It's only 3:00

Sometimes, parenting can be a tough job. Consider today, for example.

• Jane has been waking up in the middle of the night or very, very early in the morning for the past two weeks. As of last night, when I was up from about 2:30 until 4am, I feel pretty done with the whole thing.
• Morning postponement #1: As I was getting dressed to go to the gym, I realized that the workout pants I wanted to wear were in the washer. Wet. So I threw everything into the dryer, hoping that they'd be done in a reasonable amount of time.
  
• Morning postponement #2: As I was trying to get everyone out the door, I had to stop to take care of a bunch of little things that could not be left undone. Like cleaning up cat throw up. (Lovely.)
  
• Morning postponement #3: Then, Jane rolled off the changing table. Horror of horrors. I had set her down on the table, turned around to turn off the heater in her room, and heard a noise behind me. I turned back around to see my baby lying on the floor. Horrified that my child might be really hurt (and also horrified that I let it happen), I picked her up, and she started in on the silent cry. The one when you know they're more than a little bit hurt. Poor, poor baby. She is totally fine now--I checked her out pretty thoroughly and kept an eye on her for a long while. It was just a terrible experience. And I'm very thankful that room is carpeted.
• Morning postponement #4: I got everyone buckled in the car, only to realize I forgot something inside. Can't say this is an infrequent occurrence.
• Went to the gym and did an abbreviated workout. I have to say that I was patting myself on the back for getting there at all.
• Went to a paint store, where Noah was about as disobedient as he has ever been, literally yelling and running circles around the store every time I turned to look at paint colors or speak to the woman helping me. Lots of "Noah, COME HERE" heard in the store. One more hitch in my day discovered: the lady, who I was hoping actually really knew about color, appeared not to know so much. Walked out of there with what feels like the 37th color sample to try on the wall and am doubtful about the result. Had a firm talk with Noah about obedience.
  
• Both kids fell asleep in the car. Bad thing, since it means it'd mess with their naps later. So I tried to wake Noah up, and he was very upset that I did so. Even more upset that I dragged him and his sleeping sister out of the car to make a stop at the drycleaners on the way home.
• Ate lunch, fairly successfully. Except that Noah made a great big mess of his ravioli, and then said, "Mommy no like it when Noah make mess." He has said that about three times in the last 24 hours. At least he is learning 1.) sympathy/empathy, and 2.) that he should think before he makes a mess.
• Tried three times to get an obviously sleepy Jane to go down for a nap. Apparently, she is in a state of rebellion and will not go to sleep when I want her to anymore. So I finally just put her in her bed and waited her out (the second time I did that, she went right to sleep).
• After putting Jane to sleep, I found Noah picking apart a styrofoam block. Into a hundred tiny balls. Which were everywhere on the carpet. And on his clothes. And he had even tried to put some in his ears. He got in trouble for that, then he had to endure the vacuum (which he does not like) while I cleaned it up. Also found him having spilled a cup of milk on the carpet after dipping his stuffed monkey's foot into it.

And it is only 3:00.

Not all days are like this, of course. And this one just feels that much worse because I am starting to feel very tired from the weeks of interrupted sleep, and tiredness can just make my patience level take a dive.

The thing is that it's not any huge thing that makes your day hard. (Although the falling off the table was kind of a big deal.) It's the forty small things.

Alright. Gotta go mark some more things off my to-do list, but I feel better after venting a bit. My next post will not be a downer. I promise. :)