Day Three: REMEMBER THE MANTRA!

Keep a positive attitude. Keep them busy.

So, I should have known that we'd peaked in our "Daddy is gone and we're gonna have fun" glory yesterday, roughly around 5pm. That's the exact time that we had spent too much time at the pool and the kids were ready to go. But noooo, I pushed it to 5:15 and clearly, that's when it was time for all hell to break loose. This is also the time (right about when I am ripping Bennett's swim diaper off his little body) that I realize that I FORGOT their change of clothes. Luckily, I had a diaper with me, but NO CLOTHES! I got them dried off as much as I could, threw my towel around Bennett's naked little body, and tried my hardest not to act like there was anything wrong with that picture.

We got home and I really needed ALL of us showered. And fairly immediately (we were all in wet bathing suits, afterall). I'm trying to figure out the logistics of this while also cooking up some mac n cheese for them. So, I put them both in the tub, run downstairs and cook the macaroni and cheese, and then when I can't stand Bennett's screaming anymore, run back upstairs to figure out how to make this work. You see, I planned on us all going to church this morning, which would require that we are all "church ready" fairly early. That means that I need to have gotten a shower and actually been able to dry my hair before anyone woke up. And this would be difficult, given that I was going to be sleeping in the same bed as Morgan. That meant that I needed to shower then and then dry my hair while they were strapped down --I mean busy -- eating. Hmm, what to do??

Bennett was clearly done with the tub, but he's the one that I need to keep in there because I can't have him wandering around unattended. So, I opted to boot Morgan out of the tub temporarily, to allow room for myself to get in there and shower faster than I've ever done in my entire life, bathe Bennett and then get out and get him out, while then giving her the shower for her to do her thing by herself. Once I was done showering and got Bennett out, I went to quickly put some clothes on at the exact moment that Bennett decided that he should mark my bedroom floor as his territory, if you know what I mean. I couldn't even believe what I saw. He's standing there, just whizzing away, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to PEE all over MY CARPET. Great! So, not only do I have to worry about putting clothes on me, diapering and clothing him, but now I have to clean up this mess on top of it all. But I manage to get us both dressed and get him set up in the high chair with some mac n cheese and wait for Morgan to come downstairs (wouldn't want him to eat alone!). She comes downstairs and actually gets her pajamas on in a normal pace because she has mac n cheese AND Girls' Night to look forward too. Amazing how these things can speed up a snail...

I do manage to get my hair dried before Bennett started throwing food and was able to get him ready for bed and asleep without much further strife. Girls' Night went as explained before, complete with a horrid night's sleep.

But, given the fact that I was sleeping in the same bed as Morgan, I was able to wake up at the crack of dawn, which is the precise time that she decided to start whining about being hungry. This meant that I could actually get up and get dressed for church before Bennett was awake. So, I got ready, made the bed, fed the fish and dog, got Morgan dressed, got her going with breakfast and then cooked up some eggs for Bennett and myself for Breakfast. By this time, it was getting late (8am) and we needed to leave by 8:30ish. So, I put the eggs on Bennett's tray, put the tray on the counter and then went to get him up and dressed.

As I'm changing his diaper, I hear the LOUDEST bang and crash and I immediately put together in my mind, the sequence of events. Tray. Eggs. Morgan. Trying to do something "nice". Dog. Eggs. Floor. Oh geesh. So glad I cooked up those eggs! I stormed into the kitchen and yelled at the dog and Morgan, simultaneously. I was yelling at Morgan that I knew she was trying to do something nice but to PLEASE ASK before she does things like that. I could tell she was upset and I knew that I was just frustrated, knowing that we have to leave for church soon, I was going to have to cook more eggs, and Bennett takes as long as Morgan does to eat a meal. I took a few deep breathes, repeated my mantra "Keep a positive attitude", strapped Bennett into his high chair and went to talk to Morgan. I had to apologize to her for yelling at her (I *hate* having to do this!!). I told her that I know she didn't mean for that to happen and that I was just frustrated and I shouldn't have yelled at her. She tells me it's okay and now I've got just 20 minutes to make more eggs and get Bennett fed before we have to leave.

We managed to leave only 10 minutes late and given that I always give myself a "cushion" of time, we had just enough time to drop them both off at their respective classes and I made it to the service just in time. After church, we hung out and had doughnuts and then ran by Bed, Bath & Beyond before heading to Sweet Tomatoes to meet some friends for lunch. I obviously have a failing memory, because once again, I forgot that I cannot take Bennett out to eat at this age. He did okay, but there was still some food slinging, some yelling, and a bunch of him hitting me with greasy hands. But, the kids got fed, somewhat healthy food, we got to socialize with some friends and then the best part? When we got home, it was nap time. Oh sweet nap time. And they've been sleeping for almost three hours now. And when they get up? I'm going to the club and dropping them off in the nursery. And I may not even work out! Ha!

Which is good, because Daddy? He just called to let me know that even though he told me yesterday that they would be home "worst case by dinner", let me know that this has now morphed into ~7:30.

Please, oh please let him be home by bed time.