Yesterday was Alexander's true Birthday but we celebrated it on Saturday because Daddy had to take off (for a month... yikes!) and Christopher had a soccer game in Greenwich and it was an all around too crazy kind of a day to try to squeeze in a Birthday party. So glad we had it on Saturday where he was able to be Prince for the Day and open his presents and have his cake and eat it too.
Yesterday was just a strange day. We should have been celebrating the Birthday boy but it just was not possible with everything that was going on. Don was trying to pack and get all his stuff together... our soccer games were on again, off again, on again thanks to the wet fields from Hanna. Alexander was in a rare mood. As was his older sister. My only saving grace was that Christopher was almost angelic all day. (I say almost because I am sure he had to have done something wrong!) My patience was tested on many occasions through the day. Rebecca did not want to go to soccer. She did not want to be at soccer once she was there. She was not at all quiet about that fact. Alexander found every excuse under the sun to whine and when he was not whining he thought I would be fun to cling to, climb on, jump all over. My name is Jessica not Jungle Jim... grrrr....
I did manage to take some simply breath-taking gorgeous action shots of my handsome little devil on the run and caught some magnificent soccer maneuvers. And then my heart sank 12 feet when I glanced down and saw that there was no CF card in the camera. Rebecca was hungry. Rebecca was hot. Rebecca was thirsty. This went on for nearly 2 hours.
The one respite was when someone kicked the ball out of bounds and Christopher came over to the sideline. He looked up for a moment and lost focus. He saw me there with his brother and his sister. The biggest smile came over him as he shouted for all the spectators to hear, "Hi Momma! Hi Owie! I love you Momma! I love you Owie!" He blew us a kiss and he was off.
To tell you the truth I don't remember much past 5pm last night... I remember blocking out noise -- screaming, hollering, etc... Then I remember crawling into bed exhausted and so very glad the day was over.
I woke up today certain that it was going to be better. It had to, really. And it was for a while. A short while. I took the older two to school and as soon as we stepped out of the car Alexander insisted on being carried. I was not about to carry him and so the whining began. And never stopped.
We returned home to bake his Birthday cupcakes for school tomorrow. Of course I had some cleaning and tidying and vacuuming and picking up to do before-hand. Because don't you always feel the need to get everything spotless before you are about to make a bigger mess? Finally everything is ready and I go in to the fridge to get the necessary ingredients. I notice the fridge is a mess and start to go through and toss everything in sight. I placed a container of pasta salad on the counter. Well, someone didn't put the lid on properly and the whole thing tumbled out of my hand and landed, splat!, on the floor. Arghhhh. After the fridge had been cleaned and the mess cleaned up from the floor we began our cupcakes. Like always Alexander needs sprinkles. In and on everything. Those too went a tumblin' down... all over the floor! Finally the cupcake batter is made and poured in to the lined tins. I have averted further disaster and am left to clean our mess. Alexander wants to play with his new Play Doh ice cream parlor toy and I set him up at the table. 10 minutes later he is done. And teeny tiny bits of Play Doh adorn my clean kitchen floor. While I get down on all fours I see Alexander over at my desk from the corner of my eye. This is never a good thing. He is spinning my Rolodex. Index cards come flying out. Not in alphabetical order. Not in any kind of order. I love my Rolodex. I need paper. Electronics can let you down. Paper never does. Unless Alexander, of course, gets a hold of it. Arghhhh. It's only Noon at this point. The day is young. Too young.
Soon the cupcakes are out and need to be cooled. The banana bread (because I couldn't bear to throw away any more bananas) is ready to go in. The banana bread should be bananas muffins but the muffin tins were full! Eventually the afternoon passes on and relatively easily. Until I remember the dead mouse at the end of the driveway. The dead mouse that somehow needs to be moved. Off my driveway. And Daddy is not around to help me. I need to put on my big girl panties, suck it up and do it. The Country Mouse and The City Girl. I'll take Manhattan. Anytime. Eeeeek!!! A mouse! Alexander accompanies me to the garage. We get an old metal shovel. A really heavy one. The kind that could do serious damage if it landed on someone's head. I went down the driveway with a determination. But the mouse wouldn't slide onto the shovel the way I thought it would. I could feel it's solid dead weight. At one point I asked Alexander to get me a big stick. I used the big stick to help nudge the mouse on to the shovel. Finally I had it. There. What next? I hoisted my shovel over my shoulder careful not to let the mouse fall off and walked over to the edge of the property and flung! I screamed. I screamed a lot. Alexander laughed. Alexander laughed a lot. At me!
It's 9:52 and the kids are in bed. I have just made a delicious marscapone and cream cheese frosting with a little hint of honey in it. The kids will get to have some in the morning on top of their warm banana yogurt bread. I will go to bed dreaming sweet dreams knowing that all three kids will be in school tomorrow. About me missing Alexander the other day? I'm so over it!
Yesterday was just a strange day. We should have been celebrating the Birthday boy but it just was not possible with everything that was going on. Don was trying to pack and get all his stuff together... our soccer games were on again, off again, on again thanks to the wet fields from Hanna. Alexander was in a rare mood. As was his older sister. My only saving grace was that Christopher was almost angelic all day. (I say almost because I am sure he had to have done something wrong!) My patience was tested on many occasions through the day. Rebecca did not want to go to soccer. She did not want to be at soccer once she was there. She was not at all quiet about that fact. Alexander found every excuse under the sun to whine and when he was not whining he thought I would be fun to cling to, climb on, jump all over. My name is Jessica not Jungle Jim... grrrr....
I did manage to take some simply breath-taking gorgeous action shots of my handsome little devil on the run and caught some magnificent soccer maneuvers. And then my heart sank 12 feet when I glanced down and saw that there was no CF card in the camera. Rebecca was hungry. Rebecca was hot. Rebecca was thirsty. This went on for nearly 2 hours.
The one respite was when someone kicked the ball out of bounds and Christopher came over to the sideline. He looked up for a moment and lost focus. He saw me there with his brother and his sister. The biggest smile came over him as he shouted for all the spectators to hear, "Hi Momma! Hi Owie! I love you Momma! I love you Owie!" He blew us a kiss and he was off.
To tell you the truth I don't remember much past 5pm last night... I remember blocking out noise -- screaming, hollering, etc... Then I remember crawling into bed exhausted and so very glad the day was over.
I woke up today certain that it was going to be better. It had to, really. And it was for a while. A short while. I took the older two to school and as soon as we stepped out of the car Alexander insisted on being carried. I was not about to carry him and so the whining began. And never stopped.
We returned home to bake his Birthday cupcakes for school tomorrow. Of course I had some cleaning and tidying and vacuuming and picking up to do before-hand. Because don't you always feel the need to get everything spotless before you are about to make a bigger mess? Finally everything is ready and I go in to the fridge to get the necessary ingredients. I notice the fridge is a mess and start to go through and toss everything in sight. I placed a container of pasta salad on the counter. Well, someone didn't put the lid on properly and the whole thing tumbled out of my hand and landed, splat!, on the floor. Arghhhh. After the fridge had been cleaned and the mess cleaned up from the floor we began our cupcakes. Like always Alexander needs sprinkles. In and on everything. Those too went a tumblin' down... all over the floor! Finally the cupcake batter is made and poured in to the lined tins. I have averted further disaster and am left to clean our mess. Alexander wants to play with his new Play Doh ice cream parlor toy and I set him up at the table. 10 minutes later he is done. And teeny tiny bits of Play Doh adorn my clean kitchen floor. While I get down on all fours I see Alexander over at my desk from the corner of my eye. This is never a good thing. He is spinning my Rolodex. Index cards come flying out. Not in alphabetical order. Not in any kind of order. I love my Rolodex. I need paper. Electronics can let you down. Paper never does. Unless Alexander, of course, gets a hold of it. Arghhhh. It's only Noon at this point. The day is young. Too young.
Soon the cupcakes are out and need to be cooled. The banana bread (because I couldn't bear to throw away any more bananas) is ready to go in. The banana bread should be bananas muffins but the muffin tins were full! Eventually the afternoon passes on and relatively easily. Until I remember the dead mouse at the end of the driveway. The dead mouse that somehow needs to be moved. Off my driveway. And Daddy is not around to help me. I need to put on my big girl panties, suck it up and do it. The Country Mouse and The City Girl. I'll take Manhattan. Anytime. Eeeeek!!! A mouse! Alexander accompanies me to the garage. We get an old metal shovel. A really heavy one. The kind that could do serious damage if it landed on someone's head. I went down the driveway with a determination. But the mouse wouldn't slide onto the shovel the way I thought it would. I could feel it's solid dead weight. At one point I asked Alexander to get me a big stick. I used the big stick to help nudge the mouse on to the shovel. Finally I had it. There. What next? I hoisted my shovel over my shoulder careful not to let the mouse fall off and walked over to the edge of the property and flung! I screamed. I screamed a lot. Alexander laughed. Alexander laughed a lot. At me!
It's 9:52 and the kids are in bed. I have just made a delicious marscapone and cream cheese frosting with a little hint of honey in it. The kids will get to have some in the morning on top of their warm banana yogurt bread. I will go to bed dreaming sweet dreams knowing that all three kids will be in school tomorrow. About me missing Alexander the other day? I'm so over it!