Valinetine's Day... Through the Years
Hari is still (always!) a wonderful, romantic husband... after 13 years he still brings me flowers, and made sure he was home a little early so we could have a nice dinner together. But my darling boys have turned this day (and every other) into a whole new adventure.
First, I tried to get the boys fed before Hari got home in the hope that we could have an adult meal without me having to wipe someone's food off someone's face/hands/chin/arm/hair every 30 seconds. Colin ate some of his dinner (not much) and Ryan refused almost everything I offered him - he wore a lot of the food but did very little actual ingestion. I did what I could and then got them cleaned up. Dinner was ready to go (pork tenderloin, wild rice and steamed broccoli), I just needed my handsome hubby and a bottle of wine and we'd be set!
Hari walked in with roses (for me), two heart-shaped helium balloons (one for each boy) and a new movie (to hopefully entertain Colin while we ate). Colin was overjoyed and began sprinting around the house with his balloons (plural) while Ryan played with his toys and toes. Meanwhile Hari chilled a bottle of wine and went to change and I got my roses in a vase and started setting up dinner.
Hari got downstairs but... we had a breakthrough... alert the media... RYAN CRAWLED!!! He crawled backward, but no one cared because he finally did it!!!! He was so pleased with himself he crawled backward around the living room, then sat up and looked at us with a giant proud smile on his face. Hari and I clapped and cheered and Colin looked on perplexed clearly wondering what the big deal was.
OK - back to Valentine's Day. We sat down to dinner with a shared glass of wine while Colin watched Yo Gabba Gabba (not exactly romantic background music -I've got a party in my tummy, so yummy, so yummy- but he was happy so it was all good). Then Ryan started sobbing... clearly hungry. Which wasn't surprising since he refused his dinner and it was now about 7:30!
Hari dragged the highchair into the dining room while I made up a quick baby snack. I tried putting Ryan in his high chair but he arched his back and became utterly hysterical. Fine! I refused to eat with an infant shrieking and sobbing 2 feet from my ear, so I ended up sitting with the baby in my lap trying to feed him and myself at the same time. Next Ryan decided I wasn't properly identified as a mom, so he took his face (with a big smear of baby cereal/yogurt) and wiped it off on my shirt. *sigh* Then Colin came over and insisted that he also needed to sit in my lap (Hari thankfully ran interference for me on this one).
Moments later Colin walked up to me, grabbed the crotch of his pants, and exclaimed "OWWWWW! It hurrrrrrts!"
I left my rapidly-cooling-uneaten dinner, went up to change his diaper, and figured out what the problem was. He had done an odorless #2 in his diaper (without notifying anyone), was walking around in it for a while, and gave himself a nice rash. After a tearful diaper change (Ow Mommy, OWWWW!) including an application of a thick cream and a discussion about going on the potty and telling someone before you go to the bathroom (or at a minimum immediately after you go) we headed back downstairs.
Hari was on the sofa with the baby (finally calm). While he monitored the boys I sat down alone at the table, admired my beautiful flowers and finished the rest of my now-ice-cold dinner, then tried to get Colin to bed. This became a big chase as Colin adamantly insisted he wasn't tired. He sprinted circles around the sofa in the living room, bolted into the kitchen and ran circles around and under the kitchen table until Hari and I finally cornered him. I got him upstairs, brushed his teeth, we read a story (Big Red Barn... one of our favorites) and he went right to sleep. One down, one to go, then we can have grownup movie time! I came down, got the baby, changed his diaper and the next thing I know... I woke up, looked at the clock and realized it was 3AM.
I don't mean I dozed off. I was probably borderline comatose. I woke up, realized I hadn't changed out of my jeans or even brushed my teeth, then fell instantly back asleep. It wasn't until the haze cleared this morning that I fully realized I had slept through Valentine's Day, leaving poor Hari watching TV with Sydney as his only company.
So this is my official, public apology to my wonderful husband. I love you dear, and I'm very sorry I fell asleep at 8:30PM on Valentine's Day... someday I promise we'll have normal mealtimes and evenings again where we can dine without brain-melting music in the background and endless interruptions for diapers and rashes and sobbing babies and balloon emergencies. I don't know when... but I'm pretty confident that it will happen eventually. (If you're a parent and want to burst my bubble please keep your ugly reality to yourself. I don't want to hear it!!!)
XOXO, my dear.
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