I must be a bit tired since a few days ago Joel reminded me that we needed to go for pictures. Blank look from mother prompted him to repeat himself and then it dawned on me. Oh of course! It was his birthday and we always take birthday pictures at a studio.
On the weekend, one night I took Elena to the clinic because she had a fever and swollen tummy. Then the next day Asha dropped a plank on her foot and broke her big toe so Carl took his turn. I had a feeling that Asha would be the first one in the family to have a broken bone. Thankfully it wasn't more serious. Just causes some wardrobe issues in trying to coordinate outfits to two pair of unattractive sturdy shoes. It'll be only for two weeks; children heal super fast.
On Monday I realized how hard it was carrying Elena around and helping Asha walk, plus try and brush my teeth and put away some dishes. Finally I told Asha that her most secure way of mobility as this point would be to crawl. Thankfully though, she's now able to put weight on her foot and is slowly hobbling around. Much safer, since she was getting stepped on when she was crawling. Plus her knees hurt. And I tried not to laugh seeing her scramble on all fours after Joel and Kezia.
Carl's hacking cough, on it's 7th week, is slowly being worn down and disappearing from the cocktail of drugs Carl's on. The key word is slowly and there's the side effects of hallucinating dreams and a mouth full of cold sores. You can imagine he's getting a bit weary of it all. I'm proud of him however, because since it seems all males are hardwired to fuss and complain when they are sick, my husband has done neither. Speaking of fussing,
Is it just me or is my full time job now nursing and then my other full time job is doing laundry. How do my two full time jobs fit into 24 hours? I know. I just sleep a lot less....
I don't think the kids are getting especially filthy outside, and Elena even though her projectile spit up makes quite the mess, manages to keep it contained to washable walls and tile floors. Seriously, it comes out so forcefully that it reminds me of a traumatizing horror movie I saw when I was a pre-teen. And I've never had a kid that did that before. Good thing she's my fourth. Somehow I can see myself as a first time mother really having issues with that amount of mess.
You know what I want for my birthday? 6 hours of sleep in a row. And maybe a massage.
We're in a time in of life where things seem to take so much more effort and the week's happenings just keep piling up. I have to laugh at myself because years ago, when I was so anxious about the present day, I kept telling myself that in __ months, things would be calmer, easier, less hectic. Seriously, I was constantly looking into the future and a delusional one at that. It's not about life getting less crazy, it's about you getting less crazy in reaction to life.
Someone told me that I may not get much sleep now while my kids are young, but how much do you really think you're going to get when your kids are teenagers and are not home at 3 a.m?
All in perspective. I wouldn't trade this crazy right now. Life's good.
3 comments:
Thanks for your blog--I just read and enjoyed your most recent entries. Thanks for sharing some of your thoughts and experiences with the rest of us.
Anita
you are beautiful.
and yes...sleep and solitude -- the best gift for any mother.
xoxoxo love you.
Derek and I were talking about this yesterday! He said, "Is it just me, or is Luke getting to be more and more of a handful every day?" And we decided that he is, but that we wouldn't trade it for the future because chances are the crazy we feel now will just feel crazier, and we will just have to learn to cope with a little more crazy every day. Not super encouraging. But perhaps not the worst thing in the world, since we also find Luke more rewarding each day...
and sleep. well, I remember the first time I got five hours of sleep in a row after Luke was born. My Mom took Luke for five hours in the middle of the night and he cried for almost three of those hours I think. But I was dead to the world and felt like a new woman afterwards! ah sleep. what we get done without it is miraculous.
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