Today started badly. Badly enough that in my sleep-deprived delirium I began rationalizing in my head that maybe it would be okay to leave the kids alone in the house for a day or two while Tom and I catch up on sleep and drink a cup of coffee without being interrupted twelve times. I mean, Neko knows how to open the frig and scrounge for basic supplies, right?
And then we came back to our senses and realized we were stuck with three cranky children and two even crankier adults. I decided to bring the morning up a notch by making healthy muffins that will rejuvenate and energize us. Tom played the part of good husband and preheated the oven for me. See? Things are looking up.
Well, until we discovered the cutting board that Tom had thrown in there during our last dinner to keep my tofu warm had now melted all over the inside of the oven. Tom is not the crying type, but I swear at that moment he almost began sobbing.
Shortly after that, Doug and Susie arrived with their kids because Tom was going to help them move a swingset, so he and Tom escaped the insanity to go move big, heavy things with tools. I waved my hands in the air and ranted and raved about how hard life is and Susie dutifully nodded her head and made me eat a not-so-healthy pastry they had brought, which made me feel a lot better.
Turns out, having new people enter the house disrupted our downward spiral, and suddenly the kids were being a lot nicer and then so was the Mom. We headed down to the basement where Neko Redeemed Herself With Art. She drew this insanely long train track all around the floor of the basement so the tricycle and trailer could become a roller coaster. These are the moments when I can put aside my ADHD anxieties. She sat there and meticulously drew ties on her track for a good twenty minutes. When she was done, she even drew a platform and cue so that all the riders could stand in line and wait for turns.
Unfortunately, after a while Shep didn’t want to ride any more. And Chris was so thrilled that Neko had made this big track, that he just wanted to pretend to be a train and run around after her. So I got to be a passenger. And, no, I don’t think even Nicole Ritchie could fit her butt in the back of this trailer, so I did the best I could.
Continuing on our getting-better day, we met R&D at the mall, where everyone ran and frolicked and enjoyed riding in that double car stroller thing, since I still don’t have a new stroller.
And, even better, the evening rounded out with Tom taking the kids home while I went to dinner with the girls with NO KIDS. I drank half a margarita and a beer and laughed and listened to stories and, yes, children were probably involved in 90% of the conversation, but the point is, they were not present so that makes it okay. Anyway, I need to make a point of these adult get-togethers a bit more often because it definitely renews your soul. Thanks to Libby for organizing and then reorganizing after the whole appendix incident.
Enough for now. Must now go figure out how to extract a cutting board from our oven…