Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Keeping it real

Here’s how my day went today:

8:00 – Woke up and fed Bridget. Got showered – as much as I could, since I was having patch testing for allergies done and couldn’t get my back wet at all. Got dressed.

8:30 – Katie is lying on the floor, telling me that she’s sick and we’ll have to cancel our appointments today. I tell her to quite whining and go get dressed. Miraculously, she seemed fine.

8:45 – I go upstairs to hustle the kids along, and notice a large black mark on one of the new kid desks we bought from Ikea. Apparently Paul had fun with a Sharpie sometime in the morning and decided to draw on one of the white desks that Aaron had just assembled the night before. Thank goodness for Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

9:00 – I try to gather the kids together for breakfast. Notice that Paul has already managed to pee his pants this morning, so I send him upstairs to change and take a shower. He winds up missing breakfast and has to eat a banana in the car.

9:15 – We’re supposed to be out of the door in 5 minutes. Ha! Neither Averi or Bridget are dressed, Katie’s hair is a crazy mess, I haven’t eaten anything, and Paul needs help putting his shoes on since he can’t find the ones he can put on himself. This is despite that fact that I remind them EVERY TIME we enter the house to take their shoes off and put them in the basket.

9:25 – We finally get out the door. Then I notice our gas tank is very, very on E. We’re already late, so I hope we can make it to the dermatologist’s office and then just fill up afterwards.

10:05 – My appointment was supposed to start at 9:45. Still haven’t heard from the nurse, and we have other doctor’s appointments for Bridget and Paul starting at 10:30. Try to call the other doctors to let them know we’ll be slightly late, but then discover my phone is dead.

10:20 – Miraculously, the dermatologist visit went very quickly once it started. So far it seems that the only thing I’m allergic to is nickel. I have a follow-up and final evaluation tomorrow. We RUN to the car. We have 10 minutes to make it up to Rio Rancho. And then I remember the empty tank. Definitely don’t want to risk driving that far without a working cell phone. Stop to Smiths to fuel up is in order.

10:40 – We arrive at the doctor’s office. I check in at the kiosk so that I don’t have to have the nurse tell me that I am, in fact, late. As if I didn’t already know that.

11:00 – Bridget’s two month checkup went great. She’s in the 50th percentile for weight and 98.5 (th?) percentile for height. Doctor told me not to put too much store by the height since it is so iffy at this age.

12:00 – We finally finish with Paul’s well-child visit and with Bridget’s shots. The doctor was very concerned about his constant accidents (he had one while we were there), and wants to see if we can get to the bottom of this. Finally!! I’ve been to doctors about it multiple times in the past, and I’ve always been told that he’ll grow out of it. But this time the doctor agreed that this was not normal. He orders blood and urine tests from the lab and orders an x-ray to check his spine. If these don’t reveal anything he’s sending us to the urologist.

12:10 – We finish eating the crackers the nurse brought us. Remember, Paul had had essentially no breakfast, and it was lunch time and we still had to go across the hall to the labs to get Paul’s testing done. Hopefully the graham crackers would tide us over.

12:45 – We finish Paul’s blood and urine tests. Without thinking, I had sent him to the bathroom minutes before he was supposed to go in and give a urine sample. He was only able to squeeze out a quarter of an inch, but they said that should be enough. He freaked out when they drew his blood. Can’t say I blame him.

1:00 – We finish Paul’s x-ray. Kids are starving and my nerves are raw from trying to keep four kids quiet and keep them from getting into everything that seems interesting. Why didn’t I ask someone to watch the two girls? Because I wasn’t thinking, that’s why.

1:20 – Hit up Chick-Fil-A for lunch. All budgeting goals go out the window when you’re stressed, hungry, and have more errands still to run.

2:00 – Leave Chick-Fil-A and head to Target to buy a present for a baby shower.

2:30 – While in Target, I see Katie put something in her pocket. Turns out she found something (an interchangeable belt buckle, I think) on the floor and decided to keep it. The belts were right there, and it obviously belonged to that display. Had a big lecture about stealing and honestly. I’m having déjà vu, since I just had the same talk the day before with Paul when he ate a taffy at Sunflower Market without paying for it. Why have my children resorted to thievery all of a sudden?

2:45 – Paul throws a MAJOR fit when I don’t buy him a Star Wars puzzle. I had told him he could have it, but then he went off to play while I was checking out and took the puzzle with him. We needed to get going, so I told him he could get it next time we were at Target. We’re there just about every other day, so not a big deal, right? Wrong. He screamed the entire way home. Had to skip the trip to Hancock Fabrics to buy some trim and fray check that I needed to finish up a Halloween costume.

3:00 – I managed to calmly (only externally) ignore Paul until we got home. Then I told him (calmly, calmly) that he needed to go up to his room to change (another accident) and he needed to stay there until he cooled down.

3:30 – Paul is still in his room and Averi has fallen asleep on the couch downstairs. We were supposed to leave for Paul’s first gymnastics lesson now (supposed to start at 4), but we skip it. Everyone is just too worn out, including me. I tell the kids that they can use whatever they want in the craft drawers, but I need some down time, so they can’t bother me for a while. Bridget is sleeping, so I go upstairs and shut myself up in the study.

4:00 – After checking emails and goofing around a bit, I work on Katie’s Tiana costume. Zipper gets installed successfully (major achievement!) and it all seems to fit well. Feed Bridget, the dream baby. Get myself ready for the baby shower tonight. Wrap present.

5:45 – Go downstairs to prep dinner. Kitchen is a disaster from the kids’ crafting, but I’ll take it. Kabobs are sitting in the fridge waiting to be grilled, so I’m not stressed. About that, at least.

6:20 – Aaron arrives home, and the table is still not cleaned off completely. I have to leave for the baby shower, so I give instructions on the rest of dinner, kiss everyone and Bridget and I head off to a baby shower. Have a very nice time with friends. They had a cute idea for the shower; instead of games, we all embellished onesies for the new baby girl. They were adorable.

8:30 – Two friends and I head out to Chilis to grab something heartier, since two of us hadn’t had any dinner. Two meals out in one day. Terrible! But it was so nice to just sit and chat with friends. I’ve been so checked out of things lately, and it was great catching up with everything.

10:30 – Head for home. A coyote crossed the road right in front of my car. It paused and stared at me and then went on his way. He was gorgeous. I love New Mexico.

11:00 – Finish feeding Bridget and put her to bed. Go upstairs to work some more on the costume. Ignored the very messy house. Wrote blog post.

1 – Bed. I hope.

3 comments:

Guiselle said...

sounds like you had a very chaotic day! But it was very entertaining to read and brought back feelings that I can still relate to:)hahaha. such is the life of a mom...
I'm excited to see their Halloween costumes, hope you post them!

Jen Kesler said...

That sure was one heck of a day! I think I need a nap after reading it! :) You are a great mom, Chels! You have always amazed me with your ability to run from one thing to the next with your kids in tow and still be able to keep your composure while you're running! I always feel like I can do one, MAYBE two things a day with my little ones and then I'm done for! You are a great example to me :)

Have a great day!

Stef said...

Wow! That is one crazy day!! And of course, you are amazing. I would have been a little more outwardly with my frustrations.

Golly, I haven't seen you in forever!