Mommy's Day out

Monday morning, after taking Henri to his 2 year checkup (26 pounds 4 ounces while holding a huge apple and being dressed; 32 or 33 inches tall?) my friend came over to watch the little ones so I could do some errands by myself.


I started off by getting my hair taken care off. I hadn't been in the salon in about 12 weeks, so cut and color took over 1/2 my few precious hours. Then I raced to Bellevue Square and shared lunch with Paul to celebrate our 7 year anniversary. While we weren't there long due to my overscheduling, it was nice to breathe and talk to him without interruption, esp since he'd been gone all weekend for curling.  Then I did a return at the mall.  I had purchased online and found the shirts run small so had to exchange for bigger sizes and they had everything I needed.  Score!

Then the babysitter called and told me not to rush, so I went to the Wide shoes store and found some cute winter boots and everyday black flat shoes.  Then I got stuck in traffic coming home.  I was so stressed.  Carter gets out at 3:35 and I didn't get to the school until 4 when I got there he, his teacher and his teacher's daughter were all having some nutella on saltines.  Whew!  The babysitter told me everything was fine, everyone got along and calmed me down. 

Fast forward to 2am.  When I was at the doctor's I mentioned Henri had been getting up every night around 1:30 am.  She asked what I did to get him back to bed and didn't really like my "give him warm milk" answer for two reasons; 1) it does not allow him to get back to sleep on his own (a vital skill) 2) she looked at how tired I was despite 50% of the time going to bed when the kids do and my having to get up and actually do something is not good for mommy and what is not good for mommy is not good for 3 kids.  She would rather I just leave a cup of water next to his bed. So, when Henri got up, I did not warm the milk, I just gave it to him.  I figured: 1) start small by switching the temperature before the actual thing 2) I could leave cold milk in an insulated cup by his bed. 

For TWO HOURS that kid fought me, trying to make me take the cup telling me, "Hot, Mommy!"  I absolutely cannot believe no one else woke up.  He was screaming right next to Carter, who just changed position once.  He did stop for about 15 minutes, long enough to pump, which was great, because Valerie went to bed at 6:45pm and didn't wake up until 8am the next morning.  I almost cried, I prayed, I did pilates and my hand therapy exercises, but DID NOT GIVE IN I just put him back to bed about 700 times.  Finally at 4am he went to sleep.

I will not negotiate with the 2 year old!  But boy am I tired!