Working From Home

Today I had the extra special pleasure of working from home. While that sounds like a great job perk, I neglected to mention one small detail. I was working from home while my three young children, all 4and under, were home from day care thanks to a teacher training day.

The first time I knew I would be in for a challenging day came when my 4 year old son snuck into my bedroom at 3 a.m. and nearly gave me a heart attack. Fast asleep, I suddenly heard the bedroom door open and could see no one entering. Of course, it wasn't until he was right next to my face that I realized I had a tiny intruder in my midst. After recovering from my near fatal heart attack, my son climbed into bed and demanded a drink of water. He explained he was thirsty because he had a bad dream- I guess his dream took place in a desert. BLeary-eyed and blinded by the darkness, I stumbled into the kitchen, passing my sleeping husband who dozed off on the couch, and poured my son a drink. As I trudged back to the bedroom to give him his water, he loudly exclaimed "NOT THAT CUP, MOMMY!!!" After some coaxing, lots of pleading and begging (mostly from me), he finally took the cup and fell asleep again. And I nestled back into my bed to regain whatever sense of sleep I had left in me.

The next harbinger of my day to come was my darling husband who thought he would forewarn me in case his alarm went off. His warning came at 6 a.m. in the form of a very loud bang as he dropped a few things looking for his cell phone. Thanks honey; I needed that.

After finally getting out of bed and bringing the twins down, we all settled down to eat breakfast. I thought to myself, maybe it won't be that bad. Maybe they'll just play and watch TV and I can get work done. Boy, was I kidding myself.

Breakfast only fueled their energy where they proceeded to enter the living room and jump all around the furniture. I tried to get the twins to go potty because we are in the midst of this great milestone. One hour later they were finally seated watching a program when my boss called about needing something immediately. No problem; I thought, I can handle this. I am full-time working mom and I can certainly get this together enough for one day. It took only 20 more minutes before I began to see this would not be an easy one.

Sami, who tricked me and certainly did not go potty when I thought she did,had an unfortunate accident on the recliner. Making sure Caroline would not follow, I ushered her into the potty and left her there while I quickly scrambled for some upholstery cleaner. This gave Joe just enough of slip in supervision to once again begin to dump his puzzle and legos out on the floor. When I came back in from getting the cleaner, my living room was beginning to look like a sitcom spiraling out of control.

After getting them settled yet again, I tried to balance the work again. There were photographers and designers that needed to be called and projects that needed to be done. When I finally realized it was lunch time, I thought, "yes, only one more hour until nap time!" "I can make it, I can make it," I kept repeating to myself.

All three were fed easily enough and the twins went down for a nap shortly after. Joe went down for a nap too - or he is at least pretending to nap and staying quiet. I can't ask for much more than that these days.

And finally, finally after all that I was able to sit and finish my work. But now I am tired and wish I could take a nap! How the heck do these stay-at-home moms do it??? I wouldn't survive one day! I can't wait to get back to the crab bucket tomorrow!