My morning....

Let me start with... Brad's away.

I probably went to bed around 11:30. I was trying to catch the last weather report as it was snowing and I wanted to know the likelihood of school being canceled.

4:30am - Bandit is losing his mind barking right outside of my bedroom door. At first I assumed he was barking at some deer out the window but I swear he was too close to my door to even see out a window - maybe he just wanted some company? More likely he just wanted to harrass me and figured the best way to do that would be to wake me from a dead sleep at 4:30 in the morning. I got up and invited him into my room and after a few minutes he calmed down and curled up to sleep - on my chest - but still calm and quiet and I could go back to sleep. I wrestled with him so I could get the covers pulled back over onto me, rolled over, closed my eyes, and...

4:45 - Jackson's tapping my arm. "Mom, mom, my stomach really hurts." Internally I roll my eyes and think - yes of course it does because far be it for me to want to get more than five hours of sleep. (side note: Jack has a long history of saying his stomach hurts-sometimes he's sick, sometimes he's had a bad dream, sometimes he's nervous about something - whatever isn't going just as he wants it to; his stomach hurts) He's standing there with his favorite barf bucket looking pitiful. Do you want to climb in bed with me? (shakes his head) shit Do you want to lay down somewhere else? (shakes his head) damn it Do you want me to get up with you? (nods head) yes of course that's what you want.

So like the good mother I am I get up and watch him while he kneels down on my floor hanging his head over said bucket. Perhaps I can distract him out of this, I think. "okay baby do you want me to turn on the TV?" First I turn on the news to see if school is canceled. Channel 11 says it is. I'm thrilled and turn off my alarm clock while thanking God then look for a DIY show which he'll usually fall asleep to but of course it's too early for any of those to be on so I end up settling for ESPN hoping for the same results. Eventually I lure him onto my bed, thinking there's no immediate danger and succumb to the two weights sitting on the tops of my eyelids and close my eyes. After a few minutes I hear him snoring and think hallelujah and I drift off behind him.

5:15 - "Mom, mom, my stomach really hurts" shit f%@# damn "oh baby, I'm so sorry" Quickly I turn on cartoons for him. I'm at that horrible stage in the sleep cycle when my brain and body just will not engage and we're pushing an hour of trying to be awake during it. I'm still hoping the stomach thing is code for restless sleep or something equally benign. Sure enough he plops over on his stomach and starts watching in earnest but I notice on a scroll along the bottom that schools have a 2 hour delay - wait - that's not right - Ch 11 said closed. I turn back to 11 and phew it still says closed. I get up and check the internet - okay I was stupid and went to ch11 online - it's where we always look - and yes it's closed. I check the other channels and they all say 2 hour delay. Come on, really? I log onto my yahoo account to find the email from school - it's not there. Please God I just want to go back to sleep. I find my iphone and look at my work email to see if the email made it through to there - it did; 2 hour delay. I reset my alarm and almost fall asleep until Jack starts kicking his feet to the tune in his head. OMG We resolve that, I beg for calm and sleep and get his promise to wake me if he feels badly again and fall asleep.

5:45 - "Hey mom" he's all kinds of chipper now "can I go downstairs and watch there instead? You know how sometimes I just need to get some extra energy and then I feel fine?" (he's our early riser and generally we have a rule he can't go downstairs until 6am). "Absolutely!!!!!!!... um... I mean... as long as you're feeling up to it." I sleep.

7:45 - 9:15 Teddy comes in and the morning officially begins... I get him up and ready, myself up and ready - breakfasts made, lunches packed, backpack on, Teddy out the door to the bus. "Baby, how're you feeling? Do you want to stay home or are you up for school?" "No I'm good now. I want to go." Great! finish getting ready and wait the hour to take him to school so I can got to work.

10:20 Jack's in the car, happy as a clam and off we go. We're in line at the school. In the next batch of cars that will fill 'the circle' where lots of nice teachers will open the car doors and help the kids out of the cars quickly. "MOM!! MOM! I'M GOING TO BE SICK!!! PULL OVER NOW!!! OH NO! MOM!!!" The line starts moving, I'm barely able to skip the circle and head for the lot. "MOM! HURRY HURRY!" I pull to a stop just in time.

Now it's noon and I've shoveled the driveway, talked to work, written a blog post and contemplated my day.... but I'm thinking a nap might be in order.

Camela