Sometimes the Days Are Bad

**Side note:  This was to be published last Wednesday, but our computer charger died and, I have no idea why, but it took the new one 5 days to get here.  Matt generously offered to finish it on his computer, but I guarantee this is what it would have said: "Ashleigh had a bad day.  I kept asking why and she would not answer me.  She was mean to me.  Finally Joe and Mary gave me a summary of her day and I may have laughed a little.  With her, not at her, of course. The End."**

You know how most people only put their happy, good-looking stuff on social media?  This is not that. As Joe would say, "This is REAL life, y'all!"

It started Monday night when Donnette (Joe's mom) and I brought Baby A and Joshua back to the house for baths.  Joe stayed behind at Matt and Mary's where we had just eaten dinner.  Usually Joshua leaps into the tub with enthusiasm, but for some reason last night I had to wrestle him the entire way up the stairs.  We got him in the tub and things were fine...for awhile.

He's at the age that we don't have to watch him like a hawk in the bath. But while we turned our back that night he jumped out of the tub, ran in our room, GRABBED the iPad, and jumped right back in the water.  He has never tried anything like this before, but you just never know what (brilliant) idea he will think of next.  It took me a good 5 minutes to pry the ruff-and-tuff protective case off before I could get it under the blow dryer.  All while he sits screaming bloody-murder in the bath because we have so wronged him by taking the iPad away.

The fun continued Tuesday morning when Joshua realized he would not be playing with the iPad before school. (It's sitting in rice) Joshua gets up really early in the morning and we let him play with it while we prepare to function for the day.  Or at least drink a few sips of coffee.  Well, he started banging his head like he meant it.  In the middle of the tantrums, Joe had to leave to take his mom to the airport. By this time Joshua had a nice big mark on his forehead. I was attempting to feed him a different breakfast than the ones he usually has, because we were out of everything.  Well, this was too much to bear on top of losing the iPad.  After battling for probably too long, I caved and gave him his beloved LaraBar.  He ran upstairs to play in his room and I breathed a sigh of relief.  Oh, I should have known better. (Update: after 48 hours in rice, the iPad is fine)

A few minutes later while I was foolishly sitting and drinking my coffee, I heard his footsteps coming down the stairs.  And then something that sounded like water running.  I jumped up to find him completely naked and peeing down the stairs.  Yes, not fun, but I can handle cleaning urine off of wooden steps.  It was the hands and feet COMPLETELY COVERED in POOP that got my attention.  What followed was a mad dash to spray him down and put him in a bath with a few capfuls of bleach (just in case), while I removed his comforter to also spray down (outside) and begin cleaning his room, the hallway and the stairs.  Poor G later found poop on a doorknob that I was unaware of. (Update: 3 days later G found poop on one of his toy planes.  Poor kid.)

Simultaneously, G and I are battling it out over whether he was going to school.  He had been sick the day before and long story short, this exact thing happened again.

At some point, I called Joe at work to complain about the past few hours and ask him what I should do about G, and long story short (again) I get mad at him because I am MAD AT THE WORLD.  I basically hang up on him.  (Proud moment there).

All of this happened before 7:45 am.  And here's why this was such an ordeal to me: I. cannot. handle. mornings.  We, yes we, have a whole plan in place to help me survive mornings with a little bit of dignity and to help me show grace towards the children.  Obviously, children don't always get the memo on these things and you deal.

I finally got Joshua dressed and on the bus (phew) and came back to continue dealing with G.  I was certainly not my best self to him yesterday morning.  I took him to school around 10 and I really don't think he's going to pull his "I think I'm sick, but really not" bit again.

As the day continued I felt better, but as soon as those boys got off the bus my blood pressure shot back through the roof.  I made it through dinner and Joe did bedtime, but for the rest of the evening I was really, really discouraged.  I've mentioned before that I don't have a lot of margin these days, i.e. it doesn't take much going wrong to make me feel anxious and out of control.  We have had a great couple of months, and I think that's why when this day hit me so HARD, I felt like a failure.

However, the next morning Joshua set out to win me back and spent a lot of time curled up in my lap before school, giggling.  And like all you other parents out there, I started over.