TGIF

Today was rough. What started as a new day, full of potential and promise, quickly turned tiresome and exasperating by all accounts and eyewitnesses. The baby didn't nap. The big kids brawled. By lunch time there was punching and real tears. Lucy was lonesome for her family. Gavin is lonesome for a playmate that is exclusively his. He is jealous of the sibling bond that Lucy and Christopher share. Christopher is caught in the middle, yet makes it very clear that he is loyal to his sister. On the good days, there is harmony. There are naps. There are well-crafted and perfectly balanced snacks and meals and little helpers eager to please. There are equal parts of creative free play, field trips, and TV time. Today was not one of those days. Today was a bad day.

Also today, Holly, our seven-year old yellow lab was diagnosed with arthritis. This is good news in that she was not diagnosed with cancer, which is what I had quietly convinced myself. The bad news is that she has been diagnosed with arthritis! Poor girl will need arthritis medicine administered twice a day as needed. Our house is now full of children, the quickly approaching middle-aged, and the canine elderly.

In the end, Lucy and Christopher's father came home early. Not only did he relieve me of his children, but he relieved me of the notorious no-napping Sawyer. At first it seemed like not the right thing to do, give my baby to the neighbor for 30 minutes of peace and quiet. I felt guilty. I still feel guilty. But in the end, while Gavin stewed himself to sleep in timeout and I worked on my writing sample with a glass of wine to take off the edge, Fernando did what I was unable to do all day. He lulled my wide awake and exhausted baby to sleep.

Now I have two sleeping boys and a quiet house and a glass of wine and a moment of much needed solitude. TGIF.