairs playing with toys. The other three will stay in the general area of the television with one throwing a manageable fit over something. This will give us time to get coats on, shoes on, brush teeth, and hand out vitamins.
This Morning: We scattered to the far corners of the house after getting our juice. One was off to hoard toys. One was off making a dirty diaper. One was in our faces throwing a fit. And the other was actually in front of the tv so enthralled that when it did come time to leave, he threw a fit.
What We Generally Expect: We will be able to herd everyone out the door with perhaps one melt-down and holding two juice cups and a handful of Fruit Loops. One child will take off into the yard if it is warm enough for a bit of a chase.
This Morning: Benjamin decided he was not going to school today, so he threw a fit. Then he wanted to ride in daddy's car. No, he wanted to ride in mommy's car. No he had to go potty. OH bother. The girls threw fits until they had their blankets in hand in the car. They have also become expert in arching their backs to make it impossible to buckle them in their seats. Nicholas wanted to ride in daddy's car. So when I tried to help him into daddy's car, he threw a fit because he wanted daddy to buckle him in. The daddy that was inside taking Benjamin to the potty. When we arrived at daycare, the drive-up was full of cars, so we parked in the lot and dumped three out of the van, one out of the car, and shoved juice cups and blankets back in the van all while clutching girls to keep them from taking off across the parking lot. And we both settled into our cars hoping for a long commute this morning so that we could relax for a few extra minutes.
4 comments:
Ummm, yeah. I don't know how y'all do this day in and day out. I think the 2 of you need a vacation...alone...kidless. Wow. They really are maniacs. But they're still so cute. I love the pictures. Especially the first one. I hate to tell you, but the little drama queens will only get worse when they become teenagers. I was the worst!
The picture you have painted, so clearly, for all of us is one that has us all saying, "Bless their hearts!"
Every child has those days, but when you have to multiply that by four, "Whew!"
We all hope the ride home will be much better!
Susan, You are wonderful at capturing all these moments in such a way that we understand perfectly. You really should write a book -- in your spare time of course.
This is insane. It's just insane. Do you ever find yourself with your head cocked back, cackling like a circus performer in an "I've lost my mind" kind of way? I think you both need to add a stiff drink to the morning commute!
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