Just another Tuesday morning...

Camryn has been going through quite a phase for a while now.  Our perfect little sleeper has turned into a not so good sleeper.  But now that she can hold her own bottle, and since I’m the model of a perfect parent – I put her beside me in bed and make her hold her own bottle.  That keeps me from having to get out of bed and I can lightly doze while she sucks down the bottle.  Then she will usually fall asleep and I normally leave her in bed with us from that point on in the night.  Yes, I know that is completely against what all good child rearing books would tell you, but oh well.  The phrase that best sums up our parenting style that we’ve tweaked during the last 10 (gasp!) years is “Sometimes it’s just about survival”. 

Monday night was the worst night that we’ve had in Camryn’s 7 months at home.  Now I can’t really complain because a lot of parents would consider last night the best night ever, but for us it was bad.  I don’t know what’s going on.  She wasn’t herself last night, she was so cranky, and then she would not go back to sleep after she ate.  She did a lot of random crying and rolling around.  I think I was up for almost 2 hours with her. 

Jay sub drove this morning on a route that leaves the bus barn at 6:20 am and he has a late meeting tonight.  That means I was outnumbered this morning.  After Camryn’s cranky behavior the night before and her middle of the night session, I knew switching to survival mode was the only way I’d probably get out the door even close to on time.  I also knew that I wouldn’t have time to fix Cade breakfast and I’d also more than likely get him to school too late to eat there (made that mistake earlier in the year, but his socializing in the halls on the way to his room had nothing to do with being too late for breakfast).  I promised him a Bud’s Donut if he would get around easily and quickly.

The donut did the trick and the morning seemed to be going smoothly, almost too smoothly.  Camryn slept later than normal so I was able to get completely ready before she woke up.  I fed her and had her changed and I was ready to load the car about 10 minutes ahead of schedule.  Cade was pretty much ready – just lacked teeth brushing and shoe tying.  I told him to watch her while I loaded the car.  When I came back he informed me she had been tooting a lot.  Great….

I started to change her and it was an awful up the back diaper. Not to go into too many details, but it was the kind where it just keeps getting everywhere and before you know it, nothing anywhere near the baby is clean.  I yelled at Cade to bring me a big towel from the bathroom so I could put her on the floor.  He comes in, holding the tag in the back of his shirt with one hand, and a washcloth in the other.  I had to send him back for the big towel.  He comes back with the correct size, but still holding the tag in his shirt. I told him to let go of the tag and get the towel spread out.  He melted a little and said “but the tag is irritating me, I need to cut it out”.  I told him that once I got Camryn cleaned up I would take care of the tag. 

I got Camryn fixed up and went in the family room to tell Cade I’d take care of the tag.  He said “I’ve already cut it out”.  I look at the back of his shirt…and yes, the tag is gone, but so is a large circle on the back of the shirt.  He cut a hole in a new shirt he got for Christmas.  Luckily he had a t-shirt on over the long sleeved shirt so you couldn’t see the hole.   I went through the whole Camryn is 7 months old and pooped up her back I had to take care of her first then I was going to take care of your shirt lecture.  When we left the house Cade was mad and sullen and I had steam coming from my ears.  On the way to drop of Camryn I also went through the other lecturing series…the one where you tell the kid you are getting on to them because they did something wrong and the only way they will learn is if you tell them and it’s my job as a good parent to do that, if I didn’t care about them I would never had said anything about the hole, blah blah. 

We got Camryn dropped off and I tell Cade that if the gas station is out of Bud’s Donuts he will have to pick something else because he won’t have time to eat at school.  That’s when Cade put the first nail in the coffin of my morning…. “Mom, I don’t mean to be mean…but why does it seem like we are always late when you take me to school”.  I tried explaining that it’s hard to get everyone around and out the door in the morning when I’m by myself.  Then Cade put the second nail in “Well, I guess you are a girl and after all and they are slower”.  That’s when my voice raised several octaves (first time all morning) and I said “Cade, Camryn pooped her pants and you cut a hole in your shirt….what do you expect from me”?  He said “oh, I see”. 

Yeah right, he doesn’t understand it at all.  I’m writing this story for Cade and someday, when he has had a morning like mine, I will mail it to him.  Someday he will appreciate the fact that I didn’t do or say what I really wanted to when I saw the gaping hole in the back of his new red shirt. 

Yes, 99% of the time it’s just about surviving.  Not even to the next day or the next hour…sometimes it’s second by second.