This is a second post in one day yes... but I had to share, vent, whatever, the reason why I almost always have a headache by this time of day when my kids are home.
Most mornings go like this:
7am: Drag myself out of warm bed, tell Rockchick to start getting ready. Go to the toilet, remind Rockchick shes supposed to be getting ready. Go into the twins rooms, attempt to remember which one I dressed first yesterday (no favouritism) Yell at Rockchick that shes not supposed to be standing in the hallway, but is meant to be getting dressed in uniform. Fail to remember which one I dressed first yesterday and grab the nearest twin, and start dressing her. The other twin will now start either yelling or laughing depending on her mood. Realise I have forgotten their shoes and go into the living room to find them, remind Rockchick on the way past that reading is not putting on her uniform, get back with the shoes retrieve the toddler from under the cot where she is searching for a dummy, fend off various limbs and close my ears to the objections and start to change and dress her. Ask Rockchick why she has come to stand in the hallway and is not getting dressed. Retrieve the toddler from across the room and get her clean nappy on, ask her which top she wants to wear and then remind her that she needs the tee-shirt before she can wear the sweater. Get the rest of her clothes on, then call out to Rockchick is she getting dressed as well as singing? Get the other twin: repeat.
7:20: Put the kettle on, ask Rockchick what she needs to do next to be ready on time for school. Make Rockchicks lunch, make the twins breakfast, make my coffee. Remind Rockchick that if she doesn't get ready on time she will be late for school. Ask her why she is wearing the dirty tights/t-shirt/skort she was wearing yesterday and send her back to change into clean ones and put the dirty ones in the laundry. Get fed up and make her breakfast (ask myself, is this possibly why she dawdles?) Decide I dont care and then brush and do everyones hair while they are eating at the table.
8 ish am: Sit down and drink my coffee and eat my toast, check in on facebook. Tell Rockchick that she is supposed to be eating not teaching the twins songs a syllable at a time. Get up and try and make the twins bring their plates to the bench. Sit back down. Remind Rockchick to EAT. Stand up and check the twins bag (which I always mean to do when I dress them but always forget). Go sit back down and remind Rockchick shes eating.
8:10: Almost time to go, head towards bedroom to get dressed, remind Rockchick on the way that we have to leave in fifteen minutes and she needs to be ready or she will be late. Get dressed, make bed, and remove dirty laundry from master bedroom to the laundry.
8:25: Go into toilet and take book off Rockchick, why on earth are you sitting on the toilet reading? Why is your bag not packed, your shoes and socks not on. Why did you pull your hair out, and why have you tried to plait it and created a dreadlock?
8:28: Yell at Rockchick to get off the toilet and get ready! Put the twins in the car, put their bag in the car, search house for sunglasses and wallet. Fail. Yell at Rockchick to get her socks and shoes on or she is going to be late.
8:30: Tell Rockchick we are going to go wait in the car, and that she is holding us up. Go wait in the car.
8:32: Toot the horn.
8:35: Toot again, Rockchick appears, cuddly toy in hand. Wind window down and remind her that she needs her bag for school.
8:37: Rockchick reappears with bag, call at her to shut the door. She comes and stands at the back door of the car and waves at the twins. I yell at her to get in the bloody car already.
8:40: Lecture Rockchick about getting ready in the mornings on time so shes not late. Stop at the school, redo her hair and kiss her goodbye, remind her to head straight to her classroom and ask where are we meeting after school today? (if I remember).
Now that is pretty much my typical morning every day, on my "work" days I then take the twins to kindy and then go home to work, but today it went like this:
8:42 arrive home, let twins out. Get another coffee and break up fight number one. Separate children. Get fed up and turn on tv for a little quiet. (at least kid noise quiet)
8:50 Sit down and answer my emails, drink coffee. Go break up fight number two.
9:20 sit on floor and play with twins. Remind them that mummys knee is big enough for two, read a story. read another story. Say no more stories and remove tantruming Cheeky Lala to her bedroom. Make another coffee.
9:40: Feel tired. Sit on chair for a minute.
9:42: attempt to tidy kitchen with two toddlers playing "run under the bridge" between my legs until I open the pantry to put something away, then listen to my daily rendition of "cookies? COOKIES!!!"
9:50: Give twins a cookie. Go put Dora on, finish kitchen.
10am Sit down, and feel tired. Go break up fight number three. Return stolen Blanket to Bankyboo, Tell Cheekylala that we do NOT take Bankyboos blanket, cos its her special blanky.
10:15: Turn off Dora and turn on Radio. Dance. Attempt to take turns picking up each twin, fail, try to get them to hold hands and dance all together, fail, break up fight number four.
10:30 Twins run off to bedroom. Feel grateful. Go put a load of laundry on. Listen to fight number five. Go into their room and yell that they do not pull all their clothes out of their dresser. Pull the sheets off their bed, put them in the laundry. Look at the pile of their clothes and decide not to put them back till later. Go write a blog post.
10:40: get climbed on by Bankyboo, Cheekylala comes in too and wants to join. Abandon Blog post and try to play on the floor with them, they run off. Go back to blog post.
11:00: Finish blog post, go to twins room and sigh at the larger pile of clothes on the floor. Yell at them that they do not do that. Feel tired. Go back to kitchen, unpack dishwasher. Hear twins fighting, ignore it. Fight number 6.
11:15 go into hallway, find twins have moved most of the pile of clothes to the hallway and have tucked themselves into bed on top. Feel tired.
11:18 Finish throwing last of pile back into their bedroom. Turn around and knock Bankyboo over. She screams, I feel guilty and sit down to cuddle her. Cheekylala snuggles in too and pats Bankyboo on the head. They start laughing and run off. I lean against the wall and feel tired.
11:20 Go break up fight number.... I have lost count.
11:35 Remember coffee I made at 9:20, start drinking it even though its cold. Start feeling headache come on with the next fight. Tell the twins that biting is definitely not ok and place them in time out. They then comfort each other. And run off to their bedroom. Feel tired.
11:40 Remember that attempting to tidy the living room is just stupid when the twins are up. Abandon the effort. Remember coffee. Go break up another fight.
11:55 Feel grateful that its almost lunch then naptime. Get a glass of water. Skull it. Hope that thats all the headache will turn out to be, skull another glass of water. Feel a bit sick. Go get Blanky back off Cheekylala and return it to Bankyboo. Remind Cheekylala that its not nice to take Bankyboos blanky.
12:00 attempt to make twins help clean up their mess. Feel tired. Give up and make their lunch. While they are eating I go make their beds for naptime. Make my lunch. Hide in my corner and check in on facebook while I eat. Get climbed on by various toddlers. Wish they would leave me to eat in peace. Return them to table to finish their lunch, attempt to return to mine. Break up another fight. Wolf down last part of my lunch then make bottles and put them into bed. Feel tired.
So thats typical life within my house. And I have a headache. I think this is more because I am tired today than anything else.
And now I am going to go tidy the living room, and hopefully vacuum.
xx The Ramblings of Another Mother.
