Mommy needs a drink.

When my second daughter was born, I was a stay at home mom with an 18 month old little girl, and I'm pretty sure I thought my life was hard back then. Changing two sets of diapers, keeping up with a little one just learning to walk, and the constant cycle of "Change the baby, Feed the baby, Burp the baby, Change the baby again". In reality my life back then was fairly easy. Monster S was easy to entertain, as she hadn't yet watched every episode known to man of Dora the Explorer and Go, Diego, Go! Monster L was always content to lay on the couch/floor/swing/etc. and just watch her sister running around while I cooked, cleaned, and played with them. My days weren't noisy yet, and it was just as easy to deal with BOTH of them as it had been to deal with just one. I was also always able to get a break at the golden hour fondly remembered as "Nap Time"

Those days are long gone. Now that Monster S is 4.5 years old and Monster L is 3 (as of yesterday!) my house is filled with crashes and bangs. The girls are loud, hyperactive, and in love with the art of wrestling. I very rarely get a moment of pure peace and quiet. When Monster D gets fussy and starts crying, they seem to pick up on it like they have a radar for trouble. It is always in those exact moments that they fight over a toy, scream like banshees, and cause general chaos by jumping on the furniture. Naps are a thing of the past, and I need four sets of hands just to keep my children in check. One set for each child, and then one to hold a very strong drink. Because these days, I'm beginning to feel like Mommy might need to be a little more mellow to handle my wild ones.
At the end of each day I find myself literally collapsing onto my bed (or couch if it's too exhausting to move to the bedroom) and falling asleep within mere moments. This lasts for all of two hours before my Monster D is awake and ready to eat. Even worse, is that he has come down with his first ever cold, and I spend half the night checking to make sure he can still breathe through his congested, snotty little nose. The other half is spent feeding him, changing him, and taking my new favorite tool, The Booger Sucker, to his nasal passages. This always results in a lot of tears, a side of comfort nursing, and about ten minutes of whimpering himself back to sleep. It's pathetic really, and has got me in a state of paranoia about my sweet baby boy. The on-again-off-again sleep schedule of waking every two hours has me so exhausted that by the time 6:30 a.m. comes around and Monster S is getting up for the day, I find myself letting her lay on the couch and watching cartoons all by herself while Monster L, Monster D and myself continue snoozing. So far it is a happy system, untouched by any early morning stirring of her little sister.
However, good things rarely remain untouched by bad, and I'm sure Monster L will be cashing in on all the peaceful nights of good sleep that she has allowed me thus far. Never mind that her brother is more than making up for her good nights with his own bad. I sense a slight chill in the air that always precedes the devil himself. I believe even my animals can sense it, which might explain why they are becoming increasingly fond of the outside world, far, far away from my Monsters.
For those of you who don't know, I used to be a smoker who enjoyed the escape of my porch whenever my children were too overwhelming for me. I have been smoke free since I found out I was pregnant with Monster D and I intend to remain that way. But those little moments to myself with no screaming and just enough calm to regain my sense of control have been calling to me, beckoning for me to partake just once in the soothing effect smoking brings. So keep me in your thoughts, because that's a daily struggle I'd like to leave in my past.
However, I might soon replace it with a nice tall drink each night to celebrate the victory of my children surviving one more day! (I say this mostly in jest, but should anyone feel like gifting this Mama a bottle of wine for the holidays, I probably wouldn't say no! Not that I'd be able to drink it because well, I'm a nursing mommy and my children run my life.)

To another day my friends, that my kids have survived, and I haven't gone bald from the act of physically pulling at my hair to try and make it stop! :)