The title about says it all. Baby A and Baby B have been sick for the past week or so and this week I'm staying home with them. I'm embarrassed that last week (when only Baby A had it), I sent them both to daycare. It was Saturday before Rocket Boy and I both realized that they were truly sick. And Sunday we went to Death Valley. Oh honestly, I can't get that out of my mind. World's Worst Mom (among mothers who do not actually dismember their children). I've been sick too and I also have pinkeye for the 3rd time since December. Anyway, since Monday we've been keeping them -- and me -- home and quiet. No stroller walks even. Today I strapped them into their car seats and we went to the bank to deposit a check, but we used the drive-through window and we went straight home afterwards.
So what is there to say about these days... they are long and nothing much happens and by the time the kids go to bed, I'm frazzled. I wake up late. RB gets up to go to work and he gives the babies their morning bottle (yes, they still drink a morning bottle, yes I know they're almost two, World's Worst Mom, I know, I know) and comes into the bedroom around 7:30 to tell me he's leaving. "OK, bye," I say, and turn over and go back to sleep. The last two days I have not gotten up until 9am! The fact that the babies are not screaming by then must be due to the fact that they aren't feeling very good either and probably go back to sleep too. MUST get up earlier tomorrow. Anyway, when I finally do get up I spend some time picking all the conjunctivitis gunk out of my eyelashes, put the drops in, and do a Sudoku. No, I do not normally sit and do a Sudoku while my children are waiting to have their overnight diapers changed. I am not myself this week. Eventually they do start to scream and then I quickly get dressed and go into their room.
They are always happy to see me in the morning, no matter how long I put it off. I open the blinds. We change diapers. We put on clothes. The babies grab favorite books and try to get me to read them to them. I say no, we'll read it after breakfast. We go to the kitchen to have breakfast. I attempt to make sense of our dreadful local newspaper while the babies throw cheerios at each other.
After breakfast is a terrible time. On a normal day we would go for our stroller ride, but this is not a normal week. We go into their play room (their gated-off section of the family room) and I sit in the papasan chair. They immediately grab books and climb into the chair with me. I started wondering today whether it is normal to spend as much time reading as we do. Yes, I know I'm the person who tries to read 100 books a year, but what about them? They never want to do anything else! They only want to sit snuggled up next to me while I read "Blue Hat Green Hat" or "Bear on a Bike" or "Baby Dress 'n Go" or "Diego and Click Take a Pic" or "The Runaway Bunny" or...... At some point I get sick of this and either get up and go somewhere else (they follow me, screaming "mah! mah!") or get down on the ground and try to get them to play with a toy. "Look," I say, "here are some trucks. What do the trucks do?" Baby B, frantically waving "Baby Dress 'n Go" at me, says "mah! mah!"
I hate "Baby Dress 'n Go." It has photographs of babies dressed in different outfits with appropriate rhyming text: "Boots and puddles, what a mess/For spring, a pretty hat and dress." I've started messing with them when we read that book. I point to a picture and say "oh look, it's Peapod" (a child in their daycare) or "I believe that's Syrus." Sometimes I say every picture is Peapod. At first this annoyed the babies and they would say "No!" but now they ignore me. They're getting their book fix; they don't care what I say.
The morning goes on and on. Sometimes we do the laundry. I look at my watch a lot. Since we've been getting up so late and their appetites aren't good right now, we've been skipping snack and just going straight on to lunch. Most of it goes on the floor anyway. Then we go to their room, change diapers, read 50,000 more books, and then I put them in their cribs for a nap.
On my break (their nap) I eat chocolate and -- wait for it -- read. MY choice of book, and not out loud. Also I play on the computer. And oh yeah, sometimes I work.
When they wake up from their naps I ignore them for a while. But eventually I have to get them up. They're grouchier when they wake up in the afternoon. We change diapers again and go have a snack. And then it's afternoon and what the heck are we going to do until dinner???
What should I be doing with them? I was reading a blog written by a lot of random twin moms today and various moms were talking about how much TV their twins watch. The ones whose twins watch TV were defending themselves: "we do crafts every day and they have excellent verbal skills" said one.
Crafts every day?
Excellent verbal skills we don't have. Well, I have them. I get all this practice, reading aloud 50 million books a day. All the boo bears say is "mah! mah!"
But crafts?
I may start to cry.
Eventually I have to start making dinner, and things get worse and worse. Baby B wanders around the kitchen clutching a bottle of water, a sippy cup of water, and a lid from a bottle of iced tea. Baby A takes one or more of the above from him and hits him with them. Impassioned screaming results. Somehow dinner gets made. RB comes home from work. We eat. The babies throw their food on the floor. We clean them up and put them behind a gate. RB cleans the food off the floor. I join them behind the gate and read them 11 more books. Then we either give them a bath first or we go straight to their room and change their diapers and put them into sleepers. We give them their nighttime bottles (World's Worst Mom). I read 93,000 more books to them. We put them in their cribs and say nighty-night.
It doesn't sound so bad written down. These are the wonderful years that I will miss desperately someday (when I am senile).
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