Mother Moments

Wow, today has been hectic. I have once again cleaned my house from top to bottom. This is so hard when you are trying to keep two little ones occupied! Either one of them needs something (milk, paci, different cartoons, more snacks) or one of them is getting hurt (Ariel losing her balance while trying to stand or Caleb blowing things way out of proportion when Ariel takes something from him). But I did manage to get it all done before 11:00. At 11:00 it's like an alarm sounds and then the kids flip a switch and get soooo cranky (this happens at 5:00 as well). There was a mom in my spring bible study that called it the Parana Hour...SO TRUE!!! I feel as though I am just being gnawed at the ankles by these kids when it comes to meal time.

I have had the hardest time getting Caleb to eat. Last night was the first time in over a week that he has eaten a "good" meal. And for lunch today he ate maybe two sunchips and one or two bites of his applesauce (I fixed a grilled cheese sandwich for both of them to share, I gave one half to Ariel and then the other half to Caleb, Ariel ended up eating almost the whole thing since Caleb didn't touch it!) As soon as I sat Ariel in the highchair for lunch, she started screaming which she rarely does. I looked in her mouth and she has her first tooth in!!! FINALLY!! Lower left bottom. But she cried on and off in between eating the grilled cheese and carrots that I had served her for lunch. I ended up taking her out of the chair and then just holding her, that still didn't work so I ended up giving her some ibuprofen. She was rubbing her eyes a lot so I decided I would go and change her diaper and then try to put her down for her nap. When I was changing her diaper I had no idea that she had been in a dirty diaper for probably more than an hour (which may have been the reason why she was screaming in her chair). She had already had a little touch of a diaper rash but now it is raging. I feel like such a terrible mom. I normally rely on my nose to tell me whether or not she is dirty and since I have had this stuffy nose for almost three weeks I wasn't able to do the sniff test.

She screamed when I wiped her obviously so I ran to the bathroom and got a warm wash cloth and then just left the diaper off. I wrapped her in a towel and then rocked her for a few minutes and she went straight to sleep (she NEVER falls asleep in my arms so this was an amazing feeling for me). As I was sitting there rocking her Caleb comes in and wants to do his "Lesson"...the one that I shared with you about a few days ago. I told him that I was rocking Ariel because she wasn't feeling well and that I would get it for him when I put her in her crib...he threw a fit!!! Started whining and complaining so loud that it woke Ariel up. Needless to say I was mad! So I went ahead and was going to put a diaper back on her terrible red bottom but it was just oozing and I didn't have the heart to just cover it up again and not let air get to it. I left her in the towel and then placed her in the crib, bare bottom and all. She cried for a few seconds and then was out. In the mean time, Caleb went to his room and slammed the door...he went to bed as soon as I walked in the door. Nap time couldn't have come any sooner!! There are moments when all moms (and dads too) can do is just shake their heads and say...is this really worth it? I think it is worth it, my kids are everything to me, little red bottoms, meltdowns over "lessons" and all!