TheMommyBlog

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 Family

That’s what I keep saying to myself, what the kids hum while doing homework, what’s playing in my head at odd moments. We’ve all converged on The Black Eyed Peas as a family this month, and that song in particular has become our anthem. Half wish, half assurance, half command. We joke about it when something goes sideways, I threaten it when behavior gets out of hand. It’s appropriate, somehow.

Today is the end of my five day stretch with the kids, when they go to Dad’s for five days. With the custody schedule of two nights a week apiece plus every other weekend, there is always a long stretch in there somewhere. This week, I need it. I needed it last week because I missed my babies so much while they were gone, and by this morning I needed to be alone more than anything else in the world. Last night was mayhem, with haircuts and fights and homework and dinner out with grandparents, and baths or no baths, and who gets to sleep with me and Daphne winning that one, only she spent the night clawing her way on top of me because she’s not feeling well, until I finally woke up teetering on the edge of my king-sized bed and got up at six. I was dragged back to bed at seven by indignant, sleepy-eyed children.

I’d lost half my mind by the end of snuggle time, which these days lasts four point three minutes before it devolves into nose-honking and elbowing and wrestling, all on top of Mommy, with my daughter sulking at the end of the bed, until I literally—literally—claw my way into a sitting position and lurch out one side of the bed, shimmying and removing hands and feet trying to keep me in place and free myself, trying not to crash into the closet door at the moment everyone lets go.

No one can get dressed because they have nothing to wear. Every one of their drawers is overflowing, and I did every stitch of the boys’ laundry yesterday, yet there is NOTHING TO WEAR. So I get up and demonstrate that there is indeed something to wear, and then I realize that I have just dressed all three children as if they were not seven and a half, nine, and eleven and a half. And guess what? It was worth it just to get them to eat.

The youngest is staying home sick-ish again today (good luck with that, Daddy; btw I had a ball yesterday), so I dropped her off with a pop tart and her favorite jammies. That was forty minutes ago, and in twenty I’ll be making the next school run after I get through one more round of homework, one more breakfast, and many more hugs and kisses.

Hugs and kisses. They fix everything. Tonight’s gonna be a good, good night.