The hour and a half that almost sent me to the brink.

Today was going to be a great, but busy, day. We started off early, going to Aunt Clo Jean's house so that Duncan and his cousin Fletcher could ride their battery-operated race cars. This big race was supposed to happen Tuesday, but it rained so we rescheduled for today. My aunt lives out in the country, with a huge hard, huge flat driveway and plenty of space for boys to race. My cousin, Fletcher's mom, offered to let me drop Duncan off and take the babies back to my sister's and mom's and she would bring Duncan over there later. Finn seemed sick yesterday, so it was going to work out great.

At my mom's, I got both babies down for naps by 11:00. Finn is super clingy right now and kind of loses his mind when I walk out of the room, and isn't eating anything but Cheerios and crackers, but I digress. My sister was going to take Claire out to lunch, so when she woke up I put her in a totally cute dress, tights and Mary Janes and sent her on her way for a big girl outing. This is building, I promise.

Duncan was back at my mom's by 2:00, and Finn awake shortly after that. He even seemed to be feeling a little bit better. As an aside, I still am not sure if it's teething, an ear infection, or a virus but more about that later. Then, things start to go south. My sister is home before 2:30 with Claire. A red, puffy-faced, itchy, scratchy Claire. She has had one allergic reaction this severe before. To strawberries. We still aren't sure what caused this one. She had lettuce, grilled chicken, mandarin oranges and grapes. I have her some Benadryl and within 30 minutes she was fine. Sleepy, but fine. So, after letting all the kids romp around outside on the patio for a bit, we piled in the van and headed for home. I was looking forward to seeing my new backsplash.

We had a tile guy come and tear out the very home-grown mosaic tile backsplash that I started when I was pregnant with Duncan. At some point my belly got too big and I couldn't finish it, but I was very close to being done! But, you know how after a while your eyes don't even see the flaws? I will post pics later. Trust me, y'all will not want to hire me to do any tile work at your house. So, anyway, I was excited to see the plain white boring backsplash that would help us sell our house. Claire fell asleep the minute we got on the highway. Duncan was very quiet in the way back, because he had been going all day. Finn was quiet too, but I knew he still wasn't feeling great. So, I had a pretty quiet ride home.

We pulled up at home and Iain suggested I check things out before we turned all three kids loose with a tile guy working in there. I did and made sure they could not interfere with him and we got them all inside. Then quickly decided to take them outside. Can I just say how happy I am that the babies are now old enough to take them outside to play? Because I am very very happy. I love spending afternoons in the backyard when the weather is nice but have not been able to do that, until now! Hurray! But this is about how difficult my hour and a half was, so I will not let myself show too much joy.

I decided it was time to feed the babies so I brought them both inside and put them in their highchairs. I also need to point out that Finn had seemed so much better today. We had one random vomit episode yesterday, and I chalked it up to mucus and drainage because he had made it through the night just fine and we all know that kids wait until night time to really let loose on the vomit thing. I got them in their chairs and gave them each some raisins, cheerios and peaches. Claire got busy, and Finn seemed hungry. I then tried to turn on the kitchen light and saw that it was not working. Things kind of get blurry from here.

I ask the tile guy if I can "turn the electricity back on." He says sure, so I go into Duncan's closet and look at the breaker box. Nothing has been switched off. Well, that is strange. You know how you slowly realize things? You don't really process it all at first and keep trying to rationalize or make sense of it? I stood there looking at the breaker box not able to comprehend why, if the breaker box looked fine, the power was not on in the kitchen and the TV. OH YES! The TV! It was not coming on and Duncan was saying over and over and over, "Mom, can I watch one of MY shows? Mom, when can I watch one of MY SHOWS?" It was just at this moment that I heard gagging and crying and I rushed in to find Finn, gagging and crying. Then puking. All over his highchair tray. Oh it's a trifecta people! I have a demanding four year old wanting his way, an inexplicable power failure, and a vomiting toddler. I do not do well in this kind of scenario. It is hard for me to focus. But I was able to do some Mommy Triage and recognize that Finn needed the most attention so I wiped up his vomit, got him out of his clothes and he actually seemed to recover nicely. You know how kids are. They vomit...they go on. I try to explain to Duncan why he cannot watch TV. Then I talk to my very confused and now, grossed out, tile guy. Something to do with a GSI plug or something and he wont touch it because it was sparking, blah blah blah. I think to myself, "Iain needs to be in on all this fun" so I go to his office and mouth to him "you need to come inside as soon as you can."

So, by the time he gets inside the tile guy is gone, Finn is RUNNING around chasing Duncan and Duncan could care less that the TV wasn't working. But I calmly explain all the excitement and ask him to take a look and tell me if we need to call an electrician. Oh, and figure out what we are going to do about the MILK! Because we drink alot of expensive, organic, whole milk. Iain assesses and tells me we need to call Bob the electrician, we can use an extension cord for the refrigerator. I start to breathe again. I get the very tired, cranky babies ready for bed and they are grateful. Duncan, Iain and I sit at the table while the two of them eat and we laugh and have some fun family time. So, I did not go to the brink. Indeed, I cope better than I used to. When I am in that stressful moment I now am much better at taking a breath and calming myself down and realize that this will pass and I just need to relax.

Oh, and my backsplash will look great. And the electrician is coming in the morning. And the refrigerator is plugged somewhere else. All is fine.