PARADE OF CHILDREN

WOW! The last few days have been complete and utter chaos. Yes, I did get a good snooze in after my last posting. Thank you Melatonin!!! However, I needed the Z's .... you'll see why in a minute.

Thursday I started off my day very leisurely. Kierra had just left with her therapist for Kids Day Out, and I was hand-painting some crafts for the twins new bedroom. When I get a call from the twins school. I answer and the receptionist tells me my friend "A" needs me to go pick up her daughter at her pre-school because she is having a medical issue. I guess after dropping off her daughter, she was taking her son to school, and she started to get vertigo and feel faint. She got to the school and had them call me, her emergency contact. A few months ago, I got a call from the same friend who had passed out and hit her head at home. I had to call the ambulance then. So I get Jenna and Karis into the minivan, get over to the pre-school, and pick up the daughter. Then I go to the other school, to go pick up the son from Kindergarten. I figured I better do it while Kierra was still out with her therapist since I only have three carseats in my car. Have you done the math yet? I had two kids, picked up one, and was getting one more.

I get to the school and "A" has called a cab to take her to the doctor's office. She tells me to take the booster carseat out of her van and shove it in mine. I say great! Until I realize the space between the two carseats on the third row is way too narrow. And of course, the middle seats are buckets, and one is out of it since we never use the thing. WHOOPS!! So I say, "Now what do I do?" She tells me to just strap him into the seat between the carseats without the booster, it's only 10 minutes away from home. I'm freaking... he's not restrained in a carseat? But what other option do I have now? I can't even carry the second bucket seat out of the basement if I wanted. Her husband is in the air to Toronto.... So I tell her O.K., but if I get a ticket she's paying for it! (I find out after that as long as your child is over 45 lbs, they can sit in the car like that, even though not recommended - which is good from that standpoint). So I buckle this poor kid in so tight, he can barely breathe, and drive half the speed limit home.

About an hour later, she calls to say her doctor told her she had a panic attack, and he's putting her on some med's. I told her come to my house and she can hang with us. She gets there, has a bit of a meltdown, and we try to get a hold of her husband. He just flew for four hours... and he gets off his plane and his wife tells him "turn around"... and he humps it over to the ticket counter to get onto the next flight home... another four hours in the air. She also has no vehicle because it's still at the school (although she can't drive anyways). I decide to take the twins to school, go get her prescription, and give her a phone and tell her "sit on my couch, don't move and call me if you have any problems. I can't take all five kids with me in the van. After all this, she feels okay enough to go home. Since she lives next door I say ok, and she's to call if anything goes wrong. Her husband's plane was delayed two hours, he didn't get home until 9:00pm!

The next day, I'm getting the house organized because I have another friend's son coming over for lunch and I'm taking the three of them to school (the girls are in the same class as him). The night before Jarrett has to haul up the second bucket seat for the van, so I can put his booster seat into the van (I didn't like driving around a child like that). Around 9:30am, I get a knock on my door. It's "A"'s husband who says they are going to pick up the van, could I take their daughter for a bit since her carseat is in the van. I say sure, send her downstairs with the girls. The husband comes back, without the van, telling me that "A" had another panic attack while driving to go pick up the van... so the van is STILL at the school! So me being nice tell him why don't they leave their daughter with me for a bit, so "A" can take her med's and settle down for a bit. This turns out until 15 minutes before the other boy comes over, I get a fifteen minute reprieve, and then get my new tenant for lunch. For the next hour I get a taste of what having triplets would have been like, stuff all these kids into the van, and take them to this church, because they are having rehearsals for a play they are doing later that night. I get to the church, basically toss three children out of a still-moving van (I'm just kidding) and now I only have one. One little girl who harrasses me continously where we are going. I can't give her back to her mommy ... because I AM her mommy!!

Two hours of "ME" time at home, and I run back to the school to collect my children. Then that evening they had their concert, so we had to doll up the twins, shove everyone back into the minivan, trying to manuveur around the stupid second bucket seat in everyone's way. I tell Jarrett "would you take this freakin' thing out?" and he does, and knocks my side mirror out all to hell. SIGH - we get to the concert and the line is insane! Our neighbor-husband is there with his son and "A" stayed home since she was tranquillized. We decided to adopt him for the evening (well Karis did), and he sat with us for the next hour and half for this performance. I will add now it started at 7:00 pm, and my kids go to bed around 7:30pm. So we watched, it was cute. Karis did a insane jig everytime music came on - most parents were watching her instead of their own kids. At 8:30 - I collect my girls and Jenna is standing next to a classmate that is wearing the exact same frilly peach dress as her! Oh lord! Who would guess? I mean I bought it two years ago? So Jenna is lamenting about having this major fashion faux pas happen to her. We tell our friend we'll swing by the school, and Jarrett can drive his minivan back to the house for him. Get home, brush our children's teeth by putting all their faces smooshed together and making one broad brushing motion - and tuck them in. I swear - less than five minutes and they were ALL sleeping!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So this concludes my last two days of panamonium. I hoped you enjoyed reading this - moreso than I enjoyed living it! Lesson in all this? There is none LOL.