Fevers and tantrums...

What a week this has been!!! Abigail (5) has just started pre-school and Adrianne (almost 8 months) had her first proper cold....and you know what that means!!! Yip! No sleep for Mommy!! Lets face it! Being a stay at home mommy is the bravest thing you'll ever do...let me explain:

Despite what happened the night with the baby (teething problems/flu/niggles/lost pacifier etc), I wake up at 5 AM every morning to see Abigail off to school...not because I am super-mom, but because I know that I am going to be woken up anyway by the screams of torture and the tears that tantrums bring...being a very non-morning type of person...I would much rather get up myself and feel like I chose to get up (and thus, feeling more like I am the driver of my life, you understand). You would think that after the storm has been packed off to school, I would get back into bed,right? Wrong!!!!

I have to pump my engorged breasts...at least until they decide to stop producing milk...hoping and praying that Adrianne does not wake up during. And wouldn't you know it...? She normally wakes up at exactly the wrong time...because kids have the darndest sense of timing, don't they? Ask any parent and they could tell you about that one time when, "you were only going to be away from the house for 5 minutes", you had to turn back half way to change the sodden clothes of a three year old in potty training...or the one time when, after noticing that you never use the diaper bag for an hour long shopping trip so you don't pack it because you've just changed the diaper, only to realise that you are going to have to choose between going all the way home or add diapers, wet wipes and rash cream to your ex-short shopping list. Yes, these little tykes are not to be underestimated for their timing abilities.

After giving Adrianne her breakfast(cleaning her eyes, ears, hair, nose, fingers...because the food goes everywhere but the right place), its diaper change, getting dressed and entertainment. Nap time follows and then its dishes, cleaning the house and washing her bottles. She wakes up in an hour or two...again with the whole timing thing! Repeat the above minus the dishes, because these little things can mess a house up like nobody's business and before you know it, its nap time again...and then dinner's next. Meanwhile, princess Abigail has come home and is in need of reassurance and understanding and oh yes! "School's very nice and I have fun there but I am not going again, Mommy!"

By the time my prince charming comes home, I am barely hanging onto sanity when its dinnertime,bath time, bedtime. And concepts like 'meaningful conversations' and 'foreplay' are far away words I USED to know the meaning of. ..

Wouldn't you know it? The baby wakes up at 2AM all ready for her night time feed(despite all the books AND the internet stating otherwise when ingestion of solids begin) and I remember what I used to do this time of night. As I finish the diaper change and get ready to feed her, she looks up at me ....our eyes meet...and then she gives me this incredible smile that says:"You ROCK my world, Mommy" Thats when you know that all of it is so worth it...