Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Wine for Whine

All of these Winos are moms of young children.

Or at least that's my excuse for killing two bottles of wine this evening.  In my defense, I shared them with Jason.  Did I mention I opened that first bottle at 2:00 p.m.?  9 hours is a long time to consume 4-5 glasses.  I'm just saying.

Perhaps I should explain why opening a bottle at 2:00 seemed like a good idea.  First of all, we were having our house cleaned today, so the only reason I didn't open it earlier is because I didn't want to be judged.  Before you get all that-must-be-nice about having our house cleaned, you should know it's related to my MS.  I can't clean the shower without sitting out the next several hours.  Not that I necessarily miss cleaning the shower.  So, yes...  I was seriously wanting to pop open a bottle at 12:45.  Waiting until 2:00 was impressive on my part.

I had a neuro appt. this morning.  My doctor switched me to an oral MS drug (No more shots!!!  Wooo hoooooo!) and then promptly sent me to the lab for blood work (Boo!)  We collected our kids from the hospital childcare center and I took them to the grocery store.  And that's about when all Hell broke loose.  I took the kids to the bathroom for 20 minutes of "Yes, Em, You need to try" followed by "Good GOD, Jacob!  What do we feed you?!" on the diaper changing table.  We cleared the room.

Then came lunch.  I mistakenly thought my screaming, bucking baby was hungry.  No.  He was just in a screaming, bucking, demon baby mood.  Silly me.  I had TWO strangers offer to help as he chucked food, sippy cup, napkins, toys, books, etc. from our dining area table.  One mom said, "You're doing so good..." as she patted me on the shoulder.  For 2 brief seconds I actually felt smug.  I've got this.  Screaming, feral baby was clawing at my face and I was pacing while holding him at the store entrance when I looked down and noticed...

I was flashing all who entered New Seasons. (Sigh)

Holding a squirmy kid had pulled my neckline down to the degree that I had some serious exposed cleavage going.  Kill me now.

Another stranger offered words of encouragement and two more strangers helped by collecting the items Jacob had decided were not worthy of being within 10 feet.  That kid has an amazing arm!  It took two adults to get us out of the store.  I owe the bag boy a thank you card!

So, yes...  2:00 became happy hour at my house.  Our amazing housecleaning duo couldn't come until later, so as it turned out we had been avoiding the house for nothing.  Sweeeeeeet.  The vaccuum is really easy to sleep through (and wine makes me sarcastic!)  Here's the best part, though.  My friend's awesome wife reminded me of a good point...  I was not bored today.  And THAT I can be thankful for.  There are obvious things to be thankful for, but when it comes to parenting sometimes I get blinded by the crazy factor.  It was certainly not boring.  And, in fact, I laughed out loud more than once in the  heat of the moment.  What more could I do??  I shared my story with friends and learned it was a day FULL of tantrums. I loved reading their stories and realized an important thing.  We are all in this together.  Even at 2:00 happy hour.

Cheers!