Losin' It

What a very long and stressful day. Some of it was lovely, but some of it was just too much.

Let's start with the car-ride to school. Micah spilled a tiny drop of water on his pants...and proceeded to SCREAM the entire way to school, demanding that we turn around and go home so he could change. I didn't, we were already late. When we got to school, Sam ran in, I grabbed Sofia, and spent about 10 minutes just coaxing Micah out of the car. Then we dropped Sofia in Kindergarten (where she was SO happy!), and Sam's reading teacher and I spent another 20 minutes trying to get Micah to calm down.

Eventually we did, so then another few minutes getting Sofia to leave Kindergarten. I was supposed to attend a meeting at the school, so we went into the cafeteria, and while I was in discussion, Miss Sofia located a blue Sharpie pen and proceeded to draw...everywhere. Her clothing, her face, the floor.

Outside, it was a glorious day, bright sunshine and increasingly warmer (we went over 70 today!). I took her out to the playground to burn off some steam, but she kept trying to ditch me.

Made a quick stop at Christmas Tree Shop, saying "sit down, Sofia" the entire time (she never did). THen dropped her at PT for my 25 minutes of peace.

After PT, we came home for a little while, then went back out again. She got angry at me because she wanted to go for a walk in her stroller, and I wanted to put the stroller in the car and drive to somewhere else. So I had to struggle to get her in her car seat. And of course she fell asleep just before we got to Shoppers World. So when I transfered her to the stroller, she was wide awake.

We did have some fun shopping. Mostly she stayed in the stroller, until the shoe store, where I let her out and again, she kept trying to ditch me. She also danced with her reflection in the mirror - I'll post video later. Very cute.

Back to school to pick up the boys, and we stayed on the playground until 4:30. Sofia kept throwing rocks, so I had to scold her and/or move her, and she kept getting more angry with me. The boys were ok, although Micah got upset when he wanted to trade Pokemon cards with his friend, and both the friend's mom and I said "no trading".

Quick run to the hardware store to get a new mailbox (ours has a giant hole in the front), then met my friend R at Bugaboo Creek. Sofia kept poking me in the arm with a crayon, right where I'd just had a mole removed. Ouch!

After dinner, off to the Bookstore, where the school held a Poetry Reading. It was lovely - almost all the kids read poems they had written. Micah of course didn't bring a poem but volunteered to do extemporaneous poetry...yeah. Sofia at first would not sit still, but eventually she was ok. And I represented the parents with:

There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead.
And when she was good,
She was very, very good,
But when she was bad,
She was horrid.

Then we all went to the Children's Section to pick out books to buy, since the school would get a percentage back. I asked the Curriculum Director from the school to work with Sam to pick out an appropriate book. But it was a very very long evening, between Sofia pooping and Micah getting a bloody nose and Sam arguing about wanting to read books that he's not ready for and then both boys wanting Pokemon books.

I finally snapped, and pulled them all out of the store. Sam and I both managed not to cry on the way home, but when we got here, we both cried (he only now, an hour later, has stopped and fallen asleep).

See, when Sam starts to lose it, that makes me so very sad, and I feel helpless. And I can't afford to feel helpless when I have to take care of all three kids.

So we left. I already have "mommy-time" planned with Sam for Sunday, so we've discussed it and we will also go pick out a book at that time, based on what he worked on with you tonight.

Fortunately Sofia fell asleep in the car, but Micah was still bouncy and demanding his Pokemon cards (which were in my purse since the bloody nose). Now, however, they are all asleep.

I would like to either scream or cry or just go to sleep now.