Phew....

Oh man, I am so glad to be sitting at my computer right now.  The house is quiet, the dishes are done, the floors are vacuumed, the kids are bathed and in bed, and my aching feet are dying to be put up. I've got Sigur Ros coming out of the iPod dock, and I am slowly releasing the day.  It is peaceful now, but about two hours ago this house was CHAOS!

Let me start out by saying that Rob has been gone since Wednesday morning, so the kids and I have been on our own for the past four days.  They have been really, really great - and I have enjoyed all of the things we did, and all the fun we had.  We've watched movies, we've had dinner for breakfast, we went to the park with our friends, we've played outside for hours and hours, and have just really made the most we could of fall break.

Right after our pancake dinner I told all the kids to get ready for the shower - I showered Jude, then Maddie and then went to go find Ella.  Although she had already stripped down, she suddenly decided she wanted nothing to do with the shower.  She screamed, she ran away, she cried, she kicked, all of the requirements for a perfectly executed fit.  I finally just picked her up, and put her in the shower.  She screamed and cried the whole time - so I rushed through, got her out, gave her a towel and told her to get her jammies on.  THEN she started screaming that she wanted to go back into the shower.  This fit was even louder and longer - but for the exact opposite reason than the first.  Some days I really just don't get kids!  So I left her in her room, in her towel, and went to blow dry Maddie's hair while she was kicking the door buck naked.

I went into the hall bathroom and started to blow dry Maddie's hair, when I heard a thud.  Ella came in, still screaming about wanting to get into the shower - only this time she had blood gushing from both nostrils.  Apparently, she decided to break free of her room, and try to get back into the tub (which was in my room).  She slipped on all of the water that she had sprayed on the floor during her fit and fell nose first into the side of the tub.

She is still hysterical and I am trying to hold her gushing nose (she is still only crying about getting back into the tub - and not the pain) when I hear Jude calling for me from my bathroom.  I take Ella in (still pinching her nose) and Jude says, "Uh, mom?  I kinda let the poop out before I could get all the way on the toilet. I waited too long, and it just started coming out."  I can see he has poop on the floor, and the front of the toilet as well as the toilet seat.  It is also on his freshly bathed thighs.  Did I mention it smells HORRENDOUS?!  It was so bad that he even mentioned, "I don't know why this one is so smelly!"  I tell Ella to hold her nose - and get to work cleaning up the poop.  Frustrated, I ask Jude what the heck he was so busy doing that he couldn't get to the toilet fast enough.  "Well, I just wanted to pretend I was Oscar the Grouch a little bit longer."  Seriously.

At some point in the middle of the poop-clean up, Ella escaped. When I realized she was gone, I ran to make sure she wasn't dripping blood all over the house.  When I got to the family room, I was no longer worried about the blood.  She had (obviously just to get back at me) dumped all five baskets of laundry that I spent my entire afternoon folding.  Now, I don't get REALLY angry a lot, and I didn't say a word when I saw it - but my face must have been on fire, because Ella's immediate words - as I watched her little naked butt run out of the room were, "Sorry, Mommy!  I gonna be nice now!"

I followed her back to her room - where she was putting on her pajamas.  She smiled at me and said, "look at this face mom - it is a happy face."

It was ONE LONG hour!  I'm so glad I survived!

BDEM:  Rob is going to get home really late tonight, but I am so excited to have him back. The kids have missed him terribly, and as I put them to bed tonight they kept talking about how they all had to go right to sleep because tomorrow Dad would be here.  And, "Dad tells the BEST bedtime stories!"