All in Eight Hours

Indulge me while I use my blog as a journal moment.

This morning my friend Adriana, a counselor in our Relief Society presidency, came over for my visiting teaching stewardship interview.  By ten o'clock, I told her when we scheduled the appointment, we're all dressed and fed and have things in basic order.  I was anticipating having the kids play quietly in the toy room while she and I sat and had a lovely spiritually uplifting conversation in the family room.  The kids and I would be dressed, the dishwasher would be quietly humming, perhaps I'd even have a load of laundry in process.

Last night I woke up for absolutely no good reason at 2:30.  Just as I was drifting back to sleep about 3:00, Tess woke up screaming for food.  I stumbled into her room and lifted her out of her bed to nurse.  For about 30 seconds, I couldn't figure out why she was still crying and not eating. Then I realized that I had the back of her head to me rather than her face.  Just as I got that figured out, Ellie came wandering in.  "Mom, my tummy hurts."  She sat next to me until Tess finished her middle of the night meal, and then I took her downstairs and gave her some anti-nausea medicine.  By 3:30 we were all back in bed.  I didn't wake up even a little bit when Rob climbed out of bed at 5:00 to get to work early.  At 6:30, Tess woke up again - and so did Ellie.  Everyone back to bed by 7:00.  Then half an hour later, Ellie brought me my slippers, my brush and a ponytail holder (the things she knows I need immediately upon waking up) and said she was hungry.  I told her it wasn't time for me to get up, but she could get a snack.  Dutifully and without much protest, she left me to catch a few bits of sleep before the day really got going.

Some time later, I opened my eyes and the clock said 9:30.  Ellie was quietly playing in her room.  Matt and Tess were still sleeping.  Lovely, but now I only had 30 minutes to create my peaceful mid-morning buzz of productivity before Adriana's arrival.  By the time I was out of the shower, Tess was awake.  I got Ellie a bowl of cereal, got Tess up, and then Adriana arrived.  She was early, because when she arrived at her appointment before me, that friend was in sick in bed.  Meanwhile, Matt woke up in meltdown mode - sobbing inconsolably.  After a few minutes, he requested to watch Curious George, and I complied because I figured the television had a volume button, and Matt did not.  Adriana and I were still chatting at the table while I was trying to get my girls settled when Matt started crying again.  I looked over to see him standing up on the sofa and covering his mouth.  Before I could get over there, the vomit started.  Lots of it.  Adriana said, "You get him, I'll get the sofa."  I protested, "You are not cleaning that up!"  "I'm a nurse," she said, "it doesn't bother me.  I've dealt with much worse."  So she found a rag and fabric cleaner while I stripped Matt and cleaned him up, and then gave him some anti-nausea medicine.  Then Tess, who had been quietly sitting in her swing, started squirming herself out and onto the floor (I know, buckling her in would have avoided that particular incident, but cut me some slack).  Adriana fixed that while I was helping Matt.

Then we settled in for our interview, reading a scripture and discussing how to emulate the Savior, talking about the needs of the women on my visiting teaching route, all while Curious George and Hundley tried to get the doorman's broken boat back to the deserted island (maybe some of you have seen that episode a time or two).  Mission accomplished (for us as well as Curious George), Adriana left to finish her visits while her baby pleasantly dealt with the realization that he was not going to get a nap this morning.

Now as I'm trying to record these events, Ellie just came in to scold me:  "Mom, you can't just leave Tessa by herself!  Or Matt!"  Back to work for me...