The Harder Days

Two weeks ago the boys and I had a very special day, but not in the positive sense of the word.

I had a horrible sinus infection that felt like someone was simultaneously jumping on my forehead and the back of my neck. If I tried to bend down at all, it felt like my head was going to explode. On top of that, I hadn't slept through the night in months. This did not make for a very patient or cheerful disposition that day. I tried to keep my calm as much as possible, but as we all know these are the kind of days when everything goes absolutely wrong.

Like Bram spilling his entire glass of Gaterade all over the kitchen floor. It was totally an accident, but with the worst possible timing ever. The best I could manage to clean it up was grabbing a beach towel and throwing it over the wet area.

Then, Anders pooped his pants for the first time since he has been potty trained for over six months. He came running down into the living room while I was nursing his sister, his underwear in his hands, to show me the poop and ask if he was supposed to put the underwear and poop in his dirty clothes hamper. Again. I am a sleep deprived mom with a pounding sinus headache in the middle of nursing trying to determine the best course of action. I asked him to out his underwear on the bathroom counter for me to deal with later. He turns to run back down the hall toward the bathroom and a few steps in yells to tell me he dropped the poop on the floor.

I had to put Astrid down in the middle of her feeding, resulting in an immediate screaming fit, and get Anders to guard his fallen poop so Camrose (our dog) won't eat it and Bram won't step in it. I run to the kitchen to grab Clorox wipes and suddenly hear screaming and pounding footsteps up the hall. Anders had discovered he had poop on the arch of his foot from pulling off his underwear. So he tracked barely visible footprints up the hall and down the hall that I had not been aware of. So Anders, Bram and I had poop on the bottom of our feet, my poor head…and feet. I used Clorox wipes with my feet to try to mop up the floor as best I could. I had Anders stand and wait in the shower while I washed Bram's and my feet in the bathroom sink. Then I showered Anders off. I was so ready to pass out after all this, but I still had a screaming newborn to finish nursing,

So today was another special day. Astrid hardly let me sleep last night so I was pretty ornery when I got up this morning.

Bram was in an extra destructive mischievous mood, which usually happens when I can't give him as much attention as he wants. Astrid wouldn't let me put her down. She is usually asleep by ten or ten-thirty so I can shower. Today she wasn't asleep until 12:20. I didn't get to shower until 1, but hey, I showered! With both boys. (It's all about celebrating the small achievements, right?)

Around 11:30 I heard Bram playing in the kitchen sink. I told him to turn it off and headed to the kitchen to make sure he listened. When I got to the kitchen there was water all over the floor and spilling down the counters. He had moved the faucet way back against the wall so the water was flowing all over the counters instead of into the sink. We had a creek of water on our floor. I hadn't know that was even possible. And he hadn't turned it off when I asked him to, so I had to rush through the water on the floor to turn off the faucet.

It's a lot to handle when you haven't gotten any sleep.