day 5

Dan is at work for the 5th day in a row. I haven't seen him since Friday morning when he kissed me goodbye. We need the money he says. He's suffering too he says.

It is not going well here. The kids and I are not on speaking terms. (kidding) I'm no good at this single parent thing. Big props to my mom. She had four and did it by herself. And I only remember her saying a bad word like twice... ever. And it wasn't even the F word. I need someone to pass the thingy to, like in a running race. I'm out of patience, energy, tact, love, you name it. I am out. Mya was crying on the couch yesterday. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "Nothing. I'm just having a bad day." I melted a little. She said Winter was being mean to her and told her she wasn't going to be her sister anymore which she says most days but she was really hurt by it today for some reason. Poor girl.

I'm having a few bad days myself. Saturday was the worst. It rained so I didn't want to drive anywhere too far like my mom's house with all the kids and put them in danger with all the horrible LA drivers who think slick roads mean drive faster. And I didn't want to go anywhere indoors like Chucky Cheese or Rock 'n' Jump where everyone else would be with all of their children. So we just stayed inside and nearly killed each other. The babies took extra short naps of course and the day was like an eternity that ended with everyone in tears, including me. And I'm sure if the dogs could cry they would have too. I did take everyone for a walk in the rain because I was so desperate to get them out.

Yesterday was alright...ish. Last night was a circus. A bath circus. It was 6:30 and I decided that the children were way to dirty to skip another night without baths so I took the babies upstairs to the bathtub and told the big girls to take a shower in my bathroom. They are getting to that age where they can kind of be left unsupervised and won't do anything too horrible but left to their own devices they will misbehave as much as possible.

So I put the two babies in the bath and got them all clean with minimal crying. Then I pulled the plug and got baby #1 out and took him to his room with the changing pad and put a diaper on him and put him in the girls room to play. Then I took baby #2 out and took her to get her diaper and PJ's on. I got her changed and went to check on the girls in the shower. They were using my foot scrubber, my back loofa and Dan's hot pink loofa (sorry honey) to wash each other. They were singing and laughing and having a shower party. I told them to get out and get their PJs on. Then Mya got soap in her eye and started screaming. I got a towel for her to wipe her eyes and told her again to get out. In the mean time, Addie had managed to get back into the empty tub with her PJ's on so she was all wet. Angus was standing by the tub squealing at her. I changed Addie's PJ's AGAIN and grabbed Angus to get him dressed.

Then I heard the girls giggling and the water still running in the shower so I put Angus down. I walked in to find Winter sitting on my bathroom floor with her towel around her laughing hysterically to Mya (still in the shower) pressing her butt cheeks up against the shower door. I was too tired to laugh. I just turned off the shower and walked out of the room to get the babies in bed. I went downstairs to find Addie's blanket and paci. I located the paci. No blankie. When I got back upstairs, Mya commented that Angus's hair was soapy. It was. Very soapy. Addie had lathered him up while she was in the bathtub in her jammies. He was soapy all over. His tummy, back and hair were covered in soap. Back in the bath he went. I locked crying Addie out of the bathroom so she couldn't join us and rinsed happy Angus off, put another diaper on him and finally put him in his PJ's. The craziness continued when I couldn't find Addie's blanket for 30 minutes and she jumped up and down in her bed and yelled at me while she waited for me to find it. It was in the TV cabinet of course. They all fell asleep way past bedtime and so did I. I didn't even get to touch the mountain of clean unfolded laundry in my bed. I just moved it over to Dan's side where he would not be for another night.

Ugh, kids. I love them. They are blessings each one of them. Doesn't mean this mom thing is easy. I'm hoping we will all forget about these rough days when mommy goes a little psycho and yells things she doesn't mean. I'm hoping the neighbors will too.