This last week has been a huge struggle. I'm home from Texas, and my dad has gone back home. Nathan and Heather aren't coming until next week.
It isn't being by myself that's so hard most of the time. It's dealing with all three kids fussing/misbehaving/needing attention at once, getting everything done that needs to be done, and keeping my sanity while doing it that's hard. Tuesday was especially bad. I wanted to just get out and do something, but no one was free for a playdate, and it was alternately too hot or rainy to go to the park, and I was trying to get Niko on a nap schedule, and needed to stay home for him. I also had wanted to clean the house. None of it happened. The morning started with everyone fussing and complaining, and that continued through the day. Colin was picking on Brennan, Brennan was being super-sensitive and became OCD about everything (if I took something out of the refrigerator, he FREAKED OUT if I didn't put it back EXACTLY where I'd gotten it. Where Colin needs his routine, Brennan needs things to be in their place, I guess.) Niko didn't nap all day, and only wanted to be held. At one point, all three kids were crying at the same time. I wanted someone to be here to help so badly, but I was on my own. I ended up feeding the boys their dinner, and put them all to bed at 6:00. I've never done that before, but it was the only thing I could do at that point, and I'm really glad I did. It did take until about 7 to get Niko to sleep, and until 8 for Colin to fall asleep, but it was so nice having that down-time after the horribleness that was the entire day.
Yesterday a few times seemed like they were going to start up again, but I went overboard trying to keep them happy. I gave Colin and Brennan both pie pans full of sugar to draw pictures in at the table (I wanted to use shaving cream, but couldn't find any). I gave all of the boys baths after that, or at least put them in the water, and let them splash around. And we went to Chick-fil-A for dinner.
We did go to the Hubert Bypass Park and Nature Trail... Monday? The boys wanted to go on the nature trail, and as we were walking down there, we stopped to look at a lizard on a post, but there was a wasp sitting on the other side of the lizard that we didn't know about until Colin reached for the lizard and got stung twice on the hand. Poor guy! But he was a little trooper, and wanted to keep going. I gave him the option to come home several times, but he wouldn't hear it. I did convince him to hold our cup of ice water against the stings for a while, but even that didn't last very long. The nature trail was pretty fun, and after that, they played at the park for a little bit.
It started raining today, and rain always puts me in the mood to bake. I made a yellow cake, cut it in half to make two layers, filled it with strawberry jelly, frosted it, and added colored sugar sprinkles. The batter had made two 9" cakes, but they turned out a lot higher than I wanted a double layer cake to be (this time). So, I froze one for later.
I also made hummus today, minus the lemon juice. The boys didn't like it, but I did. Nikolai managed to grab a piece of the flatbread while I was listening to something Brennan was saying, and started to eat it. I guess he's ready to start solid food, even if I'm not!
I guess that's it for now. It's time for me to get some sleep before any of these kids wake me up again! Have a good night, everyone.
-Amanda -_-*
