One Enchanted Evening

Last night was nearly perfect. I had the luxury of coming straight home from work, rather than taking an extra hour to pick up the kids. Fillip picked them up and brought them home. Before they got home, I had 10 whole minutes all by myself. No, I'm not being sarcastic. That was really great! My boys got home and the chaos began. Fillip made a delicious dinner- bbq'd tritip, fried baby potatoes, and brussel sprouts. Really, that's about as yummy as it gets for me. Mmmm! Hayden sat in his booster seat for awhile while Logan and I sat in the nursery sorting clothes. I have been meaning to do that for so long, that many of his 3-6mo sized are already too small before they came out of the bin. He's probably ready for 6-9mo, but I'll get to that in a couple weeks. The newborn stuff has been re-binned and is ready to be squeezed into the garage, or better yet my IL's attic. Hayden finished his snack and came in to "help" me put away clothes. I find it so cute to watch him figure stuff out. I was instructing him which drawer to open, pull some stuff off the top to get it to fit, and put the extra in the next drawer down. All went fine until he bumped his head, then hysterics and happiness at getting to put a bag of frozen hashbrowns on the wound. (didn't happen to have any peas). Logan was happily playing through all this, grabbing folded jammies faster than I could fold them. Between him, and Hayden's haphazard putting away, I don't know that there is one folded garment in that armoire. Just can't get good help these days ;)

We sat down for dinner. Hayden was so tired, and was not the best eater. Logan didn't seem hungry either, but at least was content to sit with us in his highchair. I made up for both of them, devouring the delicious dinner my hubby had made. (I really love to eat!) Toward the end of dinner, I asked Hayden if he wanted to go for a walk and he said he did. Fillip got a sad look and said he had wanted to play with Hayden with all our train sets. Since it was nearly dark, I quickly set off for a brisk walk- again all by myself! I was only gone 12 mins, but it felt so good. What I didn't know until I returned was poor Hayden was heartbroken at not joining me. I thought he would have more fun with the trains, but he was crushed. I felt so bad to have offered, then let him down. He had cried the whole time I was gone and talked about wanting to go for a walk the rest of the night. I repeatedly apologized for hurting his feelings and said we would go for a walk another time. I'll try to do that tonight.

Fillip had filled up our living room with trains and it was like Grand Central Station in there. Logan was so happy to be in the middle of it all, babbling, waving his arms and kicking his feet. Any piece of track within his reach was fair game and he was pulling it apart faster than Fillip could put it together. Seeing a theme with this guy? Hayden was busy helping again, wanting to do it himself and taking pieces from Fillip. Between the activity of all three and the trains going round and round, and all the track and pieces, it was chaos. I whipped out the video camera and sat down to enjoy the show. It doesn't get any better than that for me with happy chaos and all of us together like that.

It didn't take long for tired Hayden to completely meltdown. This is the not-so-perfect part of the night. He just couldn't keep it together and sadly cried himself to sleep. I hate that as bedtime us usually a very easy, peaceful time. However, I recognize that sometimes I just can't help, and last night was one of those times. I gave him lots of hugs and kisses despite the tears and "No!s" I was getting for my efforts. Once he was asleep, I went in for another snuggle. What makes me really sad about those times is that Logan still needs my attention to get him to bed, so Hayden doesn't get the individual coddling I might otherwise have given. Fillip was out running errands, and Logan needed to be nursed. Those times make me feel so torn between a hungry sleepy infant and a sad, overtired toddler. There are worse things in life though, and we got through it .

After the kids were in bed, I spent a very productive 45 mins scaling Mt. Laundry. The clean clothes are nearly all put away, and I promptly fell asleep at the foot of the bed with a happy cat. Fillip set up a fishtank while I was folding, so it was nice productive time spent together. (By the time I collapsed, he was in the other room oblivious.) I woke and managed a shower and even some rare reading time. Couldn't tell you what I read, but I know I did.

As mundane as all this is, it really was a great evening. Time to play with the kids, time to get some productive housework done, a delicious homemade dinner, time with hubby and time to myself. Doesn't get much better than that!