The older children woke a bit earlier than usual on Monday...which probably should have been an indication of the way the day would go. Kai and Kaytie both decided they knew exactly what they wanted for breakfast and asked me to make their special requests. I decided to humor them (almost never a good idea when it comes to meals) and made them each what they wanted...which they then decided they no longer wanted and would not touch. I was a bit irritated, but life with little ones is irritating. That's just the way it is. No big deal.
Then the fighting, arguing, yelling, screaming nonsense ensued. And continued until it woke the baby- who was none to happy to be awakened before he was ready. So now we have three crabby kids and one crabby mommy. After feeding the baby and breaking up more fights that we would normally see in a whole day, I made the executive decision that everyone was going back to bed and we would try again.
Our second attempt at starting the day was a more miserable failure than the first. The craziness, chaos and bickering was driving me crazy. Then out of the blue, Kai comes running through the house kicking a ball and wearing cowboy boots. He trips and flies face first into the stone ledge that our wood stove sits on. Immediately he begins screaming and crying and a puffy purple spot appears under his left eye. I tried to get him to let me look at it and he wouldn't let me. I tried giving him ice to put on it (in the form of boo-boo bunny, of course) but he again wouldn't let me near it. I asked him if he wanted me to hold him and he told me no, that it wasn't hurt, that it would never get better, that he wasn't crying (all of this while screaming bloody murder.) I decided that I was wasting my time attempting to console him.
I had put Kaesen in his exersaucer while I attempted to tend to Kai's boo boo, and walked into our bedroom (already completely frazzled at this point) to call Ward. (yes, this was one of those "please talk me down from the ledge or I'm going to harm someone" phone calls.) Kai was following me around screaming- but still not letting me help. Then Kaytie walks up to him (while I'm on the phone) and smacks him. Just out of nowhere smacks him. (I'll admit, I'd been more than a little tempted to smack him myself, but that doesn't justify it of course.)
So I sent her to her room. Any of you who have been around my children knows that when they are sent to their room, they know they are to go to their room and shut the door. They don't argue it, they just do it. So she goes to her room and after about a minute, she's back in my room. I had to do a double-take because like I said, they NEVER break the rules about going to their room. She's hopping around on the floor. I said, "Kaytie Elizabeth Anne, why are you not in your room." Her answer? "Because I'm a bunny."
Seriously.
After informing her that she would be a bunny with a very sore tail if she didn't get back in her room, she decided it best to take her bunny self back into her room. About 30 seconds later I heard something in the hallway again. I figured it was her again and was flabbergasted that she would be so defiant. So I went into the hallway to see that it was Kaesen playing in the hall. Yes, Kaesen- who was supposed to be in his exersaucer. He had apparently escaped and was enjoying his newfound freedom.
Now Kai's screaming, Kaytie is in trouble and I've just realized that the exersaucer will no longer restrain my little boy and I'm ready to pull my hair out. I let Kaytie out of her room with a long discussion on why we do not hit people. She walks out of her room and pushes Kaesen onto the floor. You have got to be kidding me. So back to her room she goes.
It's only just noon now and I'm quite certain at this point that the chances of all four of us surviving the day are slim to none. So I decided that I would make lunch and then put them back down for naps. (yes, they just got up...but it was for their own good.)
So I put Kaesen in his highchair, pushing in the tray as far as I could, and gave the older two their food. One of the older kids had left their cup in the great room so I went to get it to refill for it for them. As I did I heard a sickening thud. Kai said "Kaesen flies!" Oh. My. Word.
Kaesen had decided that instead of eating his food, he would climb onto his tray and do a high-dive jump onto the hard linoleum floor. He was laying a good two feet from the chair face down on the floor.
I panicked. I rolled him over and tried to make sure he was ok, but I was shaking and crying. I think it knocked the wind out of him, but otherwise he seemed to be ok. He was REALLY sad, though. So I picked him and held him for a minute while both of us tried to calm down. Kai and Kaytie finished their food and I told Kai to go potty so he could take a nap. Kaytie decided that she needed to go potty, too...so I told her to go ahead and go on the little potty in her room. Luckily I decided to check on her, because apparently she decided that today would be a good day to try her hand at peeing standing up.
I would have given about anything at that point to have a job outside the home. (yes, that sentiment has come and gone...but my goodness was it tempting to start searching the classifieds at that point.) I finally got everyone into bed and attempted to get a bit of cleaning done. Then Kaytie woke up and told me that she had pooped in her pullup. So I got her up and took off her pullup, only to find- another pull up...and then another. I shook my head and told her it was like unwrapping a yule log but with a very smelling surprise. To which she replied, "I have smelly fries???"
Ah, yes...some days are just more challenging than others. I'm hoping to not have another of those for quite some time...
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