Super Mom or BUST!

Wow that was a long day! One of those days when you leave your house soon after breakfast and you get back sometime after dinner, and with three kids under the age of five in tow that makes for a very very long day! On the agenda was play group, lunch, dentist appointments, grocery shopping, acting class, dinner and home by bed time. Going into it, I knew the day was going to be challenging but I had faith in myself and my children that we could get through it with smiles on our faces. Well....somewhere between dentist appointments and dinner I got a little to sure of myself and my parenting capabilities. The dentist appointments went off without a hitch. My children were well behaved, so brave and even managed to charm the office staff. I left there feeling so proud of my kids and how well adjusted they were to face even scary situations with such grace and ease (yea...see how cocky I am getting) The kids dentist is about a 45 min drive home but all the way down the hill my kids were singing and laughing and I was thanking God for giving me such amazing children. We got through grocery shopping and acting class still smiling and I had the brilliant idea of rewarding my well behaved children by taking them out to dinner. One of our favorite places to go is "Fresh Choice," I think it may be a Northern California thing but think "Soup Plantation" although not nearly as good. My husband actually hates this restaurant and often says "Fresh choice is not that fresh," and I would have to agree with him that the food is not that great, but I get a salad and the kids get mediocre pizza and we are all happy. We usually go there when Brandon is not around and since Brandon was gone at youth group it was the perfect plan. The only problem was that I had never braved "Fresh Choice" by myself with three kids, but in my self righteous state I thought I could handle it....NOT! Peyton and Amber are pretty good at going through the line and filling their plates by themselves and they have these cool rolling high chairs that the babies car seat can fit into and you can push them along the line with you, so I placed sleeping Eden in her car seat on the highchair and began rolling her down the line of the salad bar. We all got about half way through when all the sudden Amber decided to check on the baby and went behind the highchair and pulled it down to try to peek in on Eden and the whole thing, baby and all, fell over on top of her! It was one of those slow motion moments when you can hear the gasp of the crowd and you feel all eyes on you even though you are working at lightening speed to asses the situation. I lift the car seat up and peak in to see Eden is still asleep (how do babies do it) so I sit the car seat back onto the highchair and grab Amber off the floor as she is screaming at the top of her lungs and clutching her leg. I feel her leg and for a split moment I think it might be broken because I felt a huge lump. I look up and see that we are holding up the line, big time, I look over my shoulder and see Peyton way in front of us happily still filling her plate oblivious to what just happened (typical). I remember thinking geez how am I going to get out of this situation and why is no one helping me??? Literally the entire line of 10 people or so were staring at us with their jaws open wondering why this crazy lady was even attempting to take three little kids through a salad bar line! Finally another mom from the line jumped out and offered to help at least get our plates and my kids to a table. I was so grateful. I cradled screaming Amber in one arm and pushed the rolling highchair along with the other all while directing Peyton to stop filling her plate and follow me. She began crying saying "No mom I am not finished yet" But mom voice kicked in and all I had to do was say "NOW" and she tearfully followed. We made it to the end of the line and with a shaky hand I threw some money at the cashier and finally got everyone safely to a booth. Once there I checked out Amber's leg and decided it was not as bad as I had thought, she was going to have a large bruise but she was already calming down and happy about eating her pizza and jello. We continued on with dinner peacefully although I was still shaking, maybe from trauma of seeing my baby upside down in her car seat or maybe from sheer embarrassment, I was not sure. I rushed the kids through dinner because the baby was starting to wake up and was quickly getting fussy, we left the restaurant with Peyton still eating a piece of pizza, I got everyone strapped in the car and realized Amber had taken off her shoes inside the restaurant but at that moment all I wanted to do was be home so I decided to leave them there. The baby was crying for a bottle and I realized it was almost an hour past her feeding time. So I handed Amber her bottle and instructed her to hold it in Edens mouth and we drove off. A few miles down the road I started to giggle at myself and the irony of the fact that just a few hours earlier I felt like super mom and now I was driving home with my tail between my legs, still shaking, embarrassed and having my three year old feed my infant in the back seat. I caught a glimpse of myself in the rear view mirror and realized I didn't know when the last time was that I had showered, I had spit up all over my sweat shirt and I was positive that I did not brush my teeth that morning but all in all I couldn't help but to continue to giggle at my reflection...now that is one blessed lady right there...I thought, and I realize that I had succeeded at ending a very very long day with a smile! The worse part of the day is that I am not sure how long it will be before I can show my face at "Fresh Choice" again.

Flowers for Mamma!

Well it has been a month and three days now since I have been a mother of three!!! For the most part the transition of this little one to our family has been nothing but a blessing. The older girls absolutely love her! So much so that she has already had two colds in her short little life because the girls (who are always sick) will not stop kissing and hugging her. Poor baby...I am hoping that she is building up good immunities, but it is so sad to see a newborn struggle. :( On top of being sick the baby has been very gassy...like high pitched screaming, face turning red, fussy for hours, gassy! I am in the process of trying to figure out what to do about it. (If anyone has any suggestions please let me know.)
This weekend she was really bad. If I was not holding her she was screaming, which does not work very well when you have two other children and a household to run. I am pretty good at doing things one handed but there are just some things you simply can't do while holding a baby...like cleaning up rabbit pee from the kitchen floor...for example. :) Between a demanding newborn and the constant pleas of "Mom can you get me this", "Mom I need that", "Mom help me with this", "Mom where is that" it's enough to make anyone go crazy, not to mention a sleep deprived women running on one cup of decaf coffee. By the end of the day I was so worn out and trying so desperately to keep it together that I did what any other well intentioned worn out mother would do. I Sent the kids outside to play! (Amber could not decide what pants to put on so she ran out in a tank top and her underwear, and at that moment I could care less, as long as they were out of my way.) As I began trying to cook dinner with one hand, while still cradling a sad little baby in the other, I began to question my ability as a parent. Was I spending enough time with Amber? "She is the middle child now, how am I going to parent her so she does not grow up resenting her childhood" and peyton, I am pretty sure I spent most of the day ignoring her ramblings about her imaginary worlds, and all that she is learning about bugs and amphibians, "I really should pay more attention to her, what if she thinks I don't care?" As I turn towards the oven to put in dinner I hear two little girls behind me saying "Mamma, close your eyes!" "Ok, they are closed" I say, still turned towards the oven. I hear the girls opening cabinets while, whispering and giggling to one another and soon they shout "Ok mom turn around!" I turn around and they yell "Surprise!" They had picked "flowers" (weeds) and put them in a vase for me. My heart melted and I said "thank you so much, they are beautiful" Peyton said "We wanted to pick them for you mamma, because we love you so much!" Of course at that moment I was a puddle on the floor, how did they know that is just what I needed that day...reassurance.