Mother's Day

Yeah, so today is supposed to be Mother's Day...and it turned out fan-freakin-tastic. Yesterday we got everyone up at 6 a.m. so that we could all be ready and out of the door by 6:50 and in the QT parking lot to meet my parents, brother, and grandma. We were heading out to Kansas City for my brother's graduation. Did I mention we have a doctor in the family now? No? Well, guess what? We have a doctor in the family now ;) He's not a physician or anything, but he is a Doctor of Pharmacology and he already has a job waiting for him making WELL over 100k per year working in the Pharmacy at a Kansas City area Wal-Mart. I'm sure it will be nice to be single and making that kind of dough. Do you think there's any chance that we can become his new favorite charity?

Anyway, back to the story. All three boys did great on the trip out there, through the graduation ceremony, and even at the fancy restaurant we went to have dinner and celebrate at. I had some of the best wine I've ever had and literally was feeling tipsy after just one glass...my mother was loaded off of her butt because she pretty much had half of the bottle, possibly more.

That evening we took the boys swimming in the hotel pool. It was very nicely laid out. They had a hot tub, which we did not get to enjoy, a separate kids pool that was maybe 3 ft deep and then another separate pool for the big "kids". The kiddie pool was a tad cold, but Evan got in and went right into having a good time. He actually used the pool floatie I bought him, which I could not believe considering last year he wouldn't let you get within five feet of him with one of those things. Best dollar I ever spent - he had so much fun. I also bought the boys some basic baby floaties to sit in. Carter got in first and we were expecting a reaction but got none. We thought for sure he'd have a problem with the water temperature, but sure enough, he was fine with it. He stayed in almost as long as Evan, who we had to drag out of the pool when his lips changed color to a lovely shade of blue.

Brennan? Not a fan. Upon dipping his big toe in, he immediately went into hysterics. We tried to put his whole body in and let him warm up to the idea, but he wanted no part of it. Out he came and we tried at least once or twice more to get him into the pool for some fun.

It was at this point the jinx was laid on us. Mom, Dad, and Grandma all reached a consensus that the boys should be great sleepers that night. Brennan and Carter, always out to prove you wrong, apparently caught wind of the news and in true twin fashion devised an evil plan in their secret twin language. They went down in their pack 'n plays fine. There were a few times I woke up to place a paci in a mouth or two, but they were doing pretty good all things considered.

I remember waking up at 2:30 a.m. to one of them screaming yet again. Operation: Sleepless in Kansas City was officially in progress. That screaming must have been in secret twinspeak and the official call to action. With one single cry the other half woke up and starting mimicking his brother. Kevin and I both grabbed a baby and tried our best to soothe them. Our efforts were fruitless and we gave in bringing them into bed with us.

I feel it is important to note that our bed was a standard sized double bed. Not a queen. Not a king. A standard sized double bed. Yes, you did the math correctly - that's FOUR human beings in one small amount of square footage all trying to steak claim to a comfortable enough space to catch some sleep.

We ended up getting up and down several more times that night equalling one tired mom and one tired dad...and one tired Uncle Nate who was (alone) in the other double bed in our room. I vaguely remembering trying to be funny at 4 a.m. and halfheartedly "threatening" to throw them over the balcony.

At 5:30 Kevin had had enough of a bad situation. He was somehow able to convince his baby (Carter) to throw in the towel and fall asleep. My baby (Brennan) had no intention of waving the white flag of surrender. While I was in the throws of a baby thrashing about and screaming at the top of his lungs while in my arms in bed, Kevin told me to leave and take the baby to the living room portion of our suite. He informed me that I could sleep on the couch while the baby roamed around and played. Yeah, because that's safe! It had a separate door and everything, thank God, but was most definitely not baby proofed. I was obviously up for the day at that point. I figure I probably got around 4 hours of broken sleep that night.

I guess it was about that time that I realized today was Mother's Day and it was off to a pretty shitty start. It didn't get any better...Evan almost got lost in the hallway after he followed me out of Mom and Dad's room without my knowledge. I went into our room and shut the door behind me, meanwhile my 2 year old was wandering around nearly in tears wondering where the hell his mommy went.

Carter cried for an hour in the car on the drive home before finally falling asleep. After we got back into town we went straight to the In-Law's to give Nonna her holiday time. We were exhausted, but me even more so since Kevin at least got a little extra sleep. I didn't even get a card today. Oh well. I know my boys love me and that I do the best I can with them and that's all any of us can ask for.

It was just another typical day for me, nothing special and just a small step away from being a slightly controlled, extremely chaotic, borderline disaster. Seems about right.