Flying Solo

Well, I survived the first day of Mr. Pickles' return to work yesterday. Miraculously, the children were extremely well-behaved all day, even the toddler! I was able to shower in the morning while the baby napped. We had pancakes for breakfast (provided by that angel, Mr. Pickles). We cleaned the living room and threw away a couple reams (give or take) of used drawing paper. I did several loads of laundry, including the neverending diapers. The girls cleaned their room. I made chicken nuggets for lunch. The baby nursed and napped at predictable intervals. It was too hot to go outside to play, so the kids had "Wiicess" for their activity. I even got a nap while the boys were sleeping. Dinner was provided by another angel (including wine, God's manifold blessings upon her!), so all I had to do was heat it up in the oven. By the evening I was still wiped out and headed to bed at 10:30 -- but all in all it was an extremely good day, which was a delightful surprise!

Today, however...

Today I decided to be ambitious and take all the kids grocery shopping, since we were out of milk and breakfast cereal (two essentials without which the children would starve on my watch). We started off all right -- I made eggs and toast for breakfast with melon pre-sliced by Mr. Pickles (what would I do without that man?). We left on our adventure, with only half a dozen instances of find your sandals and actually put them on and stop bossing your brother and don't kick your sister and leave the baby alone and please use the bathroom now. I had nursed the baby shortly before we left, thinking that would sustain him on the longer ride (to Wegman's in Potomac Mills -- 20 mins. away with no traffic). Ha. I should know by now that driving anywhere on any major highway this time of year takes twice as long, since road construction crews are out in flocks. A couple miles from home we hit a slow spot and the baby woke up from his nap. Hungry. NOW. So our soundtrack for the rest of the long, slow trip down was a battle between Christian music and an hysterical hungry infant.

But we finally, finally arrived, parked, went in, grabbed some muffins and juice, and settled ourselves in the cafe area for a rest stop. Just as the baby's faith in humanity was being restored, it turned out that Katie was not particularly fond of the french vanilla mammoth muffin she chose. Either that or she drank too much juice too fast. And of course the closest bathroom was halfway across the store. Thankfully the bag the muffins had come in was waterproof. And opaque. And her indigestion was very temporary. Miriam still took off running, covering her ears. (It's moments like this that confirm her in her desire to be a consecrated virgin, I think.)

Meanwhile Joseph was busy unloading from the other end, and of course I left his diaper bag at home. But my guardian angel must have prompted me the other day to stick a couple extra diapers for the boys in the car, to have on hand for just such a mommy-brained case as this. So, back out to the car we go, retrieve diaper, and head to the family bathroom. That involved the usual public restroom adventures -- small children touching everything, squirting soap on the floor, cranking out 2 feet of paper towels, and trying to unlock the door 3 or 4 times when I would prefer privacy.

At this point I was ready to throw in the towel and give up in despair, but we pressed on, with Daniel asleep in the Moby, Joseph in the basket, Katie trying to get herself run over by leaping on and off the front of the cart without warning (or permission, I should add), and Miriam lolly-gagging and blocking aisles. The actual shopping only took a fraction of the total time there, so I figured we could run out again and get home before the baby woke up. Again, ha. He woke up while I was taking the opportunity to fill the car up with cheap gas (it's 30 cents cheaper -- of course I'm not going to pass that up!) -- I swear he goes from Fast Asleep to Starving in 0.02 seconds. He was not happy. But I figured he would fall back asleep once we got moving. However, I forgot to reckon with traffic, including a collision that happened right in front of us. So, once again, our drive home was accompanied by the sweet refrain of the radio battling with the screaming baby. He got so mad I thought he was going to make himself sick at one point. It's so hard to listen to that and not be able to do anything about it! Eventually he did fall back asleep -- about 5 minutes from home, natch. But it was enough to soothe him and make him more placid when we did arrive home. I worked out a plan of attack for our arrival -- Miriam held & bounced Daniel while Katie and I unloaded the car, then Miriam put away the cold things so I could sit down and feed him. Joseph, who had fallen asleep in the car, woke up when we got home, but was still groggy enough to be willing to lie around on the couch before he realized he was hungry too.

So now, we've all had lunch, everyone's good mood has been restored, the baby is snoozing in his swing, and I've got a bag of chocolate in front of me. We survived. *pant pant pant*