Do over

The past week, Charlotte, Jack, and I have been sick.  In that order.  I am still sick and these germs are kicking my butt.  Then last night, I fell down a couple of stairs while I was carrying Jack downstairs.  So, I'm pretty sore from that (age is not friendly in the injury department).  I'm already not feeling that great.  Then this morning, the kids both woke up before 6am (which is becoming a regular thing for them), and I got up so that Jon could sleep in for his birthday.  Jack was grumpy because he didn't have enough sleep and it turned into a full on meltdown.  He started kicking and hitting and I tried my best to scold him with the loudest whisper I could to not wake up Jon.  Eventually I put him in his room, but he instead chose to (do his regular) stand at the top of the stairs and throw down whatever he could find. Today it was a little bag full of individually cut stickers that he had stashed away in his room.  So now, there were tiny little heart stickers scattered all over the stairs, along with a number of other various items from his room.  Needless to say, Jon was up by 7 (haaaappy birthday!) and I was already burnt out from Jack.

In the time between Jon getting up and us leaving the house, Jack was back in his room.  He just loses it and the only way it seems for him to calm down is by giving him space to himself.  We drove to Starbucks where Jack broke down...again.  Number 3 and it was only 10am.  Charlotte freaked out about something and cut up her knee, everyone was complaining, no one wanted to go anywhere, and in the end, we came back home.  Our entire morning consisted of meltdowns and Starbucks.  And while Jon and I sat there in the shade with two crying kids, we just decided today was one of those days we need a do over.  Everyone was grumpy, nothing great had been accomplished, there were way too many tears, and we just needed to start again.  We made it home, had lunch at 10:45, and now, at 11:15, everyone is off to nap*.  Hopefully when they wake up, it will feel like a re-do for the day.

Days like today are the ones that make parenting such a hard job.  I mean, its hard every day, but when everything you seem to say and do is a fight, those days suck.  It's no fun, for anyone, and that really sucks.  At least we're lucky in the fact that we don't have too many of these days and generally we can make it to nap time without any major meltdowns, but sometimes it can't be avoided.  At least all the tears, scrapes, and whining made me forget about my own sickness and injuries!  

 *When I brought Jack up to his room for nap, I found a gigantic poo he left in there from when he was in time-out in the morning.  Wonderful!