My day so far...

I slept until 7:30, which is terrible. I need to get up and start studying at 6:30, but I was up with Charlotte 3 times last night, so I was exhausted. At 8:30, Doug and Elisabeth left for preschool and I tried to put Charlotte down from her nap. Whatever demon has left Elisabeth has entered Charlotte. It occured to me this morning that perhaps it is the exersaucer, and maybe its really an exorsaucer. It exorcised Elisabeth's demons, but put them into Charlotte. We got out the saucer around the same time Charlotte's behavioral issues began and Elisabeth's stopped. Hmm.

Anyway, I knew my day was not going to go well at approximately 8:45 when Charlotte was (a) still awake and (b) screaming as though she was getting 52 vaccines. This, by the way, makes me feel a LOT less sympathy for her when she cries when they give her shots. If you can gauge pain and level of being tortured by the type and volume of screams, then shots aren't as bad as some naps. It took me 45 minutes to get her to sleep and then the little turkey slept for 25 minutes. This is the hallmark characteristic of a bad day around here.

So I got Charlotte up and fed her as I struggled to get through my Barbri contracts lecture. Charlotte was far more interested in my pen though, which has left me with some interesting notes - and her with some interesting blue ink on her face. Then off to fetch Elisabeth at preschool. Elisabeth, being the planner that she is, had placed her juice box holder and the ipod next to my purse so that I wouldn't forget to bring her a juice box and bring her music. She has a very good memory, and gets really upset if she can't listen to her tunes in the car.

We get to school and go fetch the elder beast. She's had a wonderful day at school but promptly melts when I tell her we're not meeting anyone for lunch. Luckily (!!) she had reminded me about the juice box and I knew she'd cheer up when she saw that I "remembered." So in the car she went. At which point she started asking me about the foam animals she received for Christmas. When Charlotte was born, Lindsay gave Elisabeth these little capsules that you put in water and they expand into foam animals. Elisabeth loves these little things and we use them as rewards for getting in the tub. As a bonus for the parents, we are now quite skilled with tweezers as we've had to remove more than a few from the jacuzzi tub jets. I got her more for Christmas. Or rather Santa did. Anyway, she starts talking about getting a foam animal tonight. And I said, "see - mommy can do something right, I got you those foam animals!" bad, bad comment.

E: "noooooooo Mommy, SANTA got me those animals. Why you said you got me those? Santa got me those. You been kiddin'?"

Me: "oh yes, I been kiddin'."

E: "why you been kiddin? Santa got me those things, why you said you got them?"

Me: "hey - look its Wendy's! Let's get hamburgers..." (at this point I think I might have even given her crack to change the subject)

So now, I'm supposed to somehow remember what Santa got her versus what I got her? I'm going to have to come up with an algorithm that allows me to retroactively determine whether the item in question is one that Santa gave her or me. I am growing to hate Santa. He gets all of the credit for my good presents. The only good thing about him is the daily call I can threaten to make about naughtiness. Here we are almost to February and that is still working.

Anyway, we got Wendys and then everyone went for quiet time. Heaven forbid anyone sleeps. Charlotte was upstairs, screaming again. I started to smell something funky and went upstairs to find Elisabeth covered in Disney Princess lotion. Too worn down to even yell, I just took what remained of the bottle and left. I mean, the worst that can happen is she lotions up the floor, walls, bed, and all stuffed animals, right? After the poop smearing incident, this I can handle. So I just closed the door, came back downstairs and listened to some contracts. Charlotte is not asleep, but not screaming. Elisabeth is quiet, which more than likely means she is in fact lotioning up the room. But for 10 minutes of quiet - I'll take it.