Mama said there'd be days like this

Everybody has "those days." Those days you know are going to be trouble before you even get out of bed in the morning. Today was one of those days. Highlights included:

~Waking up at 3:45 am realizing that not only was my baby nursing, he was also talking. And patting my face obsessively. He did not go back to sleep until somewhere just before 6 am. My alarm went off at 6:15 for my first violin lesson of the day.

~Finding bite marks in my bar of soap this morning. I'm not even going to ask which of my vampire children is now eating soap.

~Abby pounding on the bathroom door this morning as I was getting dressed to announce that Ian was bleeding and I needed to come out "Right now, Mom!" Turned out Ian's finger had a little scratch.

~Teaching a violin student and having her mother ask how I felt about doing all our lessons via Skype in February. They travel a lot during February, she explained to me. When I asked her if she was going anywhere fun, she told me they like to spend the entire month in Hawaii. I was distracted for the remainder of her lesson imagining spending all of February in Maui.

~My baby learning how to climb on the kitchen table. I've never had a dare devil baby. I'm not excited about having one now. It started with him using the step stool to climb. Then we pushed the stool under the table to he couldn't climb on it. Undeterred, he learned to pull the stool out from under the table. Then we decided to move the stool on top of the table when someone's bum wasn't on it. It took Ian mere minutes today to figure out how to scale the kitchen chairs. He only looks sweet and innocent.

~My husband calling and letting me know that his business trip was being extended. Yup. He was supposed to come home tonight. Now we won't see him until Saturday morning. You know the supportive wife gig? I'm not so good at it.

~My real estate agent stopping by, picking up paperwork, and letting us know that we have another offer on the house. Wait. I don't think I mentioned that we put the house on the market. We did. Our first offer came in 3 hours after it was listed, and we now have a second offer for $5k more. Neither potential buyer has even come to look. I don't know about you, but getting two offers in less than a week with no showing is a pretty good deal. If only we were selling it for anywhere close to what we owe on it... Sigh. Regardless, I am glad to be on the path. Can't wait for the day that the boys actually have a bedroom of their own and I have a kitchen big enough to turn around in without tripping over one of my many small (and not so small) children.

~Realizing, as I'm trying to help both girls with their math, fill out health insurance paperwork, change Max's clothes after he had an accident, and keep Ian from dancing on the dishwasher door, why newborn babies just shut down when they are overstimulated.

~Getting this picture text from my husband and trying not to die of jealousy.

~Stopping my last violin lesson of the day early because I could hear my two boys upstairs shrieking. At the top of their lungs. For ten minutes straight. It sounded like the end of the world. I promised my sweet teenage violin student that I would give her and Vivaldi her extra ten minutes at her next lesson. Then I sang hymns to myself for the next hour, praying all the while for the strength to make it to bedtime.

~And then, wonder of wonders, putting both very tired boys to bed at 7, curling up in my chair with my blanket, the space heater, the girls playing upstairs very quietly and "Anne of Green Gables" on my Kindle. I felt like drinking up the quiet. Forty five minutes later, I felt renewed enough to be a mom again.

"Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?"

Amen, Anne Shirley. So glad I get to try again tomorrow.