After this week...we might need therapy

Before I left to go running this evening I turned to Andrew and said, "Are you sure you can handle it?"

I barely survived the day and a solid run was just what I needed to pound my frustration out.

"Of course I can handle it," he scoffed, "I'm the dad, not a babysitter. Besides...they're sleeping."

"That's true," I told him, "But I'm the mom and I hardly handled today well."

"Oh, I can handle it!" said the ever-confident Andrew. Famous. Last. Words.

When I returned from my run Andrew was sitting at the kitchen table looking like he was about ready to tear his hair out.

"So, how'd it go?" I smiled.


"How'd it go?! Miriam woke up crying about five minutes after you left and cried off and on for a while. Then she really started screaming so I went in to check on the girls and their light was on. Rachel had thrown up and was trying to clean up her mess--she got most of it in the bucket but it was all down the back of her shirt and it was so gross! And Miriam wouldn't calm down and go back to sleep so I just held her while she screamed. She finally started sucking her thumb and settled down just a few minutes ago."

Both the girls were whiney today. I put Miriam in her shirt that says "cranky but precious." Usually that shirt isn't true because she typically isn't cranky. Today, though, she was. As was Rachel. I don't think Rachel can decide if she's sick or not. She wants to be treated like she isn't sick--she wants cereal with milk for breakfast, she wants to go to school, she wants to play at the playground--yet she is just dragging through the day like a very grumpy zombie. Oh, and she's still throwing up.

I actually yelled at her today after she threw up all over her bed. I was so frustrated. She wouldn't do her job "because" she's sick. So I told her that she could have rest time. She didn't want to "because" she's "not" sick. So I told her she could do her job. So she told me she was sick and couldn't. So I told her she had to rest. So she told me she didn't have to because she wasn't sick. This went on for a while until I lost my patience and dragged her off to her bedroom. She threw a huge screaming fit and screamed so long that she threw up. All over her bed. When there was a throw-up bucket right there!


Oh, I was so mad.

And then Miriam got into the potty while I was dealing with Rachel's bed and I got mad again because (oh, dopey me) I hadn't emptied it yet so she was playing with her excrement. Lucky for me (and the girls...) Grandma came to the rescue. She took Miriam off to play while I helped Rachel fall asleep.

And that was just a snippet of my day. Apart from a blissful 2-hour nap my day was pure torture!

Andrew's taking an extra class this week so he's up and out of the door by 7 AM and doesn't come home until 8:30 PM. The girls haven't seen him for two days straight and wouldn't have seen him until Friday (if they had stayed asleep this evening).

I am so looking forward to this weekend when Daddy will be home all day!