Monday is over. Whoopee.

Today was one of those days that made me question whether I'll survive this parenting gig. My kids have me completely outnumbered. Let me give you a rundown of my day:

2 AM: Feed the baby
3 AM: Feed the baby
4 AM: Feed the baby
5 AM: Feed the baby
6 AM: Hear a clunk and retrieve the baby from the floor where he fell after you fell asleep...feeding him. He's teething and is so miserable.
7 AM: Nurse the baby to sleep
8 AM: Get up and have a shower with the baby
9 AM: Clean up poop from the floor (his first time pooping on the floor)
10 AM: Finally sit down for breakfast with the kids
11 AM: Finish up the family newsletter
12 PM: Start getting lunch ready for the kids
1 PM: Nap time! Turn on a show for the girls, fall asleep within second of head hitting pillow
2 PM: Start some laundry
4 PM: Try to motivate girls to do some chores
5 PM: Settle on boxed macaroni and cheese for dinner
6 PM: Andrew comes home and makes dinner
7 PM: Family Home Evening
8 PM: Put girls to bed
9 PM: Put Benjamin to bed

It doesn't look too bad written out like that, but I left out the number of fights I mediated (because it wasn't possible to count the number of fights the girls had today) and how many hours Benjamin spent alternately screaming and nursing (he was terrible today). When he wasn't screaming or nursing he was getting into stuff. At one point in the day he decided to see what kind of sounds different bowls made when he dropped them on the floor (or something). Metal mixing bowls are a particular favourite of his to drop on the floor, as are the little melamine dishes Karen gave us when we moved.

I can't tell you how many times I have tried to convince Benjamin that dropping bowls on the floor is not a good activity. He's persistent. And a little...stubborn.

Today when I told him to "stop! throwing! those! dishes!" he looked at me with fire in his eyes, lifted a bowl above his head, and then sent it crashing to the floor.

It was the last straw for this sweet little tugboat bowl from 1984. It wasn't exactly a family heirloom (and in fact was once the family cat, Dukie's, food or water dish) but still! I can't believe he threw it hard enough for it to break!

At 5:44 exactly, my girls decided to stop fighting and play a game together (something I'd been trying to get them to do the entire day long). 

At dinner we talked about some of our ancestors because I'd also spent some time today trying to sort out how we're related to some influential people of the past, one of whom is Elizabeth Tilley of the Mayflower. I can't seem to find an entry for her on FamilySearch.com that has her married to John Howland even though I'm sure she was (wikipedia even says so). "She had ten children with him as well," I said. "Children that are well-recorded because there weren't many people in town. They're mentioned in history books. There are ten of them, yet there are entries showing her to have had upwards of thirty children!"

"Maybe you should make your tummy get big and have another child so you can have ten children," Miriam suggested.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "No, don't. Then I'll have three babies to worry about."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "I already have three babies to worry about."

"No, I mean I'll have three babies to take care of while you just sit at the computer all day."

I gave Rachel a bit of a tongue-lashing that might have included a threat to stop doing all the things that she doesn't notice I do—like the laundry and the dishes and the cooking and feeding the baby and cleaning the bathroom and sweeping the floor.

"I'm pretty sure I can sweep the floor," she scoffed.

"I would stop talking if I were you," I suggested.

Andrew explained that Mommy sometimes has work to do at the computer (such as laying out the family newsletter) and reminded her about the many times Mommy had taken her to the museum/park or out to ride her bike, the hours Mommy has spent reading with her, volunteering in her classrooms, and keeping our house from looking like a scene from Twister. 

I was so mad at her! But we made up in time for family night and talked about the eighth article of faith, pilgrim ancestors, and being grateful. We usually start our Thankful Tree on Canadian Thanksgiving but this year I'm a week early because for some reason I thought it was already the second Monday in October. But it's not. It's only the first. So, next week is Thanksgiving, but we'll just be Thankful for an extra week, I suppose.

We got a package in the mail from Auntie Abra today. She sent us some Redoxon and some Halloween-themed Smarties (called Scaries). The girls were excited to eat some Smarties for our FHE treat.

Somehow we managed to have story time in spite of Benjamin's screaming, and he did sleep for a little while, though he's screaming now...so I will go and nurse him once again (and probably every hour for the rest of the night). This tooth better make an appearance soon!