So, where do I begin? Truly this story began more than 4 years ago but let us fast forward to last night. It was 11pm and I wasn’t tired. The next day (now today) I was staying home with the boys. Sure, I’ve done that many times before – almost every Monday since birth. But this was different. Friday would begin my trial run as a stay at home mom. In hind-sight, I was putting way too much emphasis on the day which was probably why I felt I didn’t sleep a wink and when Dexter called out at 2am, I hopped up wide awake to find out what was up. A good case of the sniffles, that’s what and a glimpse of what was to come.

Lesson 1 – ALWAYS get up before the boys. NEVER ATTEMPT TO SLEEP IN ON YOUR FIRST DAY ON THE JOB! This doesn’t work and makes you feel like you are running behind the rest of the day. I know this lesson. Why did I think today would be any different?

Lesson 2 – get used to drinking cold tea. After microwaving my tea 3 times in a 2 hour block of time, I gave up and chugged it down cold.

Lesson 3 – don’t get overly ambitious. Last night, I laid in bed, thinking of tons of stuff to do with the boys this morning before preschool. Reality set in when they walked into my bedroom happy with runny noses and 5 minutes later Nicholas was crying in his bedroom and Dexter had a case of the “humpfs”. Morning grumpiness followed us downstairs with Nic but Dexter perked up with Lego building. I’m not over-exaggerating this, but in the course of the 30 – 40 minutes it took me to talk them into breakfast, Dexter had followed the directions and rebuilt the Lego Creator 3 in 1, 69 piece Firetruck/Helicopter/Jeep (age 6 – 12) to each of those specifications. The only help he needed from me was to get a few of the pieces back apart after he finished one of the creations. That kid may not know how to hold a pen and write his name from left to right, but he can follow Lego directions and build. Future Engineer??????

Everyone perked up with a little breakfast in their bellies and then it was a lazy morning of blowing noses and checking off our to do list (brush teeth, get dressed, play Legos, go to school, take vitamins, cut with scissors, read stories) in whatever order they so chose. For those of you who have read about Nicky’s toilet paper unicorn, Dexter mimicked this – by putting his hands behind his butt and saying to me “Look Mom – I’m a Unicorn”. I was beginning to think we needed to have a lesson in anatomy when he moved his hands to the top of his head and repeated the phrase. Phew.

A quick lunch followed, where they tried to make each other laugh and choke on food and then we were off to preschool and 2.5 hours of freedom in which to get stuff done. Boy oh boy, did I make use of that time. From the preschool, I went for a walk and found a cheap hair salon. Fifteen minutes later, my hair was cut and I was walking back to the preschool. Turn around, go back for my sun glasses and finally head back to the van. Jump in, head home, load up with stuff to return to Costco. Arrive to find no one in the return line – my lucky day. When I left, there must have been at least 7 people in line. Buy only one thing – the movie Cinderella and once again, find a line in which the people in front of me are only purchasing less than 10 items. Very nice. Head back to the van – can I say it is so strange to drive our minivan? Usually it is the au pair or Joel that drives her. Anyway, off to Eyes Rite Optical. The lens in my sun glasses had popped out two weeks ago and I hadn’t had a chance to get it fixed. I was the only customer there so once again, quick service ensued. Thirty minutes left before pick-up. Could I make it to Safeway to buy waxed paper? Yes – it was my longest wait of the day and I still made it back to the preschool with 5 minutes to spare. How cool was that? In 2.5 hours, I got errands completed that I’ve been wishing I could do for the past couple of weeks. Not too shabby.

Of course, by the time we got home, the boys were worn out and Nicholas couldn’t hold it together any longer. Joel came home, we searched for missing Legos, attempted to get everyone back on even keel but finally threw in the towel and watched Cinderella. This seemed to recharge their batteries (getting dinner in their bellies helped too) and all of a sudden, Joel and I had to play the role of the mean cat Lucifer while the boys fought over who would be Gus Gus and who would be the dog. More reading, more Legos and off to bed. It is now 8:22pm and I’m tired.

So, how would I rate today? Not the best but not the worst. After a good night’s sleep and the setting of the alarm for tomorrow, I hope we all have a good day. I did attempt to take a video and ask if they liked having me home. It is very un-inspired. Sorry. Future stories will hopefully be more entertaining. That’s all for now. Time to give the computer back to Joel.

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