Why is it that we don’t get “do overs” on at least one or two days in our lives? Monday was a do-over day, for sure. It’s not just that none of the plans I had came to fruition. It was the complete and utter lack of control that I had over Monday’s happenings.
My darling husband had to work Monday, but my nanny was off work for MLK Jr. Day, as was I, so it was single-parenting day. Normally, this isn’t such a big deal – but when you spend half your day throwing up, as I do, well, it becomes a more complex matter to handle.
We had originally had plans to visit another triplet mom out in VA, but those plans were canceled. Instead, I made plans to visit a friend up near Baltimore in the afternoon. Best laid plans, and all, I will give you the spoiler: we did not make it to Baltimore.
J’s mother came to visit him for an hour or so in the morning, which would have been fine, but J wouldn’t take his medicine before she arrived. I admit, I didn’t try as hard as I normally would have, but such is life. They went to the park and he rode his scooter up and down the sidewalk in front of our house (something he doesn’t get a lot of time to do, since he’s got three toddler siblings). He came back in the house mopey, weepy, and exhausted. She headed out and I tried to get J to take his medicine after giving him something to eat – no dice. Fine, I said, then please play in your room until you’re ready to take it. He went to his room, but didn’t play – he slept for the next five hours.
That, alone, would have been reason to cancel the trek to Baltimore, but (alas) that was *not* the full extent of it.
While I was making lunch for the triplets, I heard them playing in the sunroom, and could hear that they were probably into something they shouldn’t be, but I put their lunch on the table, called them to come eat, and promptly forgot about checking out the sun room. I called my friend to let her know it wasn’t likely that we’d be making it to see her. A mother of four herself, she completely understood, and we had a nice chat instead. Unfortunately, I had to cut the call short – sigh.
I looked over and saw that one of them had pulled some things off the mantle – how they did so is beyond me, but that’s another story. I went to go clean up the mess, and noticed that my hand-painted, irreplaceable nesting dolls that were brought to me from Moscow were on the floor. And at least one of them was broken. The smallest one, which is about a quarter of the size of my pinky nail (no joke!) is missing. I know it’s just stuff, but… gosh. It had to be that stuff? I cleaned up the mess and realized that Ellie needed a new diaper, so off we went to change her in the nursery (where the changing table is).
While changing a rather disgusting diaper, I heard a *CRASH*. I dashed out to the living room and saw that Sam had pulled my Lenox Vase off the mantle and dropped it (I’m sure it was unintentional, but…). I know it’s just stuff… but did it have to be that vase? I love that vase. I picked him and Abby up (did I mention I’m not supposed to be lifting more than 10 pounds at a time and each of my kids is 28-30 pounds?) and put them in their room. They were both barefoot and I didn’t want them stepping in shards of anything. When I brought them to their room, I realized Ellie was still patiently waiting on the changing table with her legs in the air and her pants half on/half off (I was putting her pants back ON when the crash happened – so at least she wasn’t still sitting in a poopy diaper). I finished getting her dressed, and put them all in their beds (it was naptime anyway) and I went to go clean up the shards of vase on the living room floor.
When I was about halfway through cleaning the vase up, the giggles in the nursery had turned to cries, so I went in there to check on the trio of terror. Much to my dismay, I saw immediately that the mistake had been mine – normally we take the changing table/diaper pail/laundry basket OUT of the room for naptime and bedtime. I had forgotten to do so, so they’d opened the drawer and pulled out the Balmex. Abby was covered, head-to-toe, in Balmex. Sam’s hair was caked in it. Abby’s pillowcase was totally white, and Piglet (her lovey) was another casualty. I sent out an SOS message to a local group of triplet moms, because I had remembered that another mom in our group had a similar problem a few months ago. Balmex isn’t the easiest thing to get out of hair. Or clothes. Nor, as it turns out, is it easy to get off of a hardwood floor, oddly enough.
Well, I got them cleaned up, pulled the changing table, diaper pail, and laundry basket out of the room and reminded them that it was nap time. I resumed the great vase cleanup. I got up as much as I could, but realized I was never going to get all those shards out of the carpet (it’s one of the LL Bean braided rugs). The rug was on its last legs anyway – a bunch of stitching had come undone, and it was in terrible condition. Had it been brand new, I would have tried harder to deal with it, but I’m petrified of my barefoot little children getting shards of a stupid shattered vase in their tiny little feet. So I rolled up the carpet, planning to just get rid of it, but as I was doing so, I realized that there was far too much giggling going on in the triplets’ room. I went in and found…
Three naked toddlers.
Awesome. I was… not as amused as you might think I was. I got everyone dressed, admonished them and reminded them that it was naptime, and left the room. And I went to move the rolled up carpet to the sun room (too heavy for me to get any further than that), and discovered the disaster that the triplets had created while I was making their lunch. The piano bench was overturned, toys were strewn everywhere. And worse – I have a bookshelf by the front door where I tend to put incoming mail. They had gotten the whole pile down and had shredded it and spread it all over the floor.
So I cleaned that up, called Seth and said, “WHEN ARE YOU COMING HOME?” and then went to check on the triplets. Ellie was trying to sleep, but Sam and Abby? Not so much. And guess who was naked? Abby (and Sam was missing pants, but still had a diaper). Abby got backwards footie pjs and they both got put into bed. Another phone call to Seth, “NO REALLY! WHEN IS YOUR SHIFT OVER AND CAN I EXPECT YOU HOME WITHIN 30 SECONDS OF THAT TIME?”
If I weren’t pregnant, this would have been a good time for me to take up recreational drinking. But aside from being pregnant, I’m still hyperemetic, so it wouldn’t have been any fun anyway. It’s no fun to throw up BEFORE you’ve gotten plastered.
Finally, Seth came home and I handed the reigns over. And then I went and got some Phenergan (which I’d needed for hours, but couldn’t get downstairs to draw it up because of the turmoil of the day). J woke up eventually and demanded dinner – and I left that to Seth as well. I was done.
It was, unfortunately, one of the more memorable days of parenting. I really can’t wait until I’ve forgotten all about it.
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ChezPerky 