It's a New School Year!!

Woohoo! I am beyond thrilled that school has started back. Although my kids are not yet in "big school" the preschool that they attend starts the same day as our county school system, which was Monday, August 13th. Ms. Drama Queen is almost 5 so to prepare her for Kindy next year I have her going 5 days per week this year to preschool and Ms. Wiggle Worm is going to Mom's Morning Out at the same place on Tues and Thurs. Let me tell you it is just SO damn nice to go to the grocery store with just the baby to deal with. He's such a happy, easygoing baby and smiles and coos at me through the store. He sits up in the cart (we have one of those cart cover things) and plays with his toys while I get a nice latte from Starbucks and then do my shopping.

Today I especially needed that Starbucks as we had a rough morning. If you have kids then you might know what I mean, if you don't then I'd suggest you not read this. It started rather early. The baby woke me up at 5 am with a rather insistent cry for food. He was very kind and slept from 9:30 pm last night... if only I had been smart and gone to bed earlier than midnight! I nursed him and we went back to sleep... until my alarm clock went off at 7:15 am. Now normally the alarm clock is just there as a back up because the baby wakes me pretty much every morning at 6 am so I'm up by 7 am at the latest. So I go flying out of bed (after carefully sliding the baby off my arm) and rush downstairs to start my morning routine.

Of course the very first thing I realize is that I am completely out of coffee creamer. I live for my nice vanilla flavored creamer in my morning coffee. Oh, well I decided to skip it, make instant vanilla cappacchino instead (aka lumpy powdered stuff that might have a touch of caffeine in it) and figured I'd grab a cup at Starbucks when I got to the grocery store (my local grocery store has my bank, a really nice pharmacy, and the Starbucks - very convenient!) Eventually I get done with morning chores - loading the dishes, making lunches for preschool, putting out cereal bowls, filling sippy cups, you get the drift - and head upstairs to get everyone up and dressed. That includes my husband who is blissfully snoring still. I get the girls, grab everyone's clothes and head to my room.

I set up my kids on the bed in assembly line fashion (it's SO much easier this way) and get everyone started. My oldest can do pretty much everything, although she needs assistance with snaps and buttons... she tends to get distracted so needs me to remind her to stay on task (this translates to "I have to yell at her 10 times to quit tickling the baby and put her shirt on). My middle child, in typical 2 yr old fashion, wants to do it all herself... which means watching her struggle to get an arm out of her jammies for at least 4 minutes. So I change the baby and get myself dressed (and encourage the kids to hug Daddy and wake him up) while this is all going on. So this morning we had a change to our routine... my 2 yr old took her diaper off, told me "Di-dee dwy Mama!" and then said "Pee-Pee" and peed all over MY bed. I go lunging across the bed to put the diaper under her dressed in just my underwear and ended up having to run an extra load of laundry this morning. The good news is that she's finally figuring out when she needs to go and telling us... I just hope next time she's either still wearing the diaper or she's sitting on the potty.

Let's see, then we moved on to breakfast. Breakfast is always interesting in my house. I give them 2 choices for breakfast. This morning it was cereal or Pop-Tarts (b/c by now we're running late for preschool). My oldest answers "Waffles". I repeat to her "Cereal or Pop-Tarts", she still wants waffles. After a few rounds of this game I finally walk into the kitchen saying "Okay, it's cereal today!" and she comes crying after me because she really wants Pop-Tarts. Oh, and she ate all of 3 bites of that Pop-Tart.

We finally got out the door and as we're getting ready to load the little ones in the car my oldest locks herself in the car and can't remember how to unlock it. At this point I'm in the house buckling the baby into his infant carrier and DH is standing outside the car door with the 2 yr old... the keys were in my pocket so they had to wait a minute for me. I dropped them off at preschool (only 10 minutes late, not too bad) and drove straight to Starbucks. I'm looking forward to bedtime tonight b/c I'm thinking wine sounds good.

Well, as it's now thundering and both little ones are up from their naps... I have to run.

Beth