Life of Mom

An expose on the last 24+ hours of my life...

• 4:30 AM {Monday morning} -- The Jane-est of my Janes gives us an extra-early morning wake-up call.

For whatever reason, Jane woke up and was ready to PARTY at around 4:30 yesterday morning.  After climbing in our bed and trying to convince us that it was time to go downstairs, she quickly switched gears and ran out of the bedroom saying she was going to get Alex.  My sleep-addled brain couldn't quite process what she was saying until I saw the hall light being switched on and heard Alex laughing.  I ran to see what was happening and discovered Jane on the landing at the bottom of the stairs and Alex half-way down.  What the bunnysauce???  I grabbed Alex and put him back in bed {Goodnight mommy! he said}, and tried to march Jane back to her bed as well, but it was no use.  The girl was WIRED and ready to start her day.  Seriously wired.  The picture below is how I finally solved this problem...

 My closet.  Set-up with Jane's pillow and blanket and the iPad featuring "Frozen."  Don't judge.

I convinced Jane to cozy up in my closet and watch "Frozen" on the iPad, and then crawled back into bed hoping I could get at least another hour or two's worth of sleep before everyone else started waking up as well.  But that didn't really work.  At a couple different points Jane came back with a bag of popcorn for me to open for her movie-watching enjoyment, about halfway through the movie the iPad went dead, and after a certain point other children started waking up as well.  

• 7:55 AM -- Big kids all make it to the bus on time.  Thank heavens.  

Sophie's alter-ego -- the angry elf -- likes to make frequent appearances in the morning these days while we're trying to get ready for school.  A shrieking, squalling, angry little villain, this elf just can't seem to get anything done.  You know, like eating breakfast -- or even CHOOSING what to eat for breakfast; getting dressed; finding socks or shoes or you name it; making and packing a lunch; etc.  The list could go on and on.  The result is that Sophie has been missing the bus quite a bit lately and I've had to load up the little ones on several different occasions in order to drive her over to the school.  Which absolutely drives me nuts.  {Hashtag first world problems}.  

• 11:30 AM {give or take a few minutes} -- Jane has a melt-down about not having a green shirt to wear.

After TEARING around the house all morning like she was on speed, Jane's emotional side surfaced when she realized that it was St. Patrick's day and she didn't have a green shirt to wear to school.  Thankfully that crisis was averted when I found some green yarn lying around the house and safety-pinned a bow to the front of her shirt.  Whew!

 Original placement of the green bow.

 And final placement of the green bow.  We thought it might look better if it was accessorizing the bumblebee instead.  Hahaha.

• 12:15 PM -- Jane falls asleep in the car on the way to preschool.

Well, apparently that early morning wake-up and the subsequent hyperactivity of the morning really caught up with little Janie Boo.  I should have realized that the extra time driving around in the car would be a hazard for my worn-out little bumblebee when I made a quick run to the bank before dropping her off at school, but I didn't.  She woke-up in time for class, though, and her little cat-nap must have rejuvenated her because her teachers said she had a perfectly normal day.

Poor little lamb.  So tired.

• 4:15 -- We get a late start leaving the house to get Grace to the dentist on time.

Once we actually arrived, however, the hour and a half spent in the waiting room reading through the Oscar's edition of People magazine while watching Alex play with Lego's and waiting for Grace to be done with her cleaning was easily the highlight of my day.  Hahaha. 

•  6:15 -- Dinner and bedtime.  The most difficult part of any day.  Made more difficult by the fact that I was flying solo.

Due to Jane's ultra-early start to her day and Alex's lack of a full-length nap, getting the two little ones to bed on-time was a top priority.  Unfortunately, we were gone longer than I expected with the dentist trip and I wasn't able to make the Mac & Cheese that was on the menu for the night when I got back home.  And because I have very particular kids who tend to have issues with all kinds of things, I was dealing with a very disgruntled Ethan -- who hates leftovers and especially hates the spaghetti that was leftover from Sunday night dinner because he thinks the whole wheat noodles that I now use are disgusting -- all while trying to get everyone else to eat as well.

Ethan spent the rest of the evening in the red zone, but eventually started to mellow when I printed out a bracket for him to fill out at bedtime for our annual March Madness pool.  Thankfully, everyone else went to bed without too much of a fight and by 8:30 I was back downstairs to start tackling the mess that had accumulated in the kitchen and family room throughout the day.  Apparently no one felt the need to get chores done while I was gone and you know what they say -- when the cat's away the mice play.  And play they did.  All over the main floor and made a huge mess in the process. 

A messy kitchen pic that in no way does justice to the amount of junk that was strewn all around.

• 9:15 -- Finally done for the day!  Or so I thought.  Dun dun dun....

 Hahaha.  I had finally finished cleaning up the main rooms and had just settled down for a late night snack before heading up to bed {I was pretty exhausted having been up basically since 4:30 that morning, too, if you'll remember} when I hear footsteps coming down the stairs.  "Oh no!" is what I immediately thought because there was only one child who it could possibly be.  "I can't fall asleep!" Grace proclaimed as she sidled up to me on the couch.  Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!!  To be fair, and in Grace's defense, she really hasn't had a falling asleep issue like this in a long time.  But that didn't make it any easier to deal with.  I bought some time by sending her back up with the promise that I'd give her a massage when I came up after finishing my snack, but even though I took my leisurely time in the hopes that she would fall asleep on her own before I got there, it was no use.  The next hour and half was spent unsuccessfully trying to get her to just shut down and go to sleep.  I thought I had managed after the first 20 minutes or so when I came up to give her a massage because she seemed so close to letting go, but I made the mistake of leaving too soon and that just flipped her switch to being completely awake and on.  For the next half hour she harassed me in my room as I tried to go to sleep -- {"I don't know what to do!!!!  It's not my fault I can't fall asleep!!!!  What can I do????  I'm so bored!!!!  I can't fall asleep!!!  What can I do????  You keep giving me the same options!!!!!  What is something ELSE I can do???  I can't fall asleep!!!!  I can't fall asleep!!!  It's not my fault!!!  What can I do????????" repeated ad nauseum} -- until I finally snapped and dragged her back to her bed, made her turn off the lights in her room, and laid down next to her.   After basically falling asleep myself, I succeeded in getting her to calm down and finally go to sleep.  At a little after 11, I was able to get back in my own bed and fall asleep, too.

• 6:30 AM {Tuesday morning} -- Another early wake-up call, this time courtesy of Ethan and Alex.

I was hoping to catch up on sleep, but that was not to be the case.  This morning started off earlier than I would have liked when Ethan came barging into my room to let me know that Alex was awake and had been crying for the last half hour.  Ethan took him downstairs and I think I drifted off for another half hour or so, but eventually I had to get up and get a move on.  Thankfully there was no angry elf to deal with this morning, but Jane must have transferred her hyperactive energy from yesterday onto Ethan, because he was literally bouncing all over the house while I was trying to get kids ready for the day.  It was a bit of a rough start.

However, in writing up this series of unfortunate events, I've come to a conclusion -- it's time to put this sleep-deprived pity party to an end! So, even though I was the angry elf version of MYSELF this morning, I'm going to look on the bright side for the rest of the day.  After all, the kids made the bus  once again this morning, I made it to the grocery store before lunch time, the Mac & Cheese is prepped and ready to pop into the oven for dinner tonight, AND I've been semi-successful in keeping the kitchen clean all day long.  So, who cares if my day is far from over and I've still got to think of an after school snack that will make everyone happy, get Sophie to gymnastics, {keep that kitchen clean}, and prevent anymore bedtime battles from breaking out amongst the ranks -- life is good.  Because at the end of the day, I'd rather have my hands full than empty.  And you can stitch that and put it on a pillow.  Hahaha.  :)