The Mouse and The Spider

Its been a long 48 hours over here in Finn-land. (Which, by the way I wish we lived in Finland law with their boastful maternity jazz but that’s a separate post!) Hubs has been home past bedtime for the last two nights, so mama is tired. Solo parenting for going on lots of hours. Like any logical mom of three under four years old, I plan my day according to two things: how many times I need to get the troop in the car, and eating times for 3 beings, one still on the buuuuub. Sprinkle a “back pocket” that makes mommy sane in there, and you have a successful mom-arathon.

In case you were wondering, this is the feeding schedule at the Finn Zoo… er… I mean house.

• 5am- C feed
• 7am- C feed
• 7:30- Big Kid Breakfast
• 9:30- C feed and Big Kid snacks
• 11:30- Big Kid snack again
• Noon- C feed, Big Kid lunch
• 1pm- big kid drinks before naps/lock in room time
• 3pm- C feed, big kid snack
• 4- C comfort nurse time
• 5- Dinner if you know what’s good for you, mom!
• 6pm- C feed
• 7pm- Big kid “I need water 800 times”
• 11pm- C feed
• 1am- C feed

I woke up today to silence. I was on a 1 hour and 15 minute stretch (hellllllo reflux, colic, and 4 month sleep regression shitstorm). I glanced at my clock and it was 7:15am. And no one was awake. OMG FOR REAL?!? No, not for real. Hubs forgot to plug in the monitors, so I was tricked into thinking I had reached mom nirvana. So I snapped out of bed, put my big girl pants on… I mean yoga pants… and got to the morning.

We zoomed to stroller strides with a “car breakfast”. Basically, a way to make loading the car easier. We got these awesome bento boxes from Innobaby and I had those loaded with french toast and bananas and sent them into their seats. We had an awesome workout with our friends (who keep me sane), did a quick stop at Target drive up. (Google this if you don’t already do it… It saves me from being a walking circus in Target and it also saves me from buying #allthethings), and came home to put C down for a nap. I ended up having two calls that lasted well into naptime for the big kids, so we went down late.

And I have my “back pocket” in the back of my mind ALL DAY. See, moms do this. We have a bank of crap that we say “When you get up from your nap… or After school we will…. or When you finish that page we will…”. Yesterday, it was a new play place that we were going to whether or not any of the things happened, but I used it as my “if” for the day. Well, today, my “back pocket” was a book for each big kid that I have been saving. They love reading and I love reading to them. So I got the books out at bedtime and gave them each one before heading up. (We actually read B’s before even going up) I handed S hers on the stairs and we headed up.

After pajamas, brushed teeth, lots of rocking of C, we all (including C) went to S’s room to read the new book. Only problem was that there is no new book. In all the craziness of getting three tiny humans upstairs, it was lost. We never found the book, but the absolute best part of the whole crazy night was that when I asked S where it was, she said “It was by the corner of the loft- maybe a mouse or a spider took it!”. I. was. dying. That sweet little girl has an imagination like no other, and problem solving abilities (albeit slightly not accurate, though we did have a mouse issue at one point). Still, no new book.

Que absolute meltdown by S, B, and C. So we read Fancy Nancy for the 389646298 time and called it a night.

So I learned that:

• I need a backup “back pocket” for when my originals get lost.
• S hears everything and probably thinks pretty hard about it all, hence the mouse.
• Working out needs to happen daily. I wouldn’t laugh so hard at #momlife if I didn’t have my workouts.
• My upstairs is a mess and I need to clean it. Not only so I can find the book.
• Read the Fancy Nancy book for the 375549576 time. Even if it makes you distraught. Thats fancy for PISSED OFF.

This is how I work from home, in case you were wondering. That marker in S’s hand was on more places than the white board. Shocking, I know.