One more piece

Sometimes the week schedule is like a huge complicated puzzle where you are just trying to fit all the pieces together just right and still have happy kids. I am having one of those weeks. For example, our dog needs to go to the groomer desperately. (she and I can't even be in the same room) So I call them and the ONLY time I could get her over there was between 8:30-8:45 AM on the way to Andrew's preschool, after I dropped off Mandi and her friend at their school.

I know everyone understands. We all have weeks like this so you will also understand how one more piece to the puzzle can just upset the whole picture. (this analogy is only half-working) :) So anyway, in the middle of all this, Ben's crown falls out. So I call this morning and they can fit him in at 11:30. "OK, right after my stake meeting and right before my trip to buy cans for Mandi's canned food drive" No problem I think, fits perfectly.

But during weeks like this, I forget to factor in my newly tempermental two year old and dear Andrew who is happy to do whatever but I really try not to abuse his good-naturedness.

So there we are at the dentist, fun place, movies, video games, you name it. And they call Ben back. I go to follow but Audrey won't come. So I leave her in the waiting room, watching Nemo. Not the smartest mom move, but what could I do? Then I check on her every few minutes. Andrew is sort of back by us playing video games. Then just as they come to see Ben in his chair, I hear Audrey screaming at Andrew. She likes to boss him around, but apparently he didn't want to listen. So I go to try and get her but she stiff bodies me and screams about not coming. Anyway, then I try to go back to Ben but she cries that I am leaving her, but she won't come. You've all been here at some point. So I leave her, screaming in the hallway and go back to talk to the dentist. They want to take more x-rays. (ridiculous, they ALWAYS want more x-rays) I would have fought them on this, but I had little willpower left. So we did that and all is well to put the crown back in. Audrey is now running down the hall crying, looking for me. She finds me just when they are trying to get Ben to bite down on the crown and he is screaming in pain with his mouth open, refusing to bite, while the lady is telling him to hurry so the cement doesn't seal without the crown being in place. So we are saying, "you can do it Ben, just bite, one more time, blah blah" while Audrey is officially freaked out by seeing her brother and just at this point, Andrew comes to find us. Not wanting to ruin his good opinion of the dentist, I quickly lead him down the hall back to the games, hearing Ben's cries behind me as I walk away. ETC etc etc.

We finally made it out of there alive.

And the saddest part about all this is, that there are plently of great friends and places where I could have dropped off the kiddos, but I simply did not have time to get them there.

OK, I feel a little bit better sharing. :)