Today I regret to tell you that you are wrong. I will not miss today. That does not mean that I don't love my children. That does not mean I won't miss their cute chubby bodies, messy fingers, kisses, hugs, I love yous, innocence and fun.
It means I will not miss today.
One mess after another after another was how this morning started (not different than any other morning in the Douglas household). I continued to push through and get the requirements checked off the list of my responsibilities.
Morning diaper change times two, check
Breakfast, check
Older two kids showered, check
Older two kids dressed, check
Baby dressed, check
Okay, tired of saying check, you get the picture....
Load all 4 kids into car
Pick up cousins for school carpool
Drop off oldest and cousins at school
Come home and do some dishes
Pick up some toys
Put baby down for first nap
Had kids watch a 30 minute show - momma needed a break
Forgot to tell you my day started before this.....at 9:30pm, 12:30am, 1:30am, 5am and 7:30am. (all approximate times). These are the times that I tried to help Claire back to sleep or fed her back to sleep. The last 3 nights have been this bad with her....so momma is already tired before day began.
11am....1st nap is over, made lunch for kids and myself
Cleaned up lunch
Held baby while scheduling things on calendar and dr. appts. on phone
I got off the phone and thought, that's it, these boys have got to clean this up, this is the last straw (They had put dirt and mud on the front porch). So....I went to get a broom for them to clean it up (still holding Claire).
I knocked the broom somehow into the fishbowl while getting it out of the closet and turning towards the front door. Broken glass, fish, rocks and poopy fish water was all over my kitchen.
The next hour was spent cleaning up the disgusting mess. All over dishes, drawers, floor, etc. The fish somehow survived. The boys thought they needed rocks and food, so they washed rocks from outside and put them in the bowl with the fish with food.
I put Claire in a pack n play in the family room so she wouldn't get hurt and I could clean, I put Luke in there with her. She screamed the entire time I cleaned, even though Ethan and his friend put about 100 toys in their for her.
I used every towel in my house....so then I would put them in the laundry machine after they were soaked and I had them soaking in water/detergent. Towards the end of this debacle I saw Ethan's lunchbox (fabric) was wet from the spill. I told him to put it in the washing machine and to make sure nothing was in it.
I continued cleaning and Claire continued screaming b/c I wasn't holding her. 10 minutes later Ethan came back and was soaking wet. I screamed, what did you do?
Well, he had "made sure the washing machine had nothing in it" even though I meant, make sure the LUNCH BOX has nothing in it. So he had pulled all the sopping wet towels out of the washing machine and onto the carpet in the hallway which was now soaked.
That's it, I lost it and started crying (Claire was crying harder though). Cleaned up that mess, so now I have the washing machine going, several loads to do in the dishwasher. Picked up Claire finally and started to get her bottle, blanket and pacifier, which I dropped the blanket, leaned down and knocked her head into the wall.
This will not be a memory that I will miss.
All is well, both babies are napping now, I sent Ethan to his friend's house and Breanna is at school....until they get up and it starts all over again.
I shouldn't have made them clean up that mess on the porch right? Looking at the pic now (which I made them clean after the whole event) looks tiny and insignificant compared to the mammoth clean up session that just had to happen after this.
