Sunday, February 24, 2008

"Oh The Lord's Been Good To Me..."

Truly a story from the mom side.... So, sit back and read. And my kids, I'm sure will be sure to kill me for this one day. Till then, it's my story.

It started just like any other Saturday night bedtime routine, with bath night! My husband, for whatever reason, volunteered and jumped right in for bath duty and I was more than obliged to let him. I hung out downstairs and waited to be called up for stories and kisses. When what to my surprise comes streaking by- my son, Anthony! "Hey mom, I'm naked and we're out of overnights, so you're going to have to go to the store and get some for me before I go to bed." I was like, no way! I told him, we'd just wing it and that we'd take him to the bathroom several time during the night and just that HE COULD DO IT! He was very resistant, but finally gave in. Not that he had a lot of other options at this point. We had a few other trials and tribulations as any other night brings- read more, more kisses, rub my back in 10 minutes... but the night went on and the kids went to bed- without his overnight.

The night was going pretty smooth, Tony took Anthony to the bathroom again at 11pm when he went to bed and I took him again at 12:30 when I went to bed. I debated setting the alarm for anything earlier than the 6:30am time it's set for, but decided not to and thought surely he'd be ok for just 6 more hours?! I say this holding my breath and with my fingers crossed behind my back of course... Then all of a sudden, while the house is dark and quiet and everyone is in sweet slumber, I hear the cry, "mom..... mom...." and of course, all I can think is here it comes-'I peed through.' But no, of course not, that couldn't be the worst of it, no, I hear, "mom, I throwed up." It was Bella! So, in my just got into REM sleep phase startled wake up and stumbled fog, I made it to her room only to fumble for her night light and squeeze my eyes open just enough to see the proof. It really didn't seem like much, nothing too bad, so I went to get a towel and a wet wash cloth to clean things up. But boy when I returned, reality sure set in! Her little spit ups had turned into large pools of vomit that just didn't quit and the odor seemed to be one of the worst imaginable! I'll try not to go into too much detail, but I didn't think I could stomach the clean up, seriously! I had to open a window! And my gagging was enough to awaken my husband and send him flying down the hall to rescue our son who he thought was now getting sick too. It was all I could do to keep from laughing. I corrected his mistake and he so graciously went right back to sleep while I cleaned and gagged and gagged and laughed so hard because I couldn't gag much worse that soon I was crying! And who, but a mom would notice and sort out the clean babies and toys and dirty socks found their daughters bed while trying to strip the sheets and remove the pillowcases? And to think I was thankful when I discovered Anthony's long lost library book deep inside her covers. I couldn't help but smile amidst all the fun I was having in the wee small hours of the morning. And yet as I scooped the blankets and stuffed animals injured in this war, the comforters and quilts with her jams and other miscellaneous items of interest and hoisted it over my back, like Santa with his pack, I carried it all down to the washer and thanked my lucky stars that I had actually finished laundry earlier the day before and both appliances were actually found empty!! Then I turned around to go back up only to find the dog's water bowl empty- so that's what he wanted earlier when he kept hanging around?! I filled his bowl and headed back upstairs to clean and sanitize the plastic bed cover over her mattress and scoop up my daughter who'd been patiently waiting and offering to help, and take her to bed with us. The whole time, with the song to Johnny Appleseed stuck in my head?! "Oh The Lord's been good to me. And so I'll thank The Lord. For giving me the things I need, the sun, the rain and the apple trees....." And I take time to be thankful for what we have and those we love and remember that we are blessed.

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