Bad day, Good morning

For whatever reason, yesterday was a rough day around here. Maybe it was the letdown from Avery's bday, daddy going out of town, Papa Sam leaving or the unbearable cold weather that left everyone in a mood. It was like they all had ADD and could not settle on one thing to do. They wandered aimlessly from computer, Leapster, toys, puzzles, books, Wii and back again. All the while arguing with each other and with me. Finally I put a moratorium on all electronics and ordered them to actually play. Heaven forbid, use their imaginations! To my surprise, the game that ensued was a good one, rather loud and involved me calling them each by different names. They did play well for a little while but then they got irritated, I'm certain something was thrown and all were sent to their rooms. Later, we headed to our neighbors bday party at "Jump for Fun." All was well until Owen and Chase started arguing while Chandler was opening his presents. Next thing I know, they have both punched each other and are in tears. After separating them and making them sit at the back of the room while the party wrapped up, I kept their goody bags and we left. Once home, I again instituted some forced "quiet time." Some time had passed as one by one they came down and began going through the motions from the morning, moving from one thing to another not finding anything that really made them happy. After dinner, we headed to the basement, hoping that a change in scenery would help. It didn't. Shortly after that, we headed upstairs to get Avery to bed. Once settled, we set up a board game. After about the 500th time of being asked not to do something, Owen was sent to bed. He unhappily made his way to his room, grunting at me several times but actually falling asleep quite quickly(thank God for small miracles!). After two games of Super Scrabble, Macie headed to bed to read and Chase hopped in my bed(it was his turn since Stew is gone.) I tucked her in at 9 and snuggled up with Chase, letting him linger a little longer to watch a show with me. I finally fell asleep around 10, thanking God that I had made it through the day.

Fast forward to 6:58am. I hear Avery talking in her crib. She and I head down to snuggle on the couch. One by one they stumble down, still wiping the sleep from their eyes. They each make their way over to me and give me hugs and kisses. We all end up snuggling on the couch, ready for another day. No matter how angry, irritated, tired, frustrated or fed up I was the night before, all that is gone now. I can't think of a better way to start my day, with my four favorite people in the world. The only one missing is Stew. Happily, he'll return tonight.