Life at the Chicken Coop

Our Adventures

For those of you who don't get my weekly family letter, I'll include an excerpt of it here, just in case you want the nitty-gritty on what's going on around here:

Sunday, January 11, 2009, I wrote:

It's been sort of a doozy of a week, with many high and many low points. One of the low points was last night, when just as I had fallen asleep, I hear Lucy crying "Mama" in her bed, I drag myself out of bed to find she had thrown up all over her bed and the wall (she had done this the night before also). She also had diarrhea, so we got her bathed and cleaned up. Just when we had put her in bed, Finn informs me that his bed was wet (so much for Wal-Mart pull-ups). We got his sheets stripped off the bed and his clothes changed, and we got ourselves settled back in bed. (I forgot to mention that just as I was getting Lucy in the bath, Miles woke up and was hungry, so Travis took over the bathing and cleaning so I could feed Miles). At 3:30 AM, I hear a Lucy moan again and I go in to find another pile of throw-up on her bed (albeit a little smaller), but man, so stinky! By this time, I'm running out of clean blankets to put on her bed, so I get two newborn receiving blankets to cover her up with. So, as if waking twice in the night with her and once with Miles weren't enough, she and Finn decide that at 6:45 AM they are ready to rise and shine. Man! I thought I was a goner. I tried to get them to at least lay down next to me for another 45 minutes, but that didn't work very well. And Travis had to be at the church at 8 AM to shovel the sidewalks from the winter storm that left a good foot of snow everywhere yesterday. So, then he left and I was left to deal with the kids who all had loose bowels at the same time. Lucy had three messy diapers in 20 minutes, two of which leaked onto the rug, and Finn had managed to get poop on everything in the bathroom, including the bathmat, himself and the toilet. This happened as I was nursing Miles. And just when I get up from nursing to help Finn, Miles spits up. (If there is any doubt as to the human ability to secrete various substances, just come visit our house. We'll give you an education you'll never forget.)

So, then yesterday, I decided to make my first maiden voyage to the grocery store with all three of the kids. (Keep in mind there was a foot of snow on the ground). We finally make it to the entrance to the store after a few falls and tears from sloshing around in the snow, and we couldn't find a cart big enough for at least two of the kids (the one we wanted had snow all over it). So, I drop Finn off at the daycare area, put Miles in the part where a child should sit, and let Lucy sit in the basket of the cart. Worked okay, except when I went to turn down and aisle and didn't notice Lucy had stood up in the cart and she fell out of the cart, right on the back of her head. EVERYONE saw it. I was so embarrassed and she was screaming and I was post-workout wearing my gym clothes, looking like a slicked-up sewer rat, and this was in a more upscale grocery store than I'm used to shopping at. I felt horrible and she didn't seem too worse for the wear (a little bump on the back of her head). But still. Then, I get paged that Finn has to go potty (remember, he's in the daycare), so I take my unbagged cart of food to take him to the bathroom, then we try to get in a fast line to check-out. None to be found. After 20 minutes waiting in line, lots of wrestling small bags of Skittles from the kids' hands and lots of tears (by this time Miles is fully-awake and is very hungry), we manage to get our groceries and take another 10 minutes just to get out to the car (Lucy fell in the snow again, and wouldn't stay with me, so I had to carry her and push the cart). It was awesome. Unforgettable, that's for sure.