What in the world just happened???

This morning I feel as if I woke up from a coma (or a bad dream maybe, ha ha)... Wednesday and Thursday of this week I watched my girlfriends 2 year old and 10 month old from 7:45 am - 6:00 pm along with my two kids. Oh, and don't forget that both of her kids have severe food allergies, the worst of which is the two year old will go into immediate anaphylactic shock if she consumes ANYTHING with milk in it (and believe me, I've learned, almost EVERYTHING has milk in it!). Ahh, so here I have these two kiddos coming over to the dairy capital of the world with only the epipen jr. to save them. If anything I knew it would give me some perspective and also a bit of understanding as to how Marshall's mom, my mom and Aunt Sheila dealt with having so many kiddos around and I also knew I was really helping my friend out so I just planned to power through it!

Day one started out smoothly. The kids seemed happy when they were dropped off and I didn't mess around as I immediately put in Toy Story and fixed them all these super organic waffles with non-dairy butter and some interesting syrup and some special juice. My friend and I decided that the best thing would be for Hazel and Roscoe to eat all of this allergy free stuff so that all kids would be eating the same thing and there wouldn't be a risk of them feeding each other. They all seemed happy enough... and then the pooping fest began!! Geez! It seemed like one of them was pooping every five minutes and for my kids I partially think it was just the drastic change in diet. Luckily Hazel is now over two weeks strong on undies and 100% diaper free (except for a pull up at nights, more for our fear that she might pee in her sleep). Before I knew it, lunch time was here with another allergy free lunch and juice. This is when the problems began as my kids were finding themselves out of their routine of getting out of the house and the foods that they eat. I'm glad my friend can find things that work for her kids to eat but mine were starting to not only get bored of it but treat it as something to play with and squish between their fingers or throw at each other. Even Marlee, my vacuum, wouldn't eat the crumbs on the ground. We then just kept watching more Toy Story movies (thank goodness I have all three!!) and I basically just was managing either the hunger, potty needs or emotional needs of one of five people (make that four people really on the emotional level, I'll leave myself out of that group...). It was a LONG day and the 10 month old was having a really really tough time without his mom. He would be ok if I was holding him but screamed bloody murder the second I sat him down, put him in the highchair, etc. I felt so bad for him and there was no way I could hold him every second so he did have to scream, which is a noise that instantly raises my blood pressure so that was tough. The day finally was over and while I was happy to see their mom show up I still wasn't relieved as I knew I still had one more day!

Day two was pretty much the same except my cabin fever started getting the best of me. I'm used to going to parks, going for walks, going to the gym, going to Target, etc and it was starting to make me crazy to be housebound. I don't know what I was thinking but I decided to walk the kids to a park that was 1.6 miles away (so over three miles roundtrip). I put Roscoe and the 2 year old girl in the double stroller, put the baby in the sling (and he's a BIG baby... 28 pounds!!) and then hooked Hazel to me with Marlee's leash (ha ha! What a sight we must have been). Hazel is incredible and she walked with me the entire way to the park with a huge smile on her face. We had a great time at the park and about half way home on our walk that's when my planning backfired on me. As it took us so much longer to get to the park than usual with Miss Hazel walking we ended up walking back around the danger zone for her napping (she is now hit or miss on naps, but if she does take a nap it's around 2pm). She got SOOOOO tired and was crying and when I picked her up she fell asleep on me right away. Oh boy. I felt terrible and there was no way she would be walking one more step) I put her in the stroller next to the other napping 2 year old and then held both Roscoe and the baby (one in each arm) as I pushed the stroller down the street with my hips. So I have a stroller with 75 pounds of kids in it plus I am carrying 50+ pounds of baby boys in my arms. It was also freakishly warm yesterday so I was sweating profusely! I would just do a big push of adrenaline for about 60 seconds and then stop to breathe for about 60 seconds the rest of the way home. Oh, and right at the corner before my house I actually had two of those Mormons on their bikes try and strike up a casual conversation with me (my response?? "You guys have GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!") Whew, we made it home, watched more movies, played outside in the backyard and danced around til their mom came to ge them.

All said and done I can't believe I made it through and this morning here I sit not feeling any differently about how tough it is to raise my one and two year old but I certainly feel a bit more "appreciative" of my two and the routine that we have figured out. Marshall is so sweet and last night on his way home (even though he had already worked a long day and been in the car for so long) he not only brought me takeout from my favorite place but he also stopped at a cookie bakery and brought home six different cookies for a little "tasting" party. It was a nice way to wrap up the last exhausting 48 hours!

So now here it is Friday and I feel like I have so much to catch up on (i.e. a trip to Target is certainly in order!) but I figured I'd better chronicle this experience before my memory started to fade :)



Ready to go (the baby was in the sling). Oh boy!

The girls walking together on the Old Town Clovis Trail

Best buds

All four of the kiddos!

Love my little guy!



Swing time! Hazel's just learning the art of the big kid swing!

Playing around

The cookie tasting!! (from top left - snickerdoodle, peanut butter chocolate chip, butterscotch pecan, white chocolate macadamia nut, coconut macadamia nut and ginger!)