Okay, I am just venting here....and probably
commiserating, as I am sure lots of you with little kids have similar situations. But let me just describe a typical night in our house. Last night for instance will do quite nicely for this description...very typical.
6:45 Start the twins' last feeding. Change into
jammies and "big"diaper for the night.
7:00 Baths for everyone. Do they really need it? Probably not, but it has been a part of our routine forever so we do it more often then not.
7:15 It has taken a full half an hour to get the twins
total situated and into their beds. Luckily they have not had the luxury of any kind of routine or soothing time. I whisper "night night" in their little ears and down they go with their pacifiers.
7:20 Put on some
Christmas movie or other and start yanking kids out of the tub,
lotioning the kids down, helping Connor (and unfortunately Lauren too) and telling Thomas to get
PJs on.
7:30 Cleaning up clothes and toys and what ever other disarray I don't want to start my next day looking at while the kids watch the movie. Firmly tell Thomas to get his
PJs on!
7:40 Yell at Thomas to get his
PJs on! He
finally complies with me sitting there staring at him with the evil eye the whole time. I hate when mean mommy has to make her appearances. :(
7:50 Argue over using "spit" toothpaste or the baby kind...I only make sure I win with the spit kind about 50% of the time, so our kid's teeth are probably going to rot out.
8:00 Brian takes the boys in for "the routine" which includes a short book, talking story, song and prayer. Then the poor guy has to hang out on the floor next to Connor's bed until he falls asleep. Could be 10minutes could be 40.
8:15 I have finished doing "the routine" with Lauren and pretended to deliver the nightly message to Brian that "she needs to tell him something". Now I head downstairs to prep for the following day.
8:30 Brian comes out of the boys room...not bad actually, time wise.
9:15 Lunches are made, backpacks are packed, 14 bottles are made, maybe the dishes are done if they were really gross (other wise they can wait), the counters are wiped, the tents are taken down and blankets refolded, etc.
9:20 Am I tired?? YES! But God help me, I just want to do something that I want to do...I just want to read, or watch TV for a minute to veg out, or actually have an uninterrupted conversation (or something) with my husband (yeah, that is 3rd on the list....sometimes there is just nothing left to give right?).
10:15 I curse myself for staying up so late again, check all the kids for room temperature and proper cover placement...I am anal. And hit the pillow.
1:15am Lauren pokes me in the shoulder and is
insisting that Brian never came in to talk to her when she went to bed, but she is barely making sense. I tell her he did go in but she was sleeping and now he is sleeping and that she should be sleeping if she wants to earn her prize for staying in her bed for 10 nights in a row. She
reluctantly lets me walk her back to her room and tuck her in but I am mandated to "stay for three minutes". I stay for one and then find that I have the impulse to check on everyone again....yeah, anal. Usually though, at this checking I don't touch anyone. I have learned my lesson there.
2am Thomas comes in to tell us that Poke has been crying for a long time. Sure enough he is screaming and can now be heard quite well as his door is open and he is deciding to make his way in to the hallway. Usually Connor is screaming, but runs to our room right away so somehow T stays asleep. Not last night. Brian dutifully soothes Connor and gets the boys back in their beds.
3:30am Brian trudges back into our room just as I am getting up to heat the bottles for the twins and do their nightly feeding.
3:50am I hear Connor yell out again as he notices that Brian is no longer beside him. This time Brian gives up and takes Connor into our bed. I finish laying the babies down and go to join the party in our bed.
4:05am Claire lost her pacifier and I can see on the monitor that it is under her feet where she can't reach so I go in to hand it back to her.
4:15am My body is confused from having been up so much and thinks that maybe it should stay up! NO! I start saying the Rosary in my head....eventually I nod off again around quarter to five.
6:30am Thomas comes in at the earliest time he is allowed and announces that he has to pee and poop. Why I need to be apprised of this I will never know. But in an effort to preserve Connor's sleep I head down stairs with Thomas. More often than not, Brian is the one who heads down with the early riser. We start the coffee and warming the bottles knowing that the twins will likely be up within the hour. Sometimes early rising parent may even find himself/herself doing a freaking CRAFT by 7am!
Somehow Brian and I are getting though each day in pretty good spirits. We always greet the kids with smiles in the morning as they wake one by one even though they have tortured us for the previous 12 hours. I guess one just gets used to the status
quo, but every morning Brian and I just shake our heads and think WOW, WE HOPE THIS GETS BETTER SOON....BUT LOOK AT ALL OF OUR HAPPY HEALTHY BEAUTIFUL KIDS.
Good morning to all of you. Hope you have a wonderful day!
This is one of our fabulous babysitters, Carrie. The kids adore her. She has won Connor's heart in particular...no small feat these days. Thank you for EVERYTHING you do Carrie. You have made almost as many bottles as I have I'm sure!
Here he is Santa tracking on the computer. It was quite a geography lesson!
Well...I didn't know that the movie star to which I was referring was Shirley Temple on steroids or a brunette Orphan Annie! Lauren insisted that at the bottom of her hair we use the smallest sponge rollers. I think that with her natural curl to give it a boost, we know in the future that the smallest size is no longer necessary.
As you can see Lauren was happy with her new do, and it did look pretty cute once we got a bow in it. Sleeping on it with out the curlers did nothing to soften the effect and she still had curlies today until I raked through it....we settled for some very full bodied waves instead. What I wouldn't give for a little natural curl in MY hair that is pin straight. I am sure when she is a teenager she will be begging my to iron HERS flat!!! Grass is always greener I guess.
Thanks for the present Tammy and Adam! Connor wanted to wear multiple sets of flags as you can see, but the other kids didn't mind. The game only lasted about 15 minutes because it was FREEZING outside and because Thomas said they had to have four players not three. There was no way I was going to be out in that cold any longer than it took to take these pictures! :) I can tell we will be having more family fun with the flag football game in the days to come...but only if the sun is shining!
Connor got a new bike helmet, some balls, a new Geo Trax train car, and our friends the Kaplans sent a great little Alligator game!
Connor was very nice to let Thomas and Lauren help him with his presents...as if he had a choice. If this was a video you would hear me in the background yelling "IT IS CONNOR'S BIRTHDAY YOU GUYS!!! LET HIM DO IT!!" Oh well, Poke didn't seem to mind.
Birthday #2 during Thanksgiving at the McCarthy's. We did a pumpkin pie slice with candles for this one and Connor got a brand new reved up dump truck, complete with sparks that he couldn't get enough of. I loaded the truck in to the car when we were leaving and half way home Connor realized that it wasn't in his possession and thought we'd left it behind. "MOM!! My truck!" 
Thanks for the truck Grandpa Denis and Grandma Sallie!
Birthday #1 at Thanksgiving at the Grady's. We had a cookie monster cake that I knew no one but the kids would eat because of the massive amount of blue frosting, but Connor loved it! Thanks for the football, and the baseball toy Grandma and Grandpa and Jeff and Ashly!
How old are you??? I am "free" years old!
Wow! It only took all night for this poor quality video to load! Happy birthday Connor, I hope you had a good one. We love you soooo much. Everyone says how sweet you are and it's the truth. Thank you for all the joy you bring to us every day!!! xoxo