Manic Monday

Everything is out of whack today. It started this morning when Bennett was babbling in his crib at some sub-6 a.m. hour, which is very uncharacteristic. I turned over to see that Lance was still in bed, when he's typically on his way out the door at that time. Nevertheless, I tried to get another 20 minutes of sleep before my alarm was to go off, only I couldn't because I had to pee so badly.

So now I'm up and having gone to the bathroom, start ticking off the things to do today in my head. Bennett has quieted down, so I get dressed for the gym, clean my bathroom, remove the duvet cover from my bed to be washed, and get the dog out of her bed to go downstairs. I can hear that Bennett is talking again and so I go into the kitchen to prepare some oatmeal for him. Morgan stumbles in, still in her pajamas. I ask her to go get dressed. Lance follows me into the kitchen and asks if I'd like him to get Bennett up. "Sure", I tell him and he proceeds to get him up and dressed and bring him in the kitchen where he's very excited to have MEAL! MEAL!

Morgan comes in, upset that she's having problems putting on her shirt (it ties in the back and was tied), so I untie it for her and she starts to put her arms through the sleeves. Meanwhile, there is much grunting and screams of frustration in the kitchen. Bennett is having a complete conniption fit and I can't figure out why. He's at that stage where he knows a lot of words, but they don't come to him quick enough, particularly when he's frustrated, to make his communication easier. He's just pointed at the bowl that I cooked his oatmeal in and yelling DADDY!

Meanwhile, I can hear screams coming from Morgan's room where she's complaining about the long sleeves on her shirt being TOO TIGHT!! Morgan screams. Bennett screams. Lance looks at me like he wants to make an escape and I quietly ask him if I can call in sick to work today. He informs me that he's learned that my employer doesn't have a very good benefit program. Hmmph.

Seeing the look of frustration on my face, and acknowledging the Armageddon that is clearly about to transpire, Lance puts his bag down, grabs the bowl of that I had cooked the oatmeal in (where there was some left) and sits down next to Bennett at the breakfast table. Suddenly, Bennett quiets and starts shoveling oatmeal in his mouth.

THEN, this child of mine, who will be raised as a proper gentleman, mind you, points to Daddy, looks at me and declares "WAWA". I'm shocked. I know what he means. But I'm shocked that this little pip squeak of a boy is demanding that I get his father something to drink. I had a few choice words for him that included words like "not your waitress", but really just couldn't get over the whole scene.

Morgan finally gets over the "shirt issue" and comes to eat breakfast and we finally make it to school, on time. I head over to the gym where I decide that I'd rather sit on the exercise bike, reading my new book, Twilight, rather than lift weights or take the spin class. I felt like after the morning I'd endured, I deserved a little gift to myself! :) I did an hour on the bike and then got showered up and picked Bennett up for his Terrific Toddlers class. In perhaps the most shocking turn of events of the day, as soon as Bennett saw me walk into the nursery to pick him up, he called "Mama!" and then promptly put away both of the trucks he was playing with WITHOUT BEING ASKED and before running over to me for our post-workout reunion. I was, again, shocked by this turn of events. He was a happy camper for his class and afterwards, we went home where I worked on chores until it was time to go get Morgan from school.

We came home from school and I made the kids grilled cheese sandwiches and soup for lunch. They played for a while after lunch while I wrapped up more chores (trying to get ahead for this week!) and then I put them down for their naps, a little later than usual. I popped some popcorn and snuggled up on the couch with a blanket and Twilight. An hour passed before Bennett started SCREAMING. And I do mean screaming. This, of course, woke Morgan up, who argued vehemently that she DID, in fact, take a good nap (even though I know it wasn't for more than an hour, and she usually takes 2-3 hour naps). I asked her to please read some books quietly and then she asks me, with tears in her eyes, why I always didn't want her to take a good nap. Because that even makes any sense. Which clearly demonstrates the fact that she's practically talking in her SLEEP because she didn't sleep long enough. Exhausted from the argument, and needing to go get Bennett up because he's STILL SCREAMING, I tell her she can stay up as long as she does quiet activities for a bit because I was going to go see about Bennett and see if I could get him back to sleep.

I go tend to Bennett, who has drool ALL OVER the sheet in his crib and he's screaming that pain scream. I know it's his teeth. He's working on all four molars at once and I had to keep pulling his fingers out of his mouth during Terrific Toddlers today. I offer him teething tablets, so he takes one and puts it directly on the spot on his upper left gum line where the pain must be coming from. He takes another one, and does the same thing with this glossy-eyed stare, telling me that he was in fact still tired. He then looks at me and says "wuv oo" and puts his head on my shoulder. Poor baby! I ask him if he wants to lay back down and he nods his head yes. So, I turn the music back on, grab his blanket and rock him a little while he settles down. I go to lay him back down in his crib, and I'm pretty sure that I ripped his pinky toe off because he screamed a scream so loud and shrill, that I immediately abandoned the "back to sleep" plan, grabbed him and his blanket, and made a bee line for the couch to lay down with him. Morgan was asking to watch TV, which sounded like a quiet activity to me, so I agreed and put on Diego.

I guess Diego must have some sort of hyper-like affect on sleepy teething toddlers, because Bennett immediately became animated and all thoughts of quiet time also quickly vanished.

And now, I sit here, with the rain pouring down and spoiling my shopping plans and two over-tired kids on my hands. For TWO AND A HALF FULL HOURS ON MY OWN. WITH THE RAIN. Did I mention the rain?

God help me.