Terrible Monday Vs Terrific Husband

Score one for the husband.

But first a little back story:

In the past, around Valentines day, I've taken time to blog about my all my boyfriends. (As in, Kevin and the kids.) Well, it's still February and I wanna take a moment to brag on my main love, The Husband.

Valentines Day was oh-so-romantic. Kevin had to fly and was gone before I got out of bed. I woke up to a text wishing my a happy Valentine's and reminding me to make Kaden wear his cup that evening at his baseball game. Ah, thirty-something love when you have young kids.

The next night I made the shrimp linguine dish that is our tradition.

And that was our Valentines. I wrote Kevin a love note and he bought me a little journal where he wrote something sweet. The purpose of this journal is for HIM to keep adding to it.  Sounds romantic, huh.  Uh yeah, until he said, "See! This way I never have to buy you cards anymore." Points canceled. That was it for presents. In January we bought a van and new phones. That's enough in the present department until... maybe forever.

Friday night we had dinner at my mom's and then left the kids behind. Woo-hoo! Except what do you do when you're trying not to spend any money and you have a date planned for the following evening? (Add to the van, iphone list the fact that in January we paid our property taxes and our conference fees for the 2012 Fragile X conference in Miami - we are so broke.)

We could have redboxed a movie but we were going to the movies the next night (gift cards! free date!) so what do broke nerds do for fun? We downloaded scrabble to our phones for $1 and sat shoulder to shoulder on the couch for some fierce word combat. (Ok, that wasn't our only fun for the evening, but this is supposed to be a G rated blog.)

Saturday night, mom still had the kids, and we went out on our gift cards - Chilis and a movie (The Vow - it was, after all, our belated Valentines date) and then we went to Barnes and Noble. In the old days we would go to Barnes and Noble, split a frappe, and read things to each other from magazines or books we'd picked up. This past weekend we split the frappe and played more scrabble. Because playing scrabble isn't nerdy enough - we had to up the ante and play scrabble in a bookstore.

That is my very long and overly detailed way of saying we are so made for each other.

And then came Monday.

Oh Monday. President's Day. All the kids home, so a leisurely morning because we didn't have anywhere to be until Toby's 9:30 speech apt. All was well. All were dressed, fed, there was laundry in the washer, laundry in the drier, laundry in a basket half-way put away - good start to the day. Until Toby throws a fit in the driveway instead of being his usual merry self who climbs into the van and sometimes even lets Kaden buckle him. It took much strength to pin and strap and confine, but finally he was rightly buckled and we were back on track, a favorite CD working some calming-down magic.

Speech was fine. Next up my monthly "back crack." Toby is always with me on these apts. He keeps the desk gals on their toes, but it's usually a quick 20 minutes and we all survive. With brothers to entertain it should be an even easier visit. Ha! 

Walk through the door and Toby throws himself on the ground and starts kicking. Oh no, that's not embarrassing. I thought I was going to have to go back to the car and fetch snacks, but then I noticed a basket of Valentine candy on the counter and grabbed a pack of conversation hearts. Slowly doled, the hearts lasted us until I needed to pay and re-schedule.  Mega-fit Toby returned. I picked him up and he beat and scratched me. Embarrassing AND painful. I managed to pay and said I'd call to reschedule. 

More muscles needed to pin and buckle as Toby fought me and his car seat. I was starting to lose it.

Next up - the beach.

And I so was NOT excited because A. Toby was being unpredictable and B. it was chilly. Sunday was 82 and then no-school Monday and the temps barely brush 70. What is that about?  But the beach bag and a picnic lunch were packed and I didn't have an alternate plan so.... off we went.

Get to the beach, unload, hand Blue and Kaden stuff to carry, try to do a quick change on Toby only to discover he'd pooped. Quick changes are done standing up, so I had a toddler with poop exposed hanging out in my month-old van. I reached those wipes in the front seat FAST. Clean up, move out. Then I'm spreading out a towel and Kaden says, "Toby has poop on his leg."  

Of course he does.

What had I missed? Nothing. This was clearly a new batch. Everywhere. At pools we use swim diapers but they give Toby diaper rash so at the beach we chance it and I just pack an extra suit. Never had a problem until... Strip off grossness while Kaden is filling a bucket with water for clean up efforts then I can't find Toby's extra swim suit. And it's back to the van for everyone...

Ok. Second try. Things are good. Kaden and Blue are enjoying the fact that our gulf stream waters make it warmer to be in the water rather than out. Toby and I eat our lunch and then play in the sand.  Ater about a half hour, Blue decides he's done and comes to help the digging project. After fifteen minutes of watching Blue's teeth chatter, I tell him to either get back in the water or let me bury him.  He chooses the sand blanket and seriously stayed there until we left. Toby proceeds to decide he's had enough. But Blue and Kaden are happy so I (stupid, stupid me) decide to stretch him. 

And the last thirty minutes of our beach time were horrific. Toby is in and out but Kaden wants to be buried too, so I manage that and then let him sit there under his sand blanket for all of five minutes before announcing it was time to rinse off and pack it up.  By this point Toby was at uncontrollable screaming, kicking and hitting mode.

Makes the rinsing and packing up part SO not fun.

We survived. Toby fell asleep on the way home, but in spite of a 30 minute car nap and bubble bath tub time in my big tub when we got home, he proceeded to throw fits on and off all afternoon.  

I managed some laundry and reading with Kaden, a whole separate kind of frustration since, upon finishing the chapter he could not answer a single question about it correctly, so then we had to go back through the chapter reading various sections again. Deep. Sigh.

That was the afternoon. Dinner never came together. I'd gotten as far as placing brown rice, green beans and cabbage on the counter, because these were things I knew I wanted to include in dinner (the green beans and cabbage needed to get eaten, the brown rice seemed a good base).  

Back to The Husband and how he saved my Monday.

He enters the scene at 5pm and I'm like - uh, I'm out of here, going jogging. By the way there's no dinner plans, just some ingredients on the counter. See ya later. 

And while I am gone for about 45 minutes he:

A. Ordered pizza

B. Did nothing, figuring I'd come up with something when I got back

C. Turned cabbage, green beans, and brown rice into a yummy Asian stir fry that two out of three kids were super excited about. (There was no pleasing Toby at that point - the kid ate raisins and strawberries for dinner).

Ok, you already saw his facebook status you know.

The answer is C, and obviously, if the answer is C, our marriage is not in trouble, so back off, he's MINE.

THEN (there's more), after dinner, I reminded him that it was Monday night, the night I like to hole myself in the office by 7pm and pretend I'm writing a novel.

So he did the dishes and put the kids to bed.


 
Love. Him.

Comments

[Jenny]

wwwoooooooooowwwww!
I have had days like that! One screaming fit after another, and NOTHING goes right! It's so awesome to have a hubby who comes home from work and gives you a break!