For the past several weeks Black Hair has been working mucho overtime.  This means that I have been a bit of a single parent to our children.  This was not the plan when we decided to have another baby and it has taken some adjustment.  While my mom has been around to help out, I have still have to remember more than I am used to, be more places than I am used to and schedule my life within an inch of ridiculous to keep it all together.

This also means that our home is a tiny bit messier than I am comfortable with.  I just can’t keep it all the way I would like for it to be while providing the oversight and love that two children require and still get any sleep.  As it stands, I get up before 6 am most mornings and keep going until after 10pm most nights.  I am quite sure all of you with children can relate. I decided a while back that happy kids are more important than clean floors.

That being said let me tell you about my day.  I got up around 6:30 and hit the ground running.  Black Hair was out of here around 5am headed for a full day of work.  Baby care, breakfast, pet care, laundry, more baby care, time with my oldest child (girl child 1), vacuuming, straightening, throwing away (no matter how much I recycle, we still have a ridiculous amount of trash that has to be handled), cooking for various functions we attended today, chicken wrangling (more about that later), pumpkin decorating and then getting us all basically clean and dressed and out the door to the first party we attended today.  I was exhausted before I even cranked the car.  But I took a vitamin (which taste like gummy bears laced with fish. Something about Omega 3s and cod liver oil) and rinsed the fish taste out with a swig of cold coffee (don’t worry, there were mints in the car) and off we went to a birthday party.

Where Girl Child 2 promptly lost her danged mind and started to scream her head off the minute we walked in the door.  GC 1 headed for the back yard to play with the other kids where she promptly got herself stuck in a tree.  Literally.  Her thigh was wedged between some branches but thankfully a very handsome tall dude managed to extricate her sobbing self from the tree.  Another mom tried to calm GC 2 while I tried to make sure GC1 was not broken (again).  When I look up from wiping the snot off of GC 1, I notice that GC 2 is covered in long blonde golden retriever hair.  Completely covered.  Did I wipe her on the dog before we left?  I don’t remember it but it sure looked like I did.  I calmly took her back from the helpful mom (she was still screaming. GC 2, not the helpful mom) and took her to the birthday girl’s room and pulled out my handy hair remover roller thingy and rolled the hair off of the baby.  I almost started to maniacally giggle at this point because she was still yelling and having me use tape paper to roll the hair off of her wasn’t helping the situation.  I finally got her fed and calmed and rejoined the party. 

All was going well until GC 1 realized we had not brought a gift for the birthday girl.  Now, the parents specifically asked that no one bring gifts but apparently everyone but us did anyway.  I had to talk GC1 off the embarrassment ledge by promising that we would make a gift and bring it to the birthday girl next week.  This worked and everything else went pretty smoothly (except GC 1 fell down at least 2 more time and required one band-aid and one magical healing spell). 

Did I mention that GC 1 fell out of her chair while eating her lunch earlier today?  This required a magic healing spell on two different body parts and her pride.  Sometimes kids just have accident prone days but falling out of your chair while eating is…well, I don’t know what it is but this is about the 3^rd time she’s done it and I have to force myself not to laugh when it happens.  She is definitely her mother’s child when it comes to this area of her life.  One minute she’s eating a pb&j and the next she is on the floor.  I’m laughing just thinking about it.  She can’t sit still while eating and sometimes she just wiggles herself off into the floor. 

Anyway- Birthday girl smeared cake and icing all over her parents and was totally adorable and we left this party and went on to the next function.

Where GC 2 promptly woke from her car induced nap and lost her mind again.  I tried everything short of drugging her but finally just packed up our stuff (minus GC 1 and the cookie bars I made for dessert) and went home.  Black Hair arrived soon after I left and she is responsible for bring home GC 1 and bringing me some dinner.

When we arrived home, I stripped the baby, put on her pjs and stuck her in the bed.  I turned off the lights, turned on the sound machine and humidifier and as I exited the room she took a deep breath, stuck her thumb in her mouth and promptly conked out. I feel ya GC 2.  I totally feel ya.

  This lasted about 35 minutes.  She started to howl again so I fed her, swaddled her (minus the sucking thumb arm) and put her back to bed.  Yes I still swaddle my 4 month old.  I’ll swaddle her until she’s 10 if it means I get to sleep through the night.  Don’t judge me.  I’m tired.

Now I just have to feed all the critters, count chickens, wash and prepare bottles and maybe I will get some sleep sometime soon.  Who knows, maybe I will actually get to eat a meal prepared by someone else after I tuck a cranky, slightly bruised, kinda dirty GC 1 into her bed for the night.  I’ll worry about the dirt tomorrow.  One night of sleep while slightly dirty and maybe a little sticky from desserts at various functions never hurt anybody did it?  Black Hair may do the actual tucking but I have to perform the goodnight song complete with birdie cheeps before actual sleeping can commence.

Sure- dinner I didn’t have to cook is still tasty when eaten at 10 pm at night.  My life is often chaotic and sometimes stressful but I wouldn’t have it any other way and yes, I realize just how blessed I am.

Earth Momma

PS- GC 1 and Black Hair just came in and GC 1 promptly tripped over a toy in the floor and fell on Black Hair.  Maybe we'll get her into bed without her breaking anymore of her bones.