Hell Week

Well, as I thought, the past week did end up being my HELL WEEK! Several things-- almost everyday-- attributed to this week of frustration and, in so doing, made me really evaluate where I am in my life right now. Since it is a full weeks worth of drama, I ask ahead of time that you forgive me if I don't completely stay on track. I might leave some things out as well but Ill try to remember it all. SOOOOOOOO...... HERE IT GOES!

Monday:
This day was fairly quiet-- for the most part! I headed over to my nanny job at about 10:15-- I was told to feed Brooklyn and get her to lay down around 11 because Jeff said as soon as he gets home he was going back to bed. It seems that he and Stacey forgot about someone having to take Maddy to school on Monday! So I did as he asked and went home around noonish! I came back at 5 and fed the girls, gave them a bath, and played a little while. Mind you it started this early (Monday) that both of the girls decided they were going to really see how far they could push with me. I labeled the week with them ATTITUDE WEEK. I took them over to their grandma's around 8, then went home with one thought running through my head... 'That wasn't so bad. I can do this!"

Tuesday:
Of course, as a reminder, I do FKO on Tuesday and Thursdays. I should have known the day was going to be bad with the way it started off. I have a little boy named Jerry in my class. Now his grandma said they were working on potty training with him. And it was not going so great. He had an accident not 5 minutes after his dad dropped him off. So I had to halt a conversation with another parent that I was having and take Jerry to the bathroom so I could change him, and at the same time run back to my room and clean up the carpet before the other kids decided to walk through it and sit and put their hands in it. So I got Jerry cleaned up (Note*: FKO started 2 weeks ago and Jerry had an accident on the first day as well so... yea). So as I was cleaning Jerry up I told him that he needs to let me know when he needs to go potty so we don't have accidents any more. Not 10 minutes later....... he has another accident. I was speechless. I literally stood there for 2 minutes just looking at him. So I went and changed him... again.. and this time put him in a pull up. Just to add to the day, the rest of my kids decided they weren't going to listen to a word I said. They would look me in the eye and intentionally do the opposite of what I told them. I was completely blown away. I didn't understand what was going on and why they were deliberately disobeying. I went home that day seriously considering quitting FKO. That was by far the worst day I had had at FKO since I started working there.

Wednesday:
I went to my Nanny job at 10:45 as I usually do. Its pouring rain and as usual Jeff is asleep in his bed at the front of the house. Now this family just finished getting their formal living and dining room hard wood floors done. I always come in the back, as does everybody else. I show up at 10:45 and Brooklyn has not shown up yet. Her grandma was supposed to drop her off. So I waited. At about 10:55 I hear the doorbell. My first thought is CRAP WHO'S RINGING THE DOORBELL, JEFF IS SLEEPING. So I run to the door (as quietly as I can) and open it up and there stands Brooklyn and her grandma. I'm soo confused-- she knows Jeff is sleeping and on top of that, its pouring raining and now Brooklyn has to walk on the newly done floors to get to the den. I have the grandma telling me Oh April, your going to have to dry that up, quick. So I'm standing there thinking, "Well what do you want me to do, take this stuff out of your hands and make sure Brooklyn doesn't fall and break her neck, or go and wipe up the water on the floor?!?! So I took Brooklyn back to the den and got her situated, then got a towel and got on my hands and knees and wiped up the water. I went to go get Brooklyn some lunch and she didn't want anything that was available and gave me her usual twisted face and stomped out. I fed her lunch, whether she liked it or not, and then we went to go lay down. And of course she started crying, "I don't want to go to sleep in my crib." My first thought was, "Well I wouldn't either if I was almost 4 and still in a crib." But unfortunately if I lay her on the couch she wont go to sleep, and as cranky as she had been SHE NEEDED SLEEP! I left a little after 2 and tried to take a quick nap, which really wasn't happening. I went back that night and the girls had attitude again. I found out Maddy lied about the drink situation in her lunch so I told her I was going to have to tell her mom and she said I KNOW. The girls were eating dinner (Hot dog, goldfish and half an apple) and everything was fine, except Brooklyn was eating as slower then a snail's pace. Ive been trying to get her to learn to eat in like a 45 minute window because at FKO they have about that long to eat and play before its time to pick up and head to nap time, and she had been doing real well for a couple of weeks. So I started their bath, and Maddy was ready, but Brooklyn sat at the table, playing with her apples. She had already been eating for an hour at this point. Now on a side note, whenever I have to give the girls a bath I have a special thing I do with them. I wrap up each of them in their robes then throw them on the bed. After they lay there for a few minutes I shake them and that's how they drive off, and they love it. Its now become a must every time I am there for bath time. So back to the story. I kept on telling Brooklyn that she needed to eat her apples and not play with them. She would look at me then continue playing. So I told her that if I had to ask her to eat her apples again then I wouldn't throw her on the bed. And needless to say I had to ask again. So I told her no bed. She didn't believe me until the girls were getting out of the bath and Maddy got to be thrown, but not her. She pitched a bloody fit. So I had to explain to her that I wasn't doing it to be mean, but she needed to realize that I shouldn't have to ask her 10 times to do something and that there are consequences to repeatedly ignoring me. Of course she kept crying but she said she understood. I dropped the girls off at grandmas and went home. *sigh*

Thursday:
FKO again. I had had time to calm down and relax from Tuesday. Or at least as relaxed as I could be. I went in there thinking, "Today is a new day. New beginning. It will be great." Jerry showed up and I took him straight to the bathroom so we wouldn't have an accident. His grandmother told me that there were 3 changes of clothes in his bag and 1 pull up, because she didn't want him getting the idea that he could run around in pull ups all the time. Correct me if I'm wrong but aren't pull ups a potty training AID? If you know that he is prone to accidents wouldn't it make since to put him in a pull up and work from there. Now if I had only 3 kids at FKO, then I could devote more time to taking Jerry to the potty every 10 minutes. But i have 6-7 each day. I cant keep running to the bathroom to change him or make sure he actually goes, on top of making sure my other kids are tearing down the building. Long story short.... Jerry had 3 accidents this day. 2 of them within 5 minutes. The director of FKO, Kathy, ended up taking care of the last 2. She could tell that there was no way I could keep running back and forth with him. I'm really grateful she was able to help. That night Maddy had lost her privilege of my playing "Deer" with her (Deer is pretty much her running around and me trying to catch her). Her grandmother had told me, when I went to pick up Brooklyn for FKO, that Maddy was smart mouthing her all morning. So when I asked Maddy what had gone on that morning she tried to tell me it was all her grandmothers fault, which I knew was a lie. So she lost the Deer privilege and we watched a movie instead. Stacey, the mom, ended up coming back that night because her flight into Houston on Friday had been cancelled because of the hurricane so she found a flight into Midland that night. So with this being the case, I still took the girls over to their grandmother's only I took them a little later then usual. I was excited that I wouldn't have to go back Friday night!!

Friday:
I showed up at 10:45 as usual.... only no one was home except Jeff, who was asleep. I waited, and waited, and waited. Around 5-10 minutes after 11 Stacey walks in with Brooklyn. Shes hurried because she is supposed to open her store so she gets her stuff and goes. I do my usual with Brooklyn, "Brooklyn want to play something?" "No, I want to watch Dora." 'Well we can play something while we watch Dora." "SHSHHSHSHHSHHSHSHSHHHSH I cant hear." "Brooklyn, #1 you do not talk to me that way, #2 What have I told you about saying please and thank you?" Lunch was made and eaten, she was laid down for a nap, then I sat there waiting anxiously for Jeff to get up so I could go home. I was glad that part of the horror week was over.
Friday night I went over to my friend Kristen's, and she gave me a nice little pep talk about some thoughts I had about where my life was going. It was a good push and it made me realize how much I was going to miss her.

Saturday:
This day...... my fish.... committed suicide. You read right, he committed suicide. I had had Daniel for quite a bit, a year, if not almost a year. About 4-5 months after I got him he started to swell up. It looked like he had swallowed a rock or something. I kept thinking he was going to keel over any day. But he was such a trooper and perservered on. I thought he'd die of natural causes at least. So Saturday, I had just cleaned his bowl (I will say I am in major fault because I always seem to wait too long to change his bowl) and I realized I ran out of water conditioner and that I would have to go to Petsmart Monday. So I'm sitting at my computer around 2 something and I hear this noise like something fell, like a bottle cap or something. Now Sophie was in my room and I should have known because she was looking up, while I was looking down. I didn't see anything and went on my way. I fell asleep after 5 and woke up at 6 and decided to feed Daniel. So I look for him.. don't see him. I stand up on my little stool and look directly in the bowl.... nothing. My first thought is, "I did put him back right-- he didn't get washed down the sink? Yes I did. WHERE THE HELL IS HE?" My second thought was, "Oh crap if he jumped out I hope Sophie or Alex didn't eat him. They have been in and out of my room all day." So I start searching the floor........ and I found him. He was under my little rolling cart by my bed-- covered in fuzz and hair-- stiff as a rock. I couldn't believe my fish would rather jump from 3 feet in the air to its death then live with me. I felt like a fabulous pet owner that day. That night I ended up going bar hopping with Kristen and some other friends from work. It was........ different. All I can say is I never have and never will be a "bar" girl.

So that's how the week ended. I'm soooo glad its over. I have much more to look forward to now. All the good TV starts back up in the next few weeks. And hopefully the Denver game today is a sign that this week will be far better then the last. Mind you I only got the last 9 minutes of the game but OMG i cant remember a time where I was soo nervous the last 2 minutes that I just couldn't sit down. Out of any of the games that San Diego one was the one I really hoped we would win and wanted to win.... AND WE DID!! By a miracle, mind you, but a win none the less. Mom and I had another tiny tiny sob fest at the kitchen table, today, thinking about Christmas and how Winston wouldn't be with us this year and how hard its going to be not seeing him under the tree. But then thoughts went to remembering that we needed to find the kitties stockings for Christmas and get them their own ornaments since Winston had his and its only right that they have theirs.

I still have a lot on my mind. This blog is devoted to the past week. My other thoughts will have to wait for a later date. But for now, I'm going to go watch some Cold Case and relax on my bed with Sophie by my side. I sure missed not being able to spend our usual quality nap time together, and apparently so did she. Till next time, here's to a much better week, and a lot less urine.