Parental Ineptitude

With some help from my mom and sister on Saturday, the girls and I were out and about for several hours of running errands… and we lived to tell about it. Friday night was particularly hard with Pumpkin waking just as I was getting ready to call it a night. She settled back down, as did I, and about 40 minutes later, I awoke to The Princess sobbing. I stumbled into her room to find that she had wet the bed (she’s stayed “dry all night” and has been sleeping in big girl undies for over a month – one accident in over a month isn’t bad at all – I wasn’t upset, just groggy). She was devastated, and I kept reassuring her, “It’s okay, we’re just changing the sheets… we’re changing your jammies… it’s fine… it’s gonna be fine.” Got her settled back down only to awake about 3 hours later with Pumpkin again (Hubby was sleeping – he had national guard this weekend, bringing his total of hours worked this week to 70).

Needless to say, I wasn’t entirely running on a full tank on Saturday.

I picked up Mom and Sis after The Princess’s gymnastics class and we were off to run errands. A few things here and there for Mom & Sis before we could get to my errands, which was fine. Picked out cute Easter dresses for the girls at Old Navy (thanks, Mom!), and I was able to find some silver strappy bridesmaid shoes at the mall as well. Unfortunately, in the shoe store, Pumpkin outright refused her bottle, though I knew she was hungry, so I ended up going to sit by the ugliest shoes I could find (for some privacy!) to nurse her. I’m slowly realizing that she likes her bottle to be HOT – not room temp, not lukewarm… HOT. Whoooooops. Breastfeeding in a shoe store – totally NOT my thing, but ya gotta do what you gotta do.

We were all starving at that point, so we headed out to lunch. I am actually quite proud to say lunch went well. It’s a rare thing, I’m sure, but both girls behaved so well at the restaurant, I was just tickled pink. I had been having a tough time on Saturday, schlepping the stroller, diaper bag, plus my purchases. I’m used to shopping with Hubby, who offers a bit more assistance in the “Carrying Stuff” department. We went to leave the restaurant and I realized that, yes, I did it again. I lost my keys. I was sure that I’d locked them in the van!

There is nothing worse that that panicked, “Omigosh – it’s forty degrees out and windy and I have two little ones, and my only spare set of keys is at home and Hubby isn’t there to get them and bring them, and what do we do now, omigosh omigosh omigosh!” (Well, I guess it would be worse if it’d been colder… or snowy… or…). In my panic, I had forgotten that Pumpkin had been chewing on the keys when we sat down at the restaurant. My Sis ran back in, and sure enough, they were there (but, apparently, Pumpkin had gotten them wedged so far beneath the table, that two waiters had to pull our table out to get the keys out!).

A nap was definitely in order (and nowhere in sight).

Got to spend some time with M (the lovely bride-to-be) and A (the matron-of-honor) on Saturday night, and as a result, was up past my bedtime – got home late (late for me, anyway!) and then had to shower the smell of the bar out of my hair (P.U.!). And then with the time change and both girls up stinkin’ early (AGAIN!), not much sleep to be had.

Yesterday, I did a load of laundry and put The Princess’s new red sweatshirt in with Pumpkin’s new white long sleeve bodysuit. I could kick myself. Fortunately for me, the body suit only has a few spots on it, and is wearable (and hey, I got it on clearance so even if it had turned completely pink, it wasn’t a huge loss, dollarwise). In fact, it looks like it would have looked anyway after a few rounds with some baby food sweet potatoes.

I’m exhausted, and it’s really starting to show. Fortunately, we’re in the home stretch. Only two more weeks of tax season…