Ahhhh leaving the house with 4 kids, especially our 4 kids, is not a job for the weary (or the perfectionist). Our goal this morning was to leave the house at 8am (we had said we'd be there at 10:30, and in the Lessard family that means between 9:30 and 10). My alarm went off at 6 and I swatted it and woke Jesse up to eat. He got four 7- minute snoozes and then Josh took him downstairs while I showered.
So far so good. After I got dressed I grabbed clothes for Jesse and Jocelyn and headed downstairs.
Now started the debates. We woke up to several inches of snow - should Josh plow now or when we get home? Let's do it later. Morgan spent the night coughing and is now on the couch - should I go ahead with the other 3 kids and leave Josh and Morgan home? But what if Jesse screams the whole way home? If I pump on the way up I can give him a bottle on the way home, but can't do that while I drive. ok, so everyone is going - drug Morgan and wet down his hair, send Timothy back to change his shirt for the 4th time because he can't pick something reasonable (he finally does but then his arms grow an inch on the car ride up and by the time we get to MA it's too small). Feed the baby, brush Jocelyn's hair and try to get her to keep her headband in (surprisingly, she did). Pack up the car.
Now comes the delicate parade into the car. First Josh takes the older kids and I put Jesse in his seat. Then Josh pulls up and I get Jesse in the car and jump in myself. Drive! I say. It's 8:22 - not perfect but not shameful. As we're driving down the street, Josh glances back and sees the garage door open so we have to turn around. Jesse starts to cry - DARN! SO CLOSE! A shovel seems to have fallen over and is blocking the garage door - Josh jumps out to fix it and then we're off again. By now Jesse is screaming. We need gas.
We get to Mobil, I get out and get Jesse and nurse him in the front seat while Josh pumps gas. Josh finishes first so he pulls us back into a space and Jesse finishes. Now somehow Jesse has grown since we left the house and I can't get him into his car seat so I have to figure out how to get myself more slack. Stupid Graco, I finally find it. By now it's been so long since we left the house that I have to pee. We stop at McDonald's and Jocelyn wants fries. Josh says he'll go through the drive thru and get everyone pancakes except whoops, he forgot his wallet. I grab for mine and it isn't there. Where did I leave it?? Oh yeah, it's tucked in the baby seat. So I go in to pee and Josh goes through the drive thru and I meet him out the other side. Then he drives while I divide up the pancakes, which are BURNING HOT. So I turn the air on to cool them while 3 kids whine from the back seat. Finally I throw each kid their pancakes only Jocelyn wanted fries so she throws hers back at me. Morgan puts his down beside himself (he hasn't eaten in about 10 days so this wasn't surprising) and basically Timothy eats his and Morgan's and I save Jocelyn's for later. No matter - Jesse is asleep, Morgan's drugs have kicked in, we're all in the car, on the highway, and it's not even 9am. Of course, by now I need a nap!!
Anyway, we had a very nice princess birthday party in MA. Everyone got great pictures so I'll put up a new web page later. Jocelyn got some super cute presents, though she wasn't quite into it (wanted to play pool instead on the mini pool table at BCC). My parents managed to get a half decent picture of them with all the grandkids, so that was nice. Jocelyn made a pretty good attempt at blowing out the candles on her cake, which was super cute. I completely forgot to wish Jeff a happy birthday! D'OH! ah well.
The way home was mostly uneventful except that Jocelyn kept letting go of her balloon on purpose and then trying to get it back and shrieking if she didn't. At one point Morgan said "help", which doesn't sound like a big deal but let me give you a typical example of a "help" conversation with Morgan:
Morgan: "help?"
Me: "help with what?"
Morgan "help please"
Me: "Morgan, what do you want help with'?"
Morgan: "help?"
Me: "help WHAT?"
Morgan: "help PLEASE"
Me: "help computer? help sandwich? help games?"
Morgan: "yes"
Me: "yes WHAT?"
Morgan: "yes PLEASE"
Me: "show me"
Morgan: "show me"
argh
etc etc etc - basically you have to start guessing one thing at a time (and I know some of you will say just ignore him and he'll try again - but we've tried that and what he does is say help incessantly for hours - the child does NOT wear out!)
So Morgan says help from the back seat and I go through the usual conversation and finally Josh remembers that he gave him a juice box so we get Timothy to open the juice box and that finally puts and end to that. Jocelyn played with her balloon all the way home until we got off the exit when she started crying for no apparent reason. We came home, gave her a drink, and put her to bed. Josh went outside to snow blow the driveway and says he might do the whole neighborhood.
Morgan never made it to school this week. Poor kid. He keeps seeming to get better and then not, then better, then not. He did at least finally get out of bed on Tuesday so have been at least a little better. Now it's down to just a nagging cough or so it seems. But really he's barely eating, though he's drinking plenty. On the way home today he ate Jocelyn's leftover pancakes and a peanutbutter sandwich, so that was good.
Timothy's class got recorders this week! AHHHHHH - the HORROR! I'm already sick of it and it's only been 24 hours since it's been in the house. Every time we tell him to take it to his room he says "that's ok" and just stops playing it. It's going to be a long spring.
Tomorrow we'll give Jocelyn more presents and finish off the cake (btw - congrats to Peter and Jeana - Aidan's will at least be an easy birthday for me to remember!).
She's 2 already! Where does the time go? 2 years ago right now Josh was getting back from dropping the boys off at a McDonald's on Route 20 where my parents met up with him (and my dad learned that you have to hold juice boxes very gently when you open them).
Monday I'm back to work - I'm working 3 3-day weeks and then I'll be back full time the last week in Feb. The fun had to come to an end eventually!
Well Jesse is almost done with his snack here so I'll go download my camera and get a picture page started. Mom and Mandy also sent pictures so it's bound to be a good page!
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