One of Those Moments....

When you have more than one child, you can easily have one of those moments. One of those moments where the slide frame freezes....everything is going wrong around you and you feel as if you are watching it powerlessly in slow motion. In our house, it usually means several children are crying at once. I had one of those moments today. It surprised me honestly. We were running on time, dressed and ready to go to school. Looking back, I do remember thinking that my oldest child felt a little warm this morning. On the way out the door, I got my first tip that the day might unravel on me. I went to get hair gel for my son whose hair was sticking up at a right angle despite a wet hairbrush approach and found a bottle of lotion on its' side, contents all over the shelf. (Is that why the boy's bathroom has been smelling so much better to me lately?). I left it. I was still on time, the hair was a little out of place, but we were moving forward. Two hours later, I am at the preschool co-op with three of my four children. I take my youngest two back to a room for snacks because the live trumpet player, (who was actually giving such an interesting history of brass instruments and showing us examples of instruments from the 1800s), was too loud for him and he was teary-eyed. (Did you get that...teary-eyed, so one disaster had already been averted.) We sat in the room with snacks and my two year old, recently potty-trained, suddenly announced he had to pee. We had just gone one hour prior, mind you. I race with him to the potty (not too far) to discover a tremendous soaking accident and leave an 11 mo infant crawling on the carpet. My two year old is SO WET. And is it SO COLD today. Of course, in bringing three snacks, a bottle with formula, two water bottles, diapers and wipes this morning, I did forget an extra change of clothes. We finish time at the potty to return to find baby sister trying to eat her brother's almonds and raisins. The two year old is now shaking and in tears as he hates wet pants. Can you blame him? And yet, when I announce not to worry, we'll head home and get pants....He cries and carries on even more loudly. Now the baby is looking bewildered. A few adults peek their heads in the door trying to understand why there is a toddler crying for his mommy when he appears to be standing right beside her. I load up the snacks, three coats, diaper bag to carry the baby in one arm while holding the crying toddler's hand. We cut through the graveyard to get to the car while my toddler continues to wail and scream that he wants Mommy and doesn't want to leave school. There is a fresh grave that we have to steer around and I remind myself not to do this again. It is cold. I buckle my now two crying youngest children into the car while mentally planning how to retrieve my four year old from the trumpet player performance. I decide to commit a small crime and lock my youngest two in the car while calmly running to get my 4yo. I walk to my 4yo, grab his hand and ask him to come with me. We make it out of the trumpet performance and then when I explain to him that we have to go home he begins to scream loudly. The door closes behind us just after he hits his loudest decibel. I am ushering him to the neglected children in the car when he begins to stomp his feet and scream "no, no, no" at me. I give him a swift tap on the rear and tell him to stop immediately. We make it into buckles when he begins to wail again and explain that he left his two favorite race cars in the classroom and would I please go and get them. Once again, I commit a small crime. I drive my car a little closer to the classroom door, lock everyone in, and sprint for two small cars: King and Lightning McQueen. (Side note here: What is my life? I am sprinting for racecars, not a heart attack?). I make it back with the cars in hand to hear crying most of the way home. I am trying to remain calm, mentally detached from the noise and chaos since I am powerless to make it any better at this point. We make it home and I get clean clothes for the toddler, food for the baby...things seem to be going better. Then my 5yo comes in from kindergarten. She is whiny and fussy and then cries uncontrollably with a small bump from her brother. What is this? She feels warm, and sure enough, she has a fever. The moment continues....

Who knew a day could so quickly unravel? Are these the small moments when my responses really matter? Are these the times that all add up to show me and my children what my heart really cares about? I am so numb right now I am not sure what I learned today except that loud noise always rattles me.

On a lighter note....here are some fun recent pictures from our house:

These are the boys sitting in school with their teacher, Caroline. They seem quite riveted, don't they?

Here is Caroline with her dinosaur hat on for Fun Hat Day at school. She chose this hat from an old ballet costume and it was a great pick. Everyone at school had on really interesting hats. She is great at thinking of new and different ideas and I just love to see what she comes up with when presented with a problem to solve.