(Note: I actually wrote this post on Tuesday night but I did not want to publish it until Brandon got back in town.)
It was right before bedtime and I was trying to get Sophie to make a beeline up the steps. As I yelled out for Elsa and Charlie to come join us, Elsa yells back "uh oh mommy...I made a mess".
I knew it was going to be a long day. And in the moment that I woke up that morning...I made a decision that I would try with all my might to hold it together.
It started off as a fairly typical day. But it was not a typical evening. I was on my own, as Brandon is out of town for the week.
So after dinner, I round up the kids and get them in the bath (which is what Brandon normally does). Things are going amazingly well. I get Elsa out of the bath, lotion her up, put on her PJs and blow dry her hair. I do the same for Charlie. As I got Sophie out of the bath, Elsa and Charlie ran out of the room to go play. I do the same for Sophie as I did for Elsa. Usually, Sophie does NOT like the hair dryer and runs off after a few seconds. But not tonight. She sat on the bathroom counter and let me dry every last strand of hair. In the meantime, my head is in la la land as I am thinking about how proud I am of myself at how well I am doing on my own...without Brandon here...and things are going pretty damn smoothly.
Let me just say...Sophie's behavioral issues can and do physically and emotionally drain every last ounce of energy and patience that I have on a daily basis. And it is fairly typical for any stay-at-home-mom to count down the seconds until reinforcement arrives...right?!?! Which is what I usually do. And the minute Brandon walks through the door, I feel like everything is going to be okay. Like I made it through another day even though the day isn't over yet. Like there is NO WAY I could have lasted a second longer without breaking down (though I have to admit there are the days where chaos ensues and Brandon walks through the door to find me a heaping mess).
So, back to the "uh-oh". As I round the corner, I find Elsa and Charlie standing in the middle of this...
Which I had just steam mopped earlier that day!!!
I drop to the ground and just start bawling. I canNOT deal with this right now. I WAS in the home stretch. I WAS going to get all the kids upstairs and shut the gate. Thirty minutes of play time and then I would sneak downstairs to get toothbrushes and Sophie's meds. And then they would all be in bed before the end of the hour. Nope...not now. I pull it together. I strip off Elsa's and Charlie's pajamas and put them back in the bathtub. Which means Sophie is now ripping off her pajamas because there is no way she was going to be excluded (she will try to take a bath or shower, at minimum, five times a day). UGH!!! But...somehow...someway...they are all sleeping at this very moment.
(Update: And I survived the week. Thanks to the endless amount of patience and love from Grandma Debbie!!!)
