Teething Makes Me Crabby

So my 1 year old, my usually happy and serene, ringlet topped child whom I so lovingly refer to as "my little Buddha" is teething, and it's getting pretty tense around here. Granted, what his gums are trying to accomplish is no easy feat (2 bottom molars and 2 top incisors), but when will my children realize that mommy is much better at being Mommy when she's had at least, oh I don't know, 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Now don't be mistaken, sleeping attempts were made, but as I slowly drifted into a state of anything resembling actual REM, I was ripped away by a piercing shriek, and this didn't happen once, or twice, or even three times, it happened at 11:30 pm, 2:00 am, 3:00 am, 5:15 am, and 6:30 am, at which point I thought, "Well what the hell, might as well get up since the alarm is set for 15 minutes from now." I tried Tylenol, I tried homeopathic teething tablets, warm bath? cool compress? bottle? cup? rocking? walking? sitting? patting? Ugh...nothing worked.

My stress was further compounded by the 5 year old and his newfound fear of monsters in the closet and his severe night time dehydration. I wanna go, "Look kid, it is no coincidence that you are only thirsty after your bedtime story, and we all wish we had someone to snuggle with at night, but Mommy is doing the dishes and laundry and homework she didn't do while you were awake so that you could have undivided attention. Now please give me a break and STAY IN YOUR BED!!!!" He got up 3 times waking his brother each time and finishing his last attempt with my favorite grand finale...the bloody nose!
They were both bowls of sunshine this morning...no really, happy as clams. And I...the queen of this kingdom made a SUPER STRONG pot o' coffee. If I could have hooked it up with an IV I would have.

Ready, Set, Go!

I've imagined writing a blog like this on and off for the last couple of years, mostly when my kids do something adorable or atrocious. And also when I make some sort of eye popping discovery regarding my abilities, or inabilities in some cases, to parent. Sometimes I'm triumphant, other times, not so much. For both of my children, I was able to keep a daily journal of sorts during their first year of life. However after they turned 1 I stopped writing down the cute things they had done or the discoveries they had made and now that my oldest is turning 5, I wish I had a place to jot down those brief moments, the good and the bad, that I want to remember forever. So, here I go. Writing our stories even though I've gone back and forth about writing them in this type of forum. Mainly I've battled my own opinion that writing about myself and my boys in this setting is kind of egotistical. I mean how interesting can our life really be? But I finally came to the conclusion that it's interesting to me and if I write for me, who knows, someone else might get something out of it. For example, some other mother in this world may want to know that she is not alone when she hits the OFF button instead of the SNOOZE button on the alarm and wakes up an hour late on a school day. Said mother may need to relate to another one of her kind who with only 12 minutes to get out of the door, swiftly dresses the children (can't find the baby's shoes so he doesn't get any), pops a bagel in the toaster for the 5 year old, runs to the bedroom to throw on a bra and some flipflops, does a 10 second brush of her teeth, butters the bagel for the preschooler, gives him a sippy cup with milk (no honey you're not a baby, Mommy just doesn't want you to spill in the car), grabs the baby, the purse, and the baby bag. Piles everyone into the car. Runs back for the lunch pail and the huge sunglasses (maybe they won't notice my pajamas if I wear big glasses) and tries to drive to school within the speed limit because after all we don't want a repeat run in with our local highway patrol. Let me put it to you this way, this morning as I urged my son out of bed he heard me say we were going to be late and he replied, "Oh no...does this mean we're going to be stopped by the police again?" It only happened once, but I'll tell you, having a motorcycle cop follow you into your child's school parking lot is really embarassing and the poor guy felt so bad about my parade of shame that he let me off with a warning. So,this is my life. My hectic, beautiful, love-filled life. Welcome to SingleMommyLandia, my place where I can talk about being a single mom to two gorgeous (and brilliant) little boys, Lucas, 5 and James, 1 and what it's like to co-parent with their fathers' (yes there are two fathers which make for double the negotiating tactics). Oh yeah, there's also the fact that I work and go to school full-time. And I try to be Earth and community conscience. Who says we can't do it all. Whew!