Roy Graham, COME HOME!!!!

It is 8:40 and I am in my pajamas and debating whether to lay on the couch and watch a movie or clean up the house. Both children are asleep and I can finally breathe a sigh of relief that today is over. I knew all week it would be a hectic, crazy day because of all we had to accomplish and it definitely was. Here is a little recap:

At 9:00, I dropped Caroline off at preschool and then drove the 20 minutes uptown to my dental appointment. I got there 30 minutes early so I could feed Roy Austin a bottle in the waiting room. I fed and burped him and he seemed content. I got my x-rays and sat in the chair, the hygienist laid it back and then he started to cry. Wouldn't you know it! I had to stop the cleaning and get up twice to re-insert his pacifier. After the third time, I got him out of his seat and laid him on my belly as the cleaning proceeded. Nothing like getting your teeth scraped while balancing a baby.

I picked Caroline up at school at 1, after running errands, and got the good news that she had been in time out for not listening to her teachers (welcome to my week, ladies!). When you hear news like that, it makes you wonder what the teachers really think of your child!! Now, she normally goes down for a nap at 1, but I had to be back uptown by 3:00 for my doctor's appointment, so we went home for an hour and played. Right before we were ready to get into the car, she decided to surprise me by doing a poo-poo in her pants! Why?! WHY, I ask?!! So after cleaning up that ordeal we got into the car and I was just hoping I could keep her awake and content for the afternoon, but once we were headed uptown for the second time of the day, she and her brother were asleep within a few minutes. After about a 25 minute drive, I pulled into the parking garage of the hospital and alerted Caroline that we were at Dr. Stein's office. She woke up very excited because she loves my doctor. As she was running through the sky walk, she wiped out and this is where the fun began. She was crying huge, tired, cranky tears and refused to stand back up, so I had to pick her up and carry her, my diaper bag and push a stroller across a sky walk and into an elevator, where I quickly put her down. There was another couple inside and she didn't like the fact that they were sharing OUR elevator so she fell to the floor and covered her eyes (her version of the classic temper tantrum). They smiled and commented on how cute she was...yeah, she's cute all right. I made her get up and when we got out of the elevator, I gave her a stern talk about how we were going to be nice and obey.
When we got to Dr. Stein's waiting area, I had to break out the raisins because she kept saying "I so hungry, Mommy". As she was eating them and dropping them on the floor and then eating them again before I could stop her, Roy Austin started screaming...not fussing,but screaming. I picked him up and luckily placed a burp cloth over my shoulder. He spit up all down the front of it, his outfit and face. I was cleaning him up and Caroline caught a glimpse of my doctor and started yelling "Dr. Stein! I see her!!" So, she was invited back into her favorite doctor's office to visit and I had a brief moment of silence. Not for long. When she came back into the room, she sat down on the floor and looked at a magazine while she began to pass some very loud gas! The lady next to me, who had been observing us--and cringing, I'm sure--looked startled and then informed me that it was probably the raisins I was letting Caroline eat that was making her so gassy! By this time, Roy Austin was still very fussy, so I stood up and began patting his back when I looked down at Caroline, and saw a scared look on her face. I then noticed that her tights looked wet around the knees and then...yep...the carpet square underneath her was wet!! UGGHHH! I put crying RoyBoy back in his stroller and told Caroline to stand up. The lady watching us made a remark under her breath like "uh, oh" and I could feel my face getting red with embarrassment/anger! I went to find the nurse and ran into Dr. Stein. Fortunately for me, she has a toddler of her own, so she understands days like this. I informed her of what happened and told her we'd be in the bathroom. So I dragged all of our stuff into the bathroom and thankfully I had a pull-up in my diaper bag. When I got back, the spot was cleaned up and I was so ready to get out of there! They were very nice about the whole episode and treated me like it happened all the time. I doubt it.
So, we were finally called into my appointment and it went surprisingly well, although the baby fussed from time to time. I had been bribing Caroline that if she was good during my appointment, she could get a lollipop at the check-out desk. They always have a basket of them waiting but today, as luck would have it, they were all out! They're never out of lollipops! So, we had to go down a few floors and visit Starbucks to get some chocolate milk. I was so happy to finally get into the car and head home in the Friday afternoon traffic, during which Roy Austin cried about half way because it was time for him to eat!! Why can't my mom live in Charlotte so I can drop the kids off at a moment's notice?!!!! We got home, I fed him and started dinner. Caroline and I made an advent count-down craft that she got at school this morning and then we got baths. As I was cleaning up the dinner dishes, I noticed Caroline was coughing and sneezing a lot. I called her into the kitchen and tried to blow her nose, but she still doesn't understand the whole "blow" concept so I grabbed the suction tool that they give you at the hospital and suctioned her nose. I saw this red tip peeking out of her left nostril and I thought her nose was bleeding but it was too red to be blood. I pulled on it and realized that she had pushed a foam sticker from her advent craft up her nose! After giving her the talk that we don't put things up our nose, we ended our day 'o fun by watching half of a Christmas special on television and then I happily put her to bed.
Roy will be home tomorrow afternoon and I am THRILLED. I don't expect him to take over with the children when he gets in, but it's just nice to have someone to share in the disciplining, the entertaining, the burping/consoling, the playing, the bathing, taking the dog out, filling the sippy cup, buckling seat belts, bedtime...well you get the picture and I'm sure he will, too!!