3. It Ain’t Always Pretty

I think we can all agree that most social posts we see on the internet primarily present a very delusional depiction of reality. Everyone is happy, and everything is perfect. Moms are organized, and timely, and have this saintly amount of patience. We're all just your regular girl next door holding it all together and balancing life beautifully.... I'm gonna tell you right now, that's not what this blog is gonna be about. This is life. We're all growing and learning and experimenting. Some things work; some things don't. Some things I do well; some things could use some work. Sometimes I'm cool as a cucumber; other times I'm..... working on it.

I'd really like to tell you that it's always a breeze having my kids with me where ever I go, but sometimes there are definitely challenges. It's truly a blessing to able to spend so much time with them while they're young, because I know there will come a time when I can't see them, and play with them, and hug them, and kiss them whenever I want. So it's important to plan well so that I can appreciate every moment I do get.

But sometimes, the day is just gonna be The Day.

It's recital week at Motor City Dance Factory and yesterday started our two days of tech rehearsals at the theater. Unfortunately, the way the family schedule worked out this week, my other half is out of town, leaving me with both Thing 1 and Thing 2 for the weekend. So, what do I do? I get busy being the most organized, prepared mom I can be to make this process as smooth and enjoyable for all parties involved. After all, they're just kids, right? I can do this, no sweat...

This is how the day went:

I wake up at 5:30am to get ready for work. I make breakfast and pack lunch for my daughter. I pack countless snacks, water, toys, blankets, tablet, and charger for the rehearsal after school. I also pack dinner and pajamas for the baby so that he can eat and get ready for bed at the theater. That way, when he falls asleep in the car, he can be out for the night and transferred peacefully into his bed when we get home later. I pack my phone charger and my laptop so that he can watch Boss Baby when he gets bored during the rehearsal. I pack my daughter's dance bag and put it in the car because I know we won't have time to go back home after school. I grab some cash so I can go to the cheap gas station to fill up and get apple juice (because that's the baby's favorite and we just ran out at home). I pack extra diapers, because it always pays to have more than enough. I pack a comfortable change of clothes for myself. And I Google the route to make sure we can get there on time.

Well...

I leave work right on time. Pick up my daughter from school at 4:20, stop for gas and juice, and get my son from daycare... And that's the end of my perfectly planned day. We hit the most HORRENDOUS traffic on the way to the rehearsal and have to get off of the freeway to take the side streets all the way there. Of course that means we're 30 MINUTES LATE and I have no time to change my clothes or get settled. Once we get inside, the baby does NOT want to sit with his sister at all. He prefers to stay with... mom. The game of choice is then Dump All the Toys Out of the Bag, Onto the Floor. (He loved that one. Me? Not so much.) That's when I realize that they have taken ALL of the diapers out of his bag at daycare and left me with.... one 😒. There goes the "get ready for bed at the theater" plan. I can't get on the WiFi, so the laptop is a bust. Thank god for cell phones right? Wrong. That kid only watches Boss Baby for, like, 7 minutes. Then it's back to trying to jump off the edge of the stage or crush the floor mics (worth thousands of dollars, mind you) like ants.

One of the moms in the audience is able to bribe him with mini Oreos, but that only lasts about 10 minutes. Then it's back on mom's hip while she spaces her dances. By then, we're in the second act which means we need to pick up the pace if we're gonna get out of there anywhere close to on time (which already isn't until 10:00pm.... remember, I've been up since 5:30). We hit a couple snags but keep on pushing through. The later it gets, the crazier the baby gets, and the moodier the 10 year old gets. By the end of the night, the baby is bouncing off the walls and the 10 year old is in tears because of (what I'm diagnosing as) a fatigue fed, drama induced coughing fit (you know, when your exhaustion makes your emotions do crazy things that you can't explain, so you assign a rational sounding physical symptom to it so people won't think you're being a whiny baby). She doesn’t know which ballet shoes are hers, so we now somehow have 5 in the bag (none of which have the initials that I wrote inside of hers). So this one is crying, that one is running away with one shoe on, and all I'm tryina do is get everyone's coat on and get to the car.

FINALLY we get home. The kids get directly in the bed. No shower, no story, no nothing... Just go to bed. I take the quickest shower of my life, put some lotion on, then pass out NEXT TO (not in) my pajamas, on top of the covers, with all the lights in the apartment on... I honestly can't even remember if I put on deodorant.. I guess we'll find out later today 💁🏽‍♀️.

That was our perfectly planned day. It got a little annoying. It was a little crazy. It wasn't quite as organized as I thought it would be. But I can honestly say, it really wasn't that bad. I had my friends (fellow teachers) right there to help me the whole time. We just passed the baby around and he was fine. Another mom (and all of her friends) helped calm my daughter down. One of the older students helped me get everything together at the end of the night. She even went to warm up my daughter's dinner so she could eat it in the car and go straight to bed when we got home.

Despite the craziness of the day, we all honestly had a good time and.... like I said before, I'm grateful to have had the chance to spend the time with them. All is well that ends well.

Smile 😊 .

Day Two...