Ok so maybe angel isn’t exactly the right word.
Here is the thing. I am a pretty scheduled person. I run a tight ship, especially in the morning. I have a routine. I mean I’m a routined person but even more so in the morning.
Since Mr. T has started school my routines have been totally thrown out the window. WAIT! Let’s take a step back. Since my life has become this tornado of chaos I haven’t taken the time to blog, so you may not even be aware..but Mr. T. started school! How did this happen you may ask? I don’t know! I ask myself the same question each and every day. I honestly feel as though it were just a month ago that I was changing his diapers and inhaling his baby smell and now he’s off to school!
I digress, now that he is in school mornings have become much more hectic. You wouldn’t think that Jr. Kindergarten would cause this much confusion in the morning but it has. It just means there are more things I need to get done in the morning. Prior to the start of school I pretty much just had to get them dressed and that was it. Their daycare provider would feed them a nice hot breakfast every morning and I didn’t have to worry about backpacks, snacks, permission slips and all of the other things that go along with school.
Now I have to ensure that Mr.T has had his breakfast, his school backpack is packed, his permission slips signed, library books are packed etc etc etc.
Since I am a fairly organized person who always has everything pre planned I do get as much ready the night before as possible. After many a morning argument over what to wear, I pick out the next days outfit with each child the night before and lay it out. I make sure that lunches are ready, snacks are planned and anything that needs to be signed is set to go.
So if everything is planned out why might you ask, is my morning so chaotic? I think the reason is that it is almost impossible to plan everything with kids. WE pick out the clothes the night before but I can bet you 100$ that one of them will decide at the last-minute that they don’t want to wear the shirt that was chosen or they don’t like the socks they have on. This change of heart will turn into a meltdown, actually a double meltdown. Mr. T. or Ms. J will cry and stomp their feet and sit on the ground refusing to move until the offending item of clothing is changed. I will then cry and stomp my feet demanding that they just put on the g*&amn socks! eventually threatening to take them outside in the cold with no socks on if they don’t put them on! Thank goodness they’ve never taken me up on that because we all know I wouldn’t let them leave the house without socks on in the winter.
Teeth brushing tends to turn in to some sort of struggle. Perhaps it’s a disagreement about who will brush the teeth first me or them. Or I could spend the majority of the time in the bathroom taking things out of their hands as one at a time they pick up every single thing on the counter. A few times I’ve even had to find Mr. T who has snuck off with the toothpaste and is in a hiding spot eating it!!! Yes, eating the toothpaste right out of the tube!
By this point my blood pressure is usually starting to rise.
Then we have to go downstairs and attempt to put on shoes and get out the door. Realistically speaking putting on a pair of shoes should take a total of about 60 seconds but somehow this daunting task can take 10-15 minutes. One child runs away while I’m attempting to put the other’s shoes on. I may have a toddler climbing on my back as I bend over to tie laces. The worst part is that we are now coming into jacket, hat and mitt weather which adds more to the mix. I might get a coat on one child only to have the other removing their coat, hiding their hat, loosing a mitt. Let’s not even get started on picking out shoes. Mr. T. is more of a shoe lover than I am and is very insistent on what shoes he wears each morning. Right now we are in a church shoes phase…he wants to wear his dress shoes EVERY SINGLE DAY! Even when wearing a track suit, even in the pouring rain, it doesn’t matter…I’ve given up trying to convince him to wear sneakers, this is one battle I have chosen not to fight.
Then we have to get in the car. I learned, the hard way, that I have to put the kids in the car prior to loading the bags when Ms. J fell down our front stairs face first into a pile of snow last winter. Getting both kids buckled into their car seats, bags packed, and then off to daycare is almost like a workout!
I am pretty much arriving to work in an out of breath rush every single morning. This is not easy for me. I am the girl who used to arrive at work about half an hour early every day. Who strolled in early enough to get some breakfast, log in, chat and relax a little before starting my day. This last-minute stuff is not easy for me. Unfortunately I don’t really know what else to do . It seems as though getting up earlier doesn’t fix the problem because the earlier I rise the more issues I have to contend with. We’re still pushing the clock.
Every day I try to come up with ways in which I can make my mornings run a little smoother and every day I put into place these small little things that seem to help slightly yet I still spend every morning in a frazzled sweaty mess trying to get out the door. Sometimes I can’t help but think I must be doing something wrong? Every mother out there can’t be this frazzled every morning. I spend every morning feeling like a bit of a failure. Is it me? Or is this really the life of a mother?WIll this get easier as they get older?
Usually just as my blood pressure is about to go off the charts my little angels of the morning will turn to me and give me a hug, or a kiss and tell me they love me. It’s those little precious moments that make it all worth it. My blood pressure will slowly start to creep back down as I give them both big hugs and kisses and make sure they know just how much I love them and just how much my heart aches every moment that we are apart.
Angels of the morning
talesfrommummyland 