One Day I'll Laugh

One day I'll look back on days like today and laugh, but it'll take a while, I think. 

Today started out well.  I got a really good night's sleep last night, due in great part to the Boppy Total Body Pillow:

This has been one of my most comfortable pregnancies, thus far, but I have trouble getting comfortable to sleep, and this pillow made a huge difference.  It's very cuddly and comfortable.

Everyone had a nice breakfast and was playing well together.  Then the questions about snack time came, then lunch time.  Then I had to ask Reagan to do his after lunch chores again, because he hadn't completed them.  Then computer questions started, and snack questions again.

Now, I've anticipated the snack, lunch, computer, snack questions.  I have set times for these things NOT because I like a schedule, but because it should (in theory anyway) cut down on how often I'm asked.  Snack times are at 10 AM and 3 PM, lunch is at 12 PM, and computer time is from 1:30 - 3:30 if you have earned the priviledge.   Today, it didn't cut down on the questions.  Each of the 3 older kids asked me about each of these things at least 2-3 times each.  Which meant even though one kid might only ask me about lunch 2 times, I was getting it from more than one source and could be questioned 8 or 9 times as to when lunch was coming.

So help me, my precious children whom I adore, it's coming at noon just like every other day!

Lather, rinse, repeat for dinner.  Now, my children (who apparently were starving all day long as evidenced by the number of times they requested food) didn't eat well at dinner but were back in my kitchen ten minutes after leaving the table to request more food because they were hungry. Can you hear my eyes rolling at them?  If they were so hungry, why not eat their whole dinner?

Piper was playing with an imaginary friend and leaving Bridget out.  When informed that it was unacceptle to exclude her sister, Bridget was allowed to play with him, but she began playing with the imaginary friend and not giving him back to Piper.  To express her displeasure at the situation, Piper yelled and cried.  Did I mention that the friend is NOT REAL, and perfectly capable of playing with both of them at the same time because he is IMAGINARY?

When it was time to clean up the playroom there were struggles.  Then I had to call Reagan upstairs to the kitchen to finish his after dinner chores again.  It's a simple system: surfaces (table and high chair tray), chairs (for dropped food), and floor (pick up dropped stuff and a quick vaccum with the swiffer-vac).  It should take 5 minutes to do well.  But when I walked around the table to put some bibs away I found Ciaran's cup and a some grapes dropped on the floor.  You know, maybe we should just get an ant sized neon sign that says "Come on in!  We'll feed you!".  So now I had to take Reagan away from something that he needed to do (cleaning up the playroom), in order to do something that should have been done two hours before.

Then Bridget said she was too tired to clean up and just had to go to bed.  Okay, Bridgey, but then you have to stay in bed.  You don't get to make a mess and refuse to clean it up so that you can play in your room.  She didn't stay in bed and ended up in time out.

And at the end of the day I'm tired and feel like a terrible mother for being frustrated and annoyed with the children that I love more than anything in the world.  I'm so grateful to be their mother, and that they're here, healthy, and with me.  At the same time I could use either a great big latte somewhere with comfy chairs and quiet, or a great big margarita with girlfriends.  Of course, neither is going to happen soon.

I love my life, and one day I will look back at an imaginary friend that couldn't play with two girls at once, and I'll laugh.  I'll laugh that his imaginary mother came and took him home because he couldn't stay at our house anymore.  I'll laugh that Bridget throws off her towel after her bath and then complains that she's cold.  And I'll laugh that these little things could ever drive me so crazy.

Today I think I'll just have a nice cup of the wonderful Organic Peppermint Tea I have in my pantry and relax before going to bed.

And bravo to anyone who got through this post!