I'd like to say that this has been an atypical week, but it's about par for the course the past couple of months. Is everyone with small children living at this speed? Has anybody figured out how to put on the breaks? And what gives with all these ear infections?
Saturday: I exercise in the morning, then spend 7 hours knocking on doors in the rain. Dane does free-lance computer repairs, and catches up on paperwork. The boys are at their grandparents' houses, so we try to enjoy our rest.
Sunday: After 24 days of having no running water inside our house (long story), we spend the afternoon helping our landlords start up our water system and testing to see if water is available in our well. The babies are tired and cranky. It pours the rain. We don't have all the tools we need. We run up and down stairs, drive up and down the mountain, make several phone calls. At one point I attempt to pick a lock. At the end of the day we know there is some water in the well, but we aren't sure that it will be enough to run through the water softening system and still supply the house the following day.
Monday: Dane heads to work, leaving Duncan, Tristan and I to continue hauling water for cooking, cleaning, and flushing toilets. The boys are still tired. They resist going down for their nap for more than an hour, but finally sleep. Nothing bad happens, but it is a tiring toddler day -- fighting, whining, etc. After Dane gets off work, I take the boys to my dad's house for a bath, and Dane continues working on the water start-up. By bedtime, we have running water in the house. Hallelujah!
Tuesday: Election Day. Dane is off of work (one of the perks of being a State employee). We sleep in some, then take the boys to town with us to vote. The boys are sweet and good, but tired. We spend the afternoon cleaning and cooking, and marveling at how nice it is to flush toilets without hauling a 5-gallon bucket of water from outside. I try not to think about the election, and succeed until about 10 pm when I learn that I am in the lead for the local Board of Education race. I finally manage to fall asleep around midnight, feeling vaguely unsettled by the fact that I've been elected to public office, but also relieved that the election and the water crisis are finally over.
Wednesday: Dane and I both wake up tired. Dane leaves the house early because of extra work assignments. I get the boys dressed, fed, and ready for day care on my own. Tristan is getting tired-er or sicker -- he refuses to eat, refuses to put on clothes, cries hard twice in the final stages of getting out the door. We drive 42 miles to my work, arriving a full hour late. Inside the day care, Duncan -- who normally runs to the toys without a backward glance at me -- clings to me and won't let go. When Tristan tries to get in my lap, Duncan goes wild, hitting, biting and crying. When I strip him off of me and set him in time out, then try to comfort Tristan, he runs to me and bites me. He tries to bite his teacher, and then has another go at Tristan. After half an hour of trying to comfort Duncan and separate myself from both boys, I give up. We drive 42 miles home. Both boys cry in the car. I stay calm, but when I finally settle the boys enough to give them their lunch and put them to bed, I'm exhausted. I should get out my laptop and work, but I slump in a chair and read a sci-fi novel for the entire nap. The boys get up and seem ok, but there is some crying and difficulty with bed time. After they go to sleep, I do a little bit of work on my research and Dane does some more computer repairs. We go to be early hoping that we can get back in the flow of things.
Thursday: When we wake up our lawn is covered in garbage. Bears have come in the night, torn down our bird feeder, strung our trash across the yard and up into the woods, and pooped in areas where the boys normally play. The boys are still a mess; Dane has to leave early again; I accept that I'm going to miss another day of work. I put all of my focus into getting us all calm and rested. I manage to get the boys to take 2 naps. We paint, we read, we build pillow forts, we watch loaders put dirt in dump trucks on YouTube. I clean the yard and the woods. I plant some marigolds. I totally fail to work on research. Dane arrives home exhausted, but to a quiet house -- the boys are sleeping. But after they wake up there is almost non-stop crying. Through dinner. Through baths. Through the beginning of stories. Sobbing, hiccupy, pitiful crying. Finally, they are asleep again. Somewhere in the chaos Dane has discovered that his desktop computer is broken beyond repair. I go outside for a while. Breathe in, breathe out. Chat with my dad, who has stopped by. He's as stressed out as I am, but we have a good laugh about it. When I come back, Tristan has woken up, crying. I calm him down, give him Tylenol and water, put him back to bed, fall asleep myself. Tristan wakes up again at 3 am, and we repeat the process. Only this time I put him to sleep beside Dane, and I spend the rest of the night curled in an awkward ball at the foot of my bed.
Friday: In the morning, the boys seem ok. But after the past few days, there's no way I'm brave enough to take them with me to the gynecologist. Ha! Dane and I juggle cars and schedules so that the boys can stay at home. Dane has a good time playing with them, but things are going south when I get back from town (80-mile round trip). Dane leaves for work; I spend 3 hours getting the boys down for a nap. Tristan cries a lot; Duncan just looks pale. I'm tired and don't sit down to work as soon as they go to sleep. By the time I'm finally looking at my code, they wake up. Tristan is a mess. He cries, hard. I calm him down. He cries more. I calm him down. He cries more. I feed Duncan. He cries more. I call the doctor. (Hey, I got there eventually.) The doctor has already left for the weekend. I need to take Tristan to Urgent Care (80-mile round trip). I get everyone in the car. Tristan is screaming. Duncan is telling me he wants yogurt. We pull on to the main road and enter the long series of curves leading to the top of the mountain. There is a warning light shining from the dash, and Tristan pauses long enough for air that can I hear the car making a grinding sound. There is nowhere to pull over. I limp us to the top of the mountain on a flat tire. Tristan isn't crying! I bundle the boys into their stroller, lock the car, and push them half a mile to a phone. My dad comes to our rescue, and helps me change the tire. He volunteers to keep Duncan. Tristan and I go to town. He has a double ear infection -- his third in as many months. Amoxocilian and a popsicle from the doctor, and we're off. The car does pretty well on the donut. We stop to get Duncan, and get pulled into a mini-party. The boys play and eat chocolate cake. I eat a hamburger and feel limp. We leave too late. The boys are giddy when we get home. They run in circles, yelling and laughing. The crying doesn't start until we put on their pajamas and lay them in bed. They cry HARD for 30 seconds and go to sleep.
Then, of course, I stagger upstairs and whine to the internet.
1 comment:
Hang in there! I wish you all calm, rest, and an end to the ear infections.
Post a Comment