Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Chaos and Insanity

My life is generally low-grade chaos spiced with short periods of acute insanity. That's about right.

There's often at least one person crying or screaming. Somebody generally has a poopy diaper. Somebody is usually hungry. But it's background noise. It's chaos, but manageable chaos.

Then things just fall apart for a while. And the pieces always come back together in the end, so at this point I'm pretty good at staying fairly calm. But I can't say it's not stressful.

Some examples: two days ago in the late afternoon, the babies were fussy and Ezra was hungry. I got Ezra a snack and was changing the babies' diapers when Ezra dropped his glass on the floor and it shattered. So I cleaned up the broken glass while the babies *screamed*. Then I nursed Ari while entertaining Toby to keep him quiet*, and Ari fell asleep. I went to put Ari down but he woke up as soon as I tried, so I left him there screaming and went back to screaming Toby and picked him up to nurse him. At which point I found out that Ezra had just pooped in his diaper. So I nursed Toby, and he fell asleep. I went to put Toby down (Ari was still screaming), and he woke up as soon as I tried. So I left both Ari and Toby screaming and went and changed Ezra's diaper. Then I picked up both babies and calmed them down and everything was fine. I played with them for a while and put them to bed early because they hadn't napped. The insanity probably lasted 30 minutes.

And then yesterday: we have an odd stomach virus going around here. The kids haven't gotten sick, but my mother was up one night throwing up and then was in bed all day sleeping. Yesterday morning as I was getting everybody ready to go to Target (my mother wanted blue "Chanukah" lights to decorate the tree outside!) I started to feel queasy. Great. I got everybody in the car and we went to Target. When I got there, one of the van doors wouldn't open. It took a while of trying random things to get it open before it finally worked. Ezra was not too happy about having to sit in the car and wait. I got it open and got Ari in his carseat into the cart, then put Ezra in the cart seat, and then put Toby on my back (I usually put the baby on my front but I felt too sick). I started to walk towards Target, but I was on the periphery of their parking lot space in the mall parking lot, and when I got to a certain point near the sidewalk the wheels on the cart locked. You know how they do that automatic locking so you can't steal the cart? Yeah. So I was stuck. I waited around until a woman carrying some toys came by and asked for her help, and she helped me get the kids to a new cart. And then things were fine. But during that hour or so it seemed like one thing after another was going wrong. It was ridiculous.

So that's how things go around here. Today we have gym class and I'm still sick. My father also got sick. Nobody has been really sick, just nauseated, maybe throwing up once or twice, and really tired. Things might go smoothly with gym class, or they might become insane. I'm prepared for either. I figure if I expect insanity I'll just be pleasantly surprised when things go well.

*I can nurse them together, but not if I expect them to fall asleep, unless we're in bed already. It gets complicated lol

2 comments:

Erin said...

yup. a familiar cycle. I've found that chaos generally lasts 30 minutes to an hour. If I can hang on and trouble shoot without losing it myself, it's usually over within the hour. Sometimes I don't make it and end up calling DH in tears and begging him to come home and work from his lap top the rest of the day. He's learned to say, "See how the next half hour goes, and call me back if you still need me." Since he has a 20 minute commute, he's annoyed when I call, and he arrives home just in time for calm. LOL

Eileen said...

So glad to have found your bolg, Ellie! I've missed hearing about your boys. I know chaos and insanity all too well. I am never sure whether it is as bad as i think it is because of my severe sleep deprivation. There are sure days that i am teetering on the edge of sanity!