All in A Day's Work

My little brother is in town this week. He's 21 and returned from his mission in Merida, Mexico (on the Yucatan) about 6 months ago. I had a physical therapy at 2:30 (I need to blog about my MRI) during the girls' naps so he was going to stay home with them. Before I left he told me "now don't worry about hurrying home, go have some you-time. Go to a spa. Or sit in the woods. Whatever." I was going to hurry back because it had been a long day and my back had had it.
But then I decided to seize the chance to get a new swimsuit. Note to self, if you where your old-nonmaternity swimsuit while pregnant, it won't fit when you are not pregnant. Holy stretchy! I did go looking, it was, of course, disastrous. Well, not quite. There were no tears, but there were no successes, either.

As I was leaving the store, about 4:10, my brother calls. Before I can say hello I hear two very familiar voices screaming at the top of their lungs. My brother manages to get out that Emiline has been crying and he doesn't know why, even when he picks her up or puts her down. I ask if he's changed her diaper because even over the phone I can tell it's a pain cry. He says he'll try that and we hang up. He calls back a minute later with reports that it's bright red and he doesn't know what to do...I explain how to wipe it, tell him where the stuff is and say I'll be home in just a minute, let her air out.

As I come up the stairs and into the hall, I strain my ears. No crying. A little relieved, I walk in the front door where immediately kick a couple capless markers. All dozen of them are on the floor, all but two uncapped, and on the floor itself (laminate wood) is Jane's coloring. Then I hear "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy's here! Mommy I need you!" And Jane comes running down the hall in just a shirt. She's colored on herself as well. And she's been pretty thorough about it--foot, ankle, bottom of her foot, back of her calf, outside of her leg, knees and kneepits, her thighs and especially her inner thighs got a lot of it as well as her arms, her elbow pits, her nose, cheek, and forehead. My guess is she was trying to draw a kitty cat face, a nose and whiskers, like we did for Halloween and then just got carried away with the novelty of it.

Before I can properly react, I need to reassess the rest of the situation. I find Emiline and Jordan on the floor of the girls room, Emiline airing out with a very red, blistered bum. They both seem fine so I through a couple of cloth diapers at Jordan so Emiline doesn't pee on the carpet. Then I call Jane in and begin to talk to her about coloring on ourselves. I tell her it makes me and Heavenly Father sad. That our bodies are a gift from Heavenly Father and are very special and not for coloring on (she's heard this before, mind you), and because she's learning about temples and thinks every pretty building is one, I even give her the body is a temple line. Then I tell her she needs a spanking and that we need to clean her up. That seems to communicate the gravity and wrongness of what she's done, before that, she kept waiting for me to smile at her. After a quick spanking and a very long hug, she says sorry and I tell her we need to say sorry to Heavenly Father too. We then get on our knees and I help her say a prayer for forgiveness. And then another hug and it's all smiles. I love how punishment/consequences can make things all better. Whether she has to sit on her bed or a spanking, these things reset her so she can be her normal, happy self. Sometimes I don't do it right away because it's not any fun to discipline, and she just keeps acting worse until I do. Anyway.

Then I go to take her shirt off and then I see the purple belly. Definitely the worst of it--I think she tried to color in her belly button, all of it. I tell her she'll definitely need a bath and she says "No! and takes off running!" She hates baths these days. She slipped in the tub a few weeks ago and was terrified for a week. She still takes some coaxing but the last few times she hasn't cried all the way through. Progress.



I decide to let her hide for a while so I can run the bath and get some medicine for Emiline. I walk in the bathroom and that's when I see the poop. on the potty, on the rug, on the floor and on the pair of panties and pants Jane was wearing when I left...and who knows where else. I holler out to Jordan, "Any other surprises?"

Then I hear Jordan yell and say "she's peeing on the carpet!" Emiline had kicked off the diapers and she started to cry again because pee hurts open sores. So I quickly remove the poo and go back to Emiline and take care of her bum. Then it's bath for Jane, dinner for all of us, and because Jane didn't have a nap (turns out she pooped her pants in bed about 15 minutes after I left) I was going to put her down early at 6:30 when my sister calls. I'd made extra dinner but she'd said they had other plans. But those plans changed so they came over, too.

They stayed for about an hour, but it seemed much longer as I was tiring (nay, exhausting) really fast. I put Emiline down just before they left and Jordan went with them, and then I started getting Jane's jammies on. We went to read stories on my bed and then I couldn't get up for about a half hour. By then it was 8:00 and Eric was supposed to be home in 15 minutes so I gave up and let the calvary come home. Jane wasn't in bed til about 8:30 and had several night wakings/screamings. She's sick again, just in time to have her ears checked from last ear infection, so we'll be heading to the doctor today.

I fell asleep at 8:45 waiting for Eric to finish in the bathroom.

Which brings me back to my favorite quote these days:
"Do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your tasks. Then the performance of your tasks will be no miracle; but you will be the miracle."
Thomas S. Monson, General Conference October 2007

I am thrilled to have so much more function and mobility in my back as well as a lot less pain than I've had in very long time. I'm thrilled that I'm able to do all that is required of me. I was so cool and collected and calm about everything yesterday afternoon. I didn't even sigh in frustration (that I remember, anyway ;-) I was able to take it all in stride and joke about it and see the humor in it. And I was able to DO IT!! I love doing.

Today, well, today is a bit more of a challenge. I'm having to really keep a lid on my sighs of frustration. Jane is particularly emotional and frustrating today. So I wanted to blog about this now to see if I couldn't inspire myself to find and keep my calm and my sense of humor. I'm sure a nap would help ;-)