The docotor & Josh have both warned me to slow down. I have struggled a lot physically with these twins and I hurt everywhere almost constantly. It is very hard to sleep also because I can't get comfortable. So, here is my "slowing down" morning. I was awakened around 3 am by Jamers who claimed that he was scared. I woke Josh who took him back to bed. Then, about 20 minutes later he came in saying he was thirsty. We told him to go get a drink in the sink. He whined for about 8 min. until I made Josh get up and put him back in bed. Then he came in around 5:30ish saying his belly hurt and he wanted a drink of milk. Josh got him a drink and a big bowl and took him to bed. Sometime after 6 someone opened the door. I was ready to scream at James until I realized that it was Gabby. Her belly hurt. Thinking that we were probably getting a round of the stomach flu, I took her downstairs and settled her on the couch with a blanket & bowl. I got myself some food and then tried to nap through cartoons. No worries, Gabby needed something about every 5 min or so. Finally at 7:30 I went in to wake Nate. A delicate procedure in itself, waking him was made harder by the fact that I was trying to get him out of bed without waking James who was finally sleeping. The only reason that it only took 10 min to get him out of bed was that he had a field trip today. By this time I had to wake Josh who was very tired himself. I went downstairs to make breakfast for Nate and Josh brought Andrew down. I sent Josh to shower and fixed breakfast for the little morning grump. Meanwhile Gabby was whining about more drink & crackers and I was trying to quietly yell to Nate to be quieter. I managed to get Nate dressed up in snow pants, hat, mittens, sick...boots, coat etc. and get he and Josh off to school before I was able to rest for more than 5 min. As I did, I called all the moms with preschool kids that were supposed to come over to cancel preschool because of the flu. James woke up and had some juice but now wanted food. (so much for being sick) Andrew got really cranky so I started to change his diaper and realized it was diarreah and it had leaked. I carried him quickly upstairs and got him in the tub. No sooner had I put him in, then James started yelling that something was wrong with his oatmeal. Gabby came running in to let me know that James REALLY needed help. As I stepped out of the bathroom door I could smell something horribly wrong. I asked Gabby quickly to watch Andrew and I ran downstairs to the kitchen thinking something was on fire. James had decided to get his own instant oatmeal and had cooked it in the microwave without adding water. The brown sugar had heated up and burned a huge black spot into the plastic Spiderman bowl. It had melted the plastic. We were getting the double stink of burnt oatmeal and melted plastic. Grateful that nothing was on fire, and noting that we really needed to get renter's insurance, I helped James make a quick new bowl of oatmeal. Just as I was putting it into the microwave I looked over and there was Gabby, playing with something in the shoe closet. Who was watching Andrew in the tub? So I run upstairs to find him trying to get out--the water was cold. I added warm water and then checked over the stair rail on James. His oatmeal was out but hot so I told him to just wait until it cooled. I could not get him an ice cube right now. When I went back to Andrew I nearly slipped and fell on our disgusting bathroom floor. I figured I had a few minutes and it was beyond gross so I swept & mopped and then the phone rang. I spoke to an RS sister for a few minutes with Andrew screaming to get out and then hung up and washed the baby. Then, even after the tub drained he refused to get out and started to scream when I pulled him out. I had to do battle just to dress him. When I finally finished I went downstairs to check on James and make sure he had eaten. The oatmeal was still there and I yelled for James to come and eat. He said he was full and didn't want it anymore. 10 min ago he was starving. Finally I noticed that the plate of leftover cookies from FHE was empty. He had eaten 5 or 6 cookies for breakfast. Of course he wasn't hungry. About this time some major social injustice was happening with Andrew upstairs and there was much screaming. I just had to laugh. THIS was my best shot at "slowing down" today. Can't wait to see how relaxing the rest of the morning is.
