Mommy Meltdowns: Tales from the Pandemic 9

It's now been a complete week of being at Lori's house. She had the baby on Thursday, April 16th and I was here to save the day! :) It was just me and the two girls for 3 1/2 days and 3 nights. We did it! The girls were so well behaved and we even had a little of fun. There was one situation that will forever be known as "The Applesauce Incident". Oy! Applesauce everywhere! Note to self: Playing tag with Rachel while Sarah is holding one of her Go-Go Applesauces does not end well.

It's been many years since I had little ones to take care of around the clock. And true to myself, I blocked out all the hard and challenging stuff of Ian and Samantha's toddler years. The girls and I got into a good groove and somehow time moved at a good pace. We started each day with a 3.5 mile walk around the lake. Well, let me correct that statement a bit; I walked and they rolled in a double stroller. Now that's a workout pushing a double stroller with a 6 year old and 2 year old. We did sidewalk chalk, games of Chutes & Ladder, Candyland, drew lots of pictures, made a fort, and took out the magnatiles.

Here's a funny story from our Thursday together:

Sarah and Rachel love to FaceTime every single one of their contacts in Rachel's iPad, to the point of being a bit annoying. Can you imagine my dad getting FaceTimed multiples times a day and then the girls have nothing to say when he answers? They sort of just stare at each other. Anyway, they love to call random numbers that may mean something to Lori, but the girls don't know who they are getting. Yesterday afternoon, Sarah hits dial on this one unknown number. It turns out its really good friends of the family and I do know the mom, Elana. Elana was really excited to see the girls and had wanted to know what the situation was with Lori. We had just found out the baby was born, what her name was and pics we could share with Elana. While all this is going on, the girls and I decide to make a "Welcome baby Alexis" sign for when they come home on Saturday. I am at the table helping Rachel (age 6) with the sign and I've now inherited this FaceTiming iPadto chat with Elana (because both girls quickly abandoned it when the person answers -- they more than anything just want to dial random people -- ugh!!). I look down for 10 seconds at the most, and the next thing I know, Sarah (age 2) has gotten out all the paints (the kind with the little tubs all stuck in a row) and is now painting the table we are sitting at. Lori's kitchen table! OMG!! I quickly jump into the action, get her a piece of paper to paint on and put a paper towel down and start cleaning up the paint -- all the while still talking to Elana. I turn my back for 10 seconds to throw away the paper towels I was using and somehow, Sarah managed to get water -- from where? I have no idea -- she woud've had to walk past me to get to the sink -- and is now making her art finger paint (these aren't finger paints!!!) with the water. I take another look at Sarah and she has just taken her hand and wiped it down the front of her white shirt to get the extra paint off her hand.

I'd love to say this took up at least an hour of the day, but sadly no. The whole thing was 5 minutes tops.

But wait there's more!

The next morning:

Sarah woke up at 4:30am. I changed her diaper (it was really full!!) and told her to go back to sleep. I had to show her how dark it was outside the window for her to believe me that she should go back to sleep. It worked!! She woke up for the day at 6:00am. Hey, I'll take what I can get.

Rachel woke up a 6:10am. She comes downstairs and I said, "How come you are not dressed?" She said I am so tired. I told her to go back to sleep, It's still very early.

Sarah, meanwhile, is asking for Rachel's iPad - which is not where it should be! This can only mean that Rachel took it in the middle of the night and brought it back to her room. Yes! That's exactly what happened.

At 7:04am, we are locked and loaded for a walk around the lake. 3.5 miles for a change of scenery is definitely needed.

It's a good thing I love these girls like they are my own. :) Oh and I never went back to sleep, so I've been up since 4:30am. Fun!

The icing on the cake comes when Lori tells that she is going to be staying for another night. They will now not come home until Sunday.

I have countless stories of my time at Lori and Ben's house. An extra pair of hands (maybe even 2 extra sets of hands) is needed like we need air to breathe. With everyone awake, a three ring circus is less chaotic. There is a lot going on!!!

On top of it all, Ben is interviewing for a job and on Tuesday needed a quiet house for him to take a timed test. And on Wednesday, needed a quiet house to do an interview virtually. On Tuesday, Lori and I packed up the 3 girls and hit the road. Only, we can't even go somewhere and get out. We do a drive-thru of Jeremiah's for Water Ice, get gas at Costco and then park near the lake to wait out the rest of the time. It's a pretty intense time with trying to get a DVD to play, looking for the wireless headphones, and Sarah thinking its fun and funny to try to hit Alexis. I move Sarah's monster car seat to the back row (seriously, this thing was easily 50lbs!) and get her away from Alexis. This whole scene is trying the patience of Lori and the absurdity of it all is enough to make us laugh. We get to do it all over again the next day. Oy!

The next day when we had to leave the house, I am very happy to say that all of our lessons learned on Tuesday worked out on Wednesday. We were rockstars! All was harmonious in the car. Yippee!

I feel for Ben and Lori. They really do need more help. And right now, that help is not possible. Social distancing is having everyone keep to themselves and not It's amazing how it all feels like so much to handle when school has been closed for the remainder of the year and no one can leave the house. It's 24/7, 7 days a week. There is no break. And these girls all need help; Rachel needs help with her online schooling - which starts at 8:00am and runs through the day; Sarah needs a set of eyes on her at all times and has endless amounts of energy and is prone to destruction; and Alexis needs all the help that a newborn requires. During any other time, the older 2 girls would be out of the house each weekday and there would be time for Lori to have to heal from the C-section, get time to bond with the baby and be able to relax. But you throw in experiencing a pandemic and this just never ends. It's quite insane when you think about it.