Sometimes you have those days that everything goes wrong. Our day started off at 3:21AM when my oldest son, Ben, turned on the lights and complained he couldn’t sleep. My husband’s out of town, and I thought it was 6 am, so I got up, realized what time it was and promptly encouraged (maybe I used a strong voice) at him to go back to bed. He yelled back at me and woke the baby up (surprisingly, my 3 1/2 year old daughter, Allegra, who was sleeping in the same room, didn’t wake up). After I got the baby back to bed, I crawled back into my warm King Size and fell asleep. I must have forgotten to set the alarm and woke up at 9:23! My oldest son and daughter were actually quiet today and I didn’t even hear them (they were playing in the den, quite oblivious to the fact that it was 9:23!). Usually if my husband or I go back to sleep and they are up, they constantly demand ridiculous things — oh, like “Can you feed us?”, “Can you put the TV on?” and “I need help going to the bathroom”. Just kidding – all those things are perfectly reasonable! But, this was the wrong time to let Mama sleep in!
So, luckily I had the clothes laid out from the night before and snacks and lunch money were packed (I just had to get Allegra’s LadyBug Snack bag from California Innovations out of the fridge and put it in her backpack). I quickly made them waffles and poured some milk, got Allegra dressed (luckily Ben dresses himself now). Woke my 13 month old baby boy, Skylar, up, handed him a bottle of milk (He’s almost all weaned — sad) and we left.
I drove Ben to his nearby school — which has no parking at all – and I parked illegally, took all 3 kids out of the car and went inside. The security officer, Officer M, took Ben in. She was so calm and lovely that I instantly relaxed. Then I drove across town to drop Allegra off at 10:03. Next, I drove over to the local Stop and Shop, changed the baby’s diaper in the front seat of the car (we were on a timetable here!), and picked up birthday cupcakes and juice boxes for Ben’s class of 24. And of course the cupcakes came in a pack of 6 — so I had to get 5 packs. Juice came in a pack of 4, so I had to get 7 packs. Really people — 24 kids in the class would have made it SO much easier!
I love Stop and Shop’s bakery, but I wasn’t so pleased with the “Fall” Cupcakes they had. They weren’t very Birthdayish. I wish I had time to order the cupcakes beforehand, but due to his teacher FINALLY approving me bringing cupcakes and juice the day before, I didn’t have much time to get it right.. Then I drove back home (now it was really raining) parked the car (I didn’t want to park illegally again), put the baby and the cupcakes in the stroller and walked over to Ben’s school. While holding an umbrella, pushing the stroller with my other hand and hoping we didn’t run over any bumps.
Officer M helped me again (so I made sure she got a cupcake). Everything was fine by 11:13 (the cupcakes were being served at 11:40). Sigh!
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