Wednesday, August 10, 2005

How many peanuts did that take?

I didn't sleep worth a poot last night. Finally at 2am I got tired of Mr. Diva waking me up with his restlessness and moved to the couch so that my boot and I could get some rest. I stripped the bed yesterday and when I remade it I guess I put the wrong pillow on Mr. Diva's side. And the correct pillow I had safely stowed under Sam's captain's bed. It's not actually storage space under there, but if you raise up the mattress you get some cool empty space that you can stow sleeping bags and extra pillows. Well, rather than wake up the child in the middle of the night to retrieve the pillow we opted to toss and turn. I'm sure Sam would've gotten back to sleep fine had we woke him up.

Once I moved to the couch I thought I'd just sleep like crazy, but nope, about 4:30 I woke up again. My foot was asleep. The booted foot. After minor velcro adjustments, I managed to doze off but woke up again before the alarm went off and even though there was some prime sleepin' time to be had, I just gave up. I made coffee, took a shower and then woke up the kids. We ran through our school morning routine this morning and I discovered that I woke them up wayyyyyyy too early. Well, I just wasn't sure so I thought I'd err on the side of caution. So we took advantage of the extra time and I ran the vacuum and they did some extra chores.

Chandler got here at 7:30 and Cute Baby was right behind. Chandler was a bit sulky when he got in the house and when I asked what was wrong Jill told me that he was really not all too keen with the idea of that baby being here. He said, "No. Cute Baby goes to YaYa's. Not Kiki's." He was majorly jealous. I was on the floor with the baby and Chandler was in the middle of my lap making sure that I still loved him. We snuggled and talked about how big he is and how he's going to be able to show Cute Baby how big boys do stuff and by then he was pretty confident that I was still his Kiki and ran off to play Super Ninja Cowboy with the boys. (Super Ninja Cowboy, I have learned, is a combination of Justice League, Ninja Turtles and the wild, wild west all thrown in together. It's totally a boy thing.) Strangely enough, Kady has had no problem with the baby being here. In fact, she's been very awesome all day. Of course, the minute they were out the door with him, she was in my arms and begging for a tickling match. I obliged, naturally. Then Chandler had to get his in, too. I think they'll adjust fine. It's a big year for them - new baby taking my attention plus they start lab school in September. They're good kids and they're growing up. *sob*

So by 7:45am this morning the headcount in my house was 2 preschoolers, 3 school kids, one infant, one Kiki/Diva and one Mr. Diva. Then at 9:30 I got one more. So that brought the headcount up to well, a lot. Mr. Diva couldn't have gotten out of the house faster, God love him. He does fairly well with our kids, but there are only three of them, not seven. He took off on his motorcycle, trying to hold onto his youth and sanity all at the same time. He left me here without sanity or cigarettes. There was hard liquor in the house, but I usually try to hold off on that until at least dinner time.

Lunchtime was sandwiches. You can't do much more than that with 7 children. I thought about mac and cheese, but my big enormous stock pot was dirty and the kids were whispering of a mutiny if there wasn't food soon, so I opted for pb&j just to keep control of the situation. I used half a loaf of bread and half a jar of peanut butter, 1/3 of a jar of jelly, 1/3 of a bag of Cheetos and two 64 ounce cans of apple juice. I should've thrown in some fruit but hey, they had grape jelly. Grapes are fruit. (After nap, snacktime was two sleeves of graham crackers, half of the rest of the peanut butter and half a gallon of milk. Oy.) For my lunch, I stuffed one triangle of a sandwich in my mouth, gulped down some sweet tea and ate the last three Cheetos on Kady's plate and then started shovelling pureed turkey vegetable dinner into Cute Baby's face. Not sure what the Points were on that, but the pork belly cookies (see the Whiney Wednesday post previous) I ate for a snack should've taken care of any I might've lacked.

By noon, though, Chan, Cute Baby and Cute Brother were down for naps and the three school kids and my napless Kady were out here on pallets in the toyroom floor watching cartoons. I had an hour and a half of silence and finally time to pee.

The day has gone fast, I have to admit. And the house is still clean. I am shocked. I'm also tired, in need of a shirt that doesn't smell like a mixture of formula, snot and slobber and I think I need some food. Yep. That sandwich triangle has officially worn off.

And tomorrow we get to do it all over again!!

How was your day?

4 comments:

Hillbilly Mom said...

I could not do that. Taking care of my own kids is enough for me. When my kids were in daycare, I truly appreciated the way the owner handled the kids. She only took ten, and they had to be age five or younger, no more than two under age one. She had one helper who came in at noon. The daycare was in a little house behind her house. It amazed me how she got them all to sit at the table and eat, and all to sleep at naptime. She said kids thrive on routine. My kids loved her. She gave all of them Christmas presents, and gifts on their birthdays. I dont' see
how she could afford it. She wasn't an old granny-lady either, she was my age, with kids in high school. I never had to worry that something might happen to them. The only problem was that french-kissing incident...

Redneck Diva said...

Back when I was a young thing I did this daycare thing as well. But back then I had 2 newborns who were both 2 months old, a 2 year old and an 18 month old. Not only did the kids thrive on the routine we had but I did as well. As long as we didn't stray from that things were fabulous. People were always amazed that all 4 would nap at the same time, but it's seriously all about the routine.

I always have bought my daycare kids birthday and Christmas presents simply because I kind of feel like they're sort of mine in a way - except I get to send them home at night, lol. Heck, Santa usually makes an appearance at my house around Christmastime, too!

I feel so honored that these parents have chosen me to help in raising their children - it's a bit overwhelming at times, but amazingly rewarding.

fRench kissing incident? Do tell!

Hillbilly Mom said...

Diva,
Here's the incident. I went to pick up #1 son from daycare. He was 2 and a half, and usually screamed and ran the other way when he saw me. (I know, I'm Mother of the Year!) This one day he ran up to me and reached up his arms. I picked him up, and he grabbed my face with his hands. "I kiss you," he said. I thought to myself: Oh, how sweet. The he STUCK HIS TONGUE IN MY MOUTH. EEEEEEEEEEEE!!!! I set him down right quick, and said, "What are you doing?" He replied, "That's how you kiss." I told him, "No...who told you that?" And he proudly announced, "Tori's brother showed me how." (!)

Tori's brother was 4, and always in trouble. Of course I told Daycare Lady, and she said Tori's parents should be more private about some things, since last week Tori's brother almost got smacked by another mother for putting his hand in her little girl's back pocket. The kid didn't do anything really bad, just copied what he'd seen Mom and Dad do.

Redneck Diva said...

OH MY GOSH, that's too funny!

When I did daycare years ago I had a little girl who would grab you by the face and say "Let's soap opera kiss!" and then proceed to smash your lips into yours and wiggle them around. Thankfully she didn't learn it at my daycare, but she sure shared it with all of us!

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