Hakuna Matata.
A phrase that I did not use this last week. Do you know why? My kids.
Sophia Sophia Sophia. I must say, she's a doll, for real, but what's scary about Sophia is how fearless and quiet she can be. I can honestly say that in all my years of motherhood, I have never truly felt defeated, and on Tuesday, I felt the unmistakable BOOM of defeat.
Let me just tell my Tuesday story, just for fun-
Tuesday.... oh Tuesday.... I was watching one of my favorite fun sized people, Mr. Wyatt. Wyatt was supposed to be with another friend of ours, but she had to take her son to urgent care because he had a possible broken leg. Anyways, Wyatt, Jake and Soph were playing out back for a while. I was watching them through the window. They had taken off the lid to the worm bin and were ripping worms apart, they dug up a little grass, they played in the clubhouse. They were doing what they normally do. Wyatt walks inside at one point, turns to look at me, and his little right eye is practically swollen shut. I start panicking - 'Did he eat nuts?' 'Did he get stung by a bee?' 'Did a child of mine punch him in the face?'. I call his mom, Jackie, and I say as calmly as I can muster "I don't want to freak you out, but YOUR SON'S EYE IS SWOLLEN SHUT!". In between laughter, Jackie says "Its ok, he's allergic to your cat, just give him benadryl.".
I don't have benadryl, I have zyrtec. That's fine, it has antihistamines, it'll do the trick. I pop the bottle open, easily fill the medicine syringe since the bottle is almost full. I give Wyatt the medicine, and as he's walking away, I'm following him and checking his breathing (it had sounded funny for a second), and when I turn around, about 2 minutes later, I see Andrew has the bottle of zyrtec tipped back, getting the very last drop that the bottle has.
$h!%.
I run over and grab the bottle, try to make him vomit, for once he won't, when it hit me - how did he even get the bottle? I start yelling for Soph (she's got the sticky fingers in the family), and when she gets to me, I show her the bottle and ask if she drank it. "Yes mommy its yummy." Perfect.
I call Carol and ask her, or yell rather, if she can come over (I clearly need help watching these kids). I call Poison Control, who, after a 10 minute discussion, send me to the emergency room, and is calling ahead so we can be seen immediately. I was so frantic on the drive there. Praying that neither Soph nor Andrew ends up in a toxic state, all the time cursing myself for leaving that bottle unattended for 2 whole minutes.
Long story not as long, they monitored the kids for a couple hours, their vitals were fine, and they released us. Soph slept for like 16 hours that night (I did wake her up to eat dinner, and she played hide'n'seek with her daddy and Jake for a little while). The next day, her and Andrew were fine, as if the day before was just a daymare.
On Wednesday, we are at the neighbor's house, and I'm telling Chrissy about my ridiculous day the day before. She's laughing (because who doesn't think my life is hilarious?), tells me she's glad she's not me, then takes me into her backyard to show me some new things her husband just put in. She has a pool, with a gate around it, and she opens this child proof gate, because what she is showing me is near the pool. Less than a minute after we walk back there, I hear Jake say "Soph don't do it.", and I hear the tiniest little PLOP. I turn around, and Sophia had jumped onto the pool cover. She didn't fall in, no, she was seeing how far her little 2 year old legs could jump. Chrissy, who is just recovering from a double mastectomy, nearly jumps in after her. You know what I did? I sighed. I sighed, and then I reached in, grabbed her by her tutu, and pulled her out. All the while, she's just staring at me, deciding if I'm going to get mad, and Jake's in the background "Sophia I TOLD you not to do that".
Later Chrissy said to me "I always thought you were being dramatic when you tell me about your kids' disaster stories, but I see you are not!"
No Chrissy, I'm not. I wish I were. Every time I turn around, someone is hurt, someone is sick, someone is causing a ruckus. When I went to bed on Tuesday night, my spirits were down. I was upset with myself, I was feeling a little sorry, very overwhelmed.
But when I woke up on Wednesday, I felt thankful. I felt blessed. Grateful. Little smiles that morning encouraged me.
There aren't any 'breaks' in my near future. Between the 4 small angels that God gave me, there won't be any down time. But that's ok. I just give a little sigh, and move on.
Sophia,
When you are reading this post as an adult, I would like for you to please pick up your phone (or whatever device you use to contact me), call me, and tell me that you love me. Because you, my dear, are my little firecracker, and you keep my anxiety right at the edge, but you are my little goober, and to hear your sweet little voice makes all this chaos worth it <3 font="">
