"I Didn't Have Fun, Mom!"

Today was the final act of my three-day gauntlet in looking after the kids by myself while Chrissy worked. I am utterly exhausted; "my soul is faint." The worst part is that this is what Chrissy does most weeks of the year without complaining, so I feel like I need to hide the "faintness" of my soul, or at least, not complain about it.

(But I REALLY want to complain about it!)

Anyhow, here's how it went.

It began with a poop. Or rather, it began with an absence of poop, from Jesse, who had been trying very hard to hold it in all week. But at the breakfast table this morning, his little legs were wiggling back and forth, his eyes were boggling, and he was upset about everything. We immediately recognized these as Jesse’s “I need to go but I don’t want to go” signs. Chrissy left, and I informed him that once he completed his puzzle he would have to have a poop on the potty, and he lost it on me, throwing puzzle pieces and literally running out of the room sobbing uncontrollably.

Eventually, after much tears and pleading (from both parties), I picked him up and stuck him on the potty.

The thing about pooping is that you can’t force a kid to do it. I mean, there are suppositories, but that’s a pretty messy last resort. So, I just waited it out with him.

And waited. (And waited!)

He gave me several arguments for why he should be able to descend from his throne. Most of them ended in, “BUT I DON’T WANT TO POO!” Several times he escaped, only to be caught and repositioned. Eventually, after about forty minutes, I heard the tell-tale unearthly screams, the moment of silence, and then... “I pooed!”

Sure enough, we had a nine-incher. I was proud, and Jesse got his lollipop as a reward. Here he is, proudly chewing on his sucker while Janna lent moral support.

Jesse’s mood improved dramatically from there, but Janna’s quickly declined. It felt a little too cool to go directly to the park, so we settled for some in-house activities for a while. At one point I enlisted Katie to read a great book to both kiddies at once – The Story of the Little Mole Who Knew It Was None of His Business. This book was a gift from Chrissy’s brother Josh, and I honestly suggest that all parents pick it up at some point. Especially of you can get the version with the sounds.

Katie’s doing pretty well here! Can you see how fragile the kids’ moods were at this point?

Watching Pinocchio again. Katie took this during the whale part – Jesse needs a little extra support during the scary moments, but he loves this part too!

Janna lost it during this time, so I began the extensive process of preparing to go to the park.

Prepped for the park:
-Snacks eaten (check)
-Diaper changed / Courtesy pee completed (check)
-Sippy cups located, filled, packed (check)
-Kids sunscreened (check, and that was awful!)
-Hoodies located and placed on kids (check)
-Stroller belts buckled (check)
-Kids smiling and optimistic about the next hour? (well....)

Actually, the park was great. Jesse is at the point where he has a lot of fun pushing Janna on the swing, which he did with joy, which also caused her to laugh happily, BUT I DIDN’T HAVE THE CAMERA (it was on the other side of the park). I was so mad that I forgot the camera, but very happy that the kids were happy. Then we went out into the field and chased each other until Janna became irritated, and we left for home.

To make a long story short(er), I put the kids down for a nap, enjoyed a couple of blissful hours of silence, and then when they woke up, all bad things broke loose. I needed to cook supper, but Jesse desperately wanted me to play with him, and Janna just clung to my leg crying for about an hour and a half, crying “Momma! Momma!” Then Jesse and Janna got into fights resulting in angry screams and tears. Then Katie used her food processor to grind up some veggies, and the noise sent my delicate children into a frenzy of tears and indignation.

I desperately tried to keep everything together, but when I finally got supper in front of them, both of them broke into tears and didn’t like anything. When Chrissy walked through the door at 5:30, both kids were overwhelmed with relief, and Jesse immediately summarized his day with the words, “I didn’t have fun, Mommy! I didn’t have fun!”

Hahahahahaha.... funny in hindsight.... Well, that’s all for tonight. I think I’ll take an hour or so to heal emotionally.

I’d like to dedicate this blog post to Chrissy Vance and Grace Wiegand, two awesome pregnant gals who cheered me up as I wrote this post with three different kinds of chips. Bless you.

Until next time!