Fresh air

Well, everyone is perking up here at Typhoid Mary's house. Except for Jeff. But he hardly counts, right? Just kidding...he's just a little congested in the mornings when he wakes up. And to his credit, he hasn't complained to me even ONCE. He probably sees the crazy glint in my eye when I hear him cough and thinks better of asking me for sympathy.

Michael got the "all clear" at the doctor's yesterday. We have a complicated system of when to take him off each respective medicine, and he is improving by leaps and bounds. Except for the whole eating thing. Argh. Lily is still oozing dark yellow goop, but she doesn't seem any more irritable than a normal 2 year old. This, to me, is the hardest age to gage illness. She is always crabby and sensitive...so I'm trying to guess if she is MORE crabby and sensitive than usual. Crapshoot. Andrew is doing fine. His nighttime cough has faded into memory and he is getting his excess energy out in the great outdoors.

Speaking of the great outdoors...this whole 3 children thing still frustrates me at times. Many times. (Disclaimer: I love all 3 of my kids...adore them in fact. I know how lucky I am in their temperaments and personalities and I find each one of them an incredible blessing. Never for even a second do I wish that one of them would go live somewhere else. Except for Lily...but that's just the 2 year old I want away, not actually LILY. You get me? )

So yesterday was GORGEOUS. It only got to about 60 degrees, and the wind was a bit chilly, but after winter those little details hardly matter. But I felt trapped by the conflicting schedules of 3 children...and it makes me wonder how I will enjoy this summer. I realize that all the issues will be solved in a few years when nobody takes naps...but ACK! No naps! That is nearly as frightening. Here's our day...and why I felt trapped...

Michael has a follow up doctor's appointment at 8:30 am. I was amazed at what a hassle it was getting the kids out the door a mere 30 minutes earlier than usual. Of course, Lily had decided to sleep in (for the first time in her life) until 7:45.

After doctor's appointment we take Andrew over to pre-school. After loading the kids back into the car at 9:20, I decide to go to Target to do some Easter shopping, since both the littles slept in and Michael wouldn't be needing his morning nap until late.

Spend WAY more time at Target than I needed to, mostly because Lily was throwing tantrums every 5 minutes or so. Not that I blame her. It was really evil to shop for Easter and not let her have any of the fun stuff. Michael did really well in the cart until the end, when he was fading fast.

With only one hour until pick up time (I really can't wait until buses come pick up my child), I couldn't take Michael home to nap. So we drove home to get the double stroller (which I'd taken out for the previous nice day). Michael took a 5 minute nap. I get the stroller, realize that I need carrots for my dinner that night, and decide to walk from the grocery to Andrew's school to get him. Fun! Nice day. Lily was less than thrilled at going to the grocery and cried the entire time we were in there. Then I realized that even though I could throw a stone from the grocery store and hit Andrew's school, there were no sidewalks around the fencing and I would have to maneuver my double stroller on a windy fairly busy street to get to the parking lot. Bummer. Load the littles back into the van...drive .8 miles...unload again in the pre-school parking lot.

Get Andrew. Go home for lunch and to put Mikey down for a nap. He is desperately tired at this point. Just as Lily is fed and ready for her nap, Mike decides to wake up. A 45 minute nap. Awesome (note sarcasm). So Lily sleeps while Michael wanders around a whines (he won't eat or sleep...I wonder why he's grouchy). Andrew is wandering around our yard alone. Michael is so tired he is irritated by the grass, the sun, etc, so we stay inside. I finally get him to drink some milk and lay him down for another nap. At that moment, Lily wakes up. Awesome. She wants to go for a walk in her wagon. I try to explain that Michael is napping, we can't leave him in the house while we go to the park. We play in the yard, with me checking on Mike every 15 minutes (our cheap-o monitor doesn't work outside). Michael finally wakes up at 4:30, but the wind is really whipping now. We suffer through it anyway and attempt that walk that everyone has been itching to do. But then the neighborhood boys come out and Andrew flits away and Lily finds a big stick and flits away and Michael tries to eat my crocuses.

Jeff comes home. We make dinner and wait for bedtime.

-sigh- All I wanted to do was take the kiddos to a park. It just didn't happen. It will happen on another day...the stars just didn't align correctly today. I just get frustrated (still?) that I can't do things the way they play out in my head. That has nothing to with number of children you have...just having a child screws with planning. You'd think I'd be used to it by now...

The positives? We did spend a lot of time outside. We have a very nice yard, so it wasn't bad at all. Michael is really really fun, because everything is new and seeing those purple flowers for the first time in his life brought the biggest cheek cracking smile I've ever seen. And Lily was entertained by a stick. A stick! For about 40 minutes. And Andrew managed to invite himself into a game with older neighborhood boys. And they let him! And they had fun! Makes me proud. So it was a good day. Just stir-crazy me wanted a walk. I should just shut up and be grateful for what I've got. ;)