It was a case of mistaken identity - the clock actually said 5:01, not 6:01 when I told Man to get up with baby so I could rest for another half hour (baby doesn't sleep, but that's a post for another day!). Out I wander an hour later, shocked to find it's only 6am but uttering the word every loving husband wants to hear after being rustled out of bed an hour early: COFFEE!
With babe attached to one boob and the flange of my trusty pump on the other, I managed to take a few sips to get the day started with a caffeinated smile! It was going along great, really ... lunches made quickly with E-bee sitting on the counter:
- Papa: Nitrate-free, organic ham, turkey and cheese on Udi's gluten-free white bread for dad
- Z-Bug: Bento box with g-free sandwich on top, black beans, red/green peppers and mixed veggies on bottom (along with a whole apple and bottle of water).
- Baby E: Bento box with rice mac & cheese on top, black beans, steamed carrot sticks and broccoli florets on bottom.
E plodded off from the kitchen to see what Papa was up to, and in wanders Z wiping sleep from her eyes as she jumped into my arms happy to have a few mama-minutes to herself. Before heading off to get dressed, she measures out 1/2 cup of Rice & Shine cereal, pours the water up to the 2 cup mark and gathers up enough dried apricots, raisins and walnuts to make a nice morning porridge.Can't you picture it, there could've been cameras rolling to film an insurance or anti-depressant commercial with such a happy, calm, organized family getting ready for work and day care.
And still, it went along swimmingly - Z ate breakfast, E even had a few bites, Papa left for the day, I pulled out E's blocks and Z brought in a coloring book so I could bang out one itty,bitty, but something's-better-than-nothing mile on the treadmill. And I was feeling pretty sassy - while alternately redirecting a thirteen month old to blocks/ball/crayons when she got within a foot of "mama's run-run," keeping the 4 year old from oppressive protection of her sister when she got too close to the run-run while oohing and ahhing about the beautiful job she was doing coloring in cinderella and giving tips about how to figure out which of the four butterflies was different, and not having any loss of life or limb because I was using a treadmill within feet of two small children (should I not admit that?), I still managed to bang out just one measly, BUT one measly sub-seven minute mile. Who's a soccer mom now???
You know we're headed for a fall (fail?!) so here it is: Post-shower apocalypse. Z-bug decides she wants to color some more and do some more imaginary work on her imaginary computer, she
does not want to clean up her crayons and brush her teeth, not yet at least. She would have eventually, I know this, but somehow forgot and I failed the moment. Big-time. I looked at the time and did some mental calculations (adding up the time to day care, time spent holding a screaming baby before I peel her off and scurry out with tears in my eyes, time spent peeling off an almost-crying preschooler reminding her that she actually likes preschool, time to get to work ...) and in, what was NotMyFinestMoment, decided to
lay down the law. Now. No. Do it NOW and don't make me ask again. (Why? No idea, but now I'm stuck with it, and with 'And if you make me tell you one more time then ... ' Then what? No idea!). So Z starts gathering all crayons up on book, they of course roll off, it happens twice more - I recommend she take two trips - it happens again, she gets increasingly frustrated as do I, now E picks up a few crayons and gets yelled at by Z for interfering, now Z is in trouble for not only not listening to me but for yelling at E ... spiraling downhill, fast! Now Z is screaming, or whining, or I'm not sure really what you call that noise, E is now crying (and not yet fully dressed) and SNAP!
go into your room now and don't come out until i tell you to and you may not listen to your Tangled CD until the weekend. Oh no, did that just come out of
my mouth? Yep. Did I just take something away
and send her to her room? Yep. Did this just go from a delightful morning of just us gals to something out of really bad reality-TV land? Yep.
We did manage to get out of the house, almost thirty minutes after we should have, and we made it to day care after a brisk and chilly walk with chatter and smiles ... where, upon arrival, we learned that my big girl missed the entire morning run-around time (pretty sure the sprint to school counted as decent exercise for her little legs?) and both girls looked after me longingly with tears in their eyes and frowns on their pretty little pink mouths when I pried each one off in their respective classrooms. I made it to work in time to not be obscenely late, red lipstick in place (on a morning like this, I needed my war paint!) and wishing I could rewind the clock two hours to get back to that idyllic time where we were like a well-oiled two-kids in daycare, two working parents machine ... or perhaps I should quit my job and be a SAHM and home-school teacher so my girls could work at their own accelerated learning but not drop-everything to listen to mama pace. Hmmm...
