Tea Party

My two year old, Annika, has currently served up my second cup full of "tea" and saucer of raisins. "Here you go mom, here's your tea party!" I can't keep up on the raisins. The sun is streaming through the kitchen nook on to the table, water is dripping off of it and she is pausing to throw a towel on the overflow. "I need some more, its drips!" Back to the towel very intently rubbing the edge of the table. Time for a raisin break, and another cup of tea. THis is the same child who brings me my coffee as a peace offering throughout the day. I get interrupted and run somewhere else in the house and then comes Anni, slowly, concertedly walking with my sometimes steaming hot cup of coffee. Whoops, now the saucers are being poured back in the teapot. It will probably take me about as long to clean up as she is busy with this tea party. Tryn is upstairs, asleep I assume, after asking to go to bed because she was "too tired today." Tristan goes to town in the johnny jumper, propelling himself forward with well placed jumps and swinging back, keeping tabs Annika all the time.
Spring has sprung here, windy and 50 degrees. I want to plant and plant and fill in all the dirt with growing things that are going to look like there was a plan to it all. Ha. Being a novice gardener, I have absolutely no idea where to start so I put twenty northwest gardening books on hold at the library and at least have a rudimentary list of possibilities now that I have looked over a few. Some plants are starting to stick out as "easy to grow" and "likes shade." What makes me crazy is that I can plan the specifics all I want, yet the nursery probably won't have many of the exact plants that I choose. How do other people do this? If I go to the nursery it will take me two hours to get a three plant scheme as I will try to balance shape, color, light, height, etc.
It will just have to be a few trips.

Mornings

My 31st birthday dinner
Mornings are hard around here. Especially in the last month. There is something about night-nursing at this stage of the game that can leave me feeling like I have a hangover. I'm parched, I gotta pee, and I can't seem to find a diaper that willl contain Tristan; so I end up carrying a soaked baby downstairs, changing him entirely and getting him dressed for the day, and then I'll get a chance to use the toilet. Unless Tryn beats me there first. Then Annika asks to nurse, Tryn asks for breakfast, Annika is pouty when I say I don't have my coffee yet so she can't nurse. Now Tristan generally will play on the living room floor for an hour, which is really great. Soon he will be exploring however and that freaks me out.
None of these things are really difficult. The complication lies in them all occuring at once while I am trying to unkink my stiff old neck and my head is throbbing. Within twenty minutes of my coffee (although sometimes an hour) I generally can face the world.
That is a chunk of my reality. I woke up way early today with a crabby baby, who stopped hollering after a huge poop, which I changed in time to avoid another clothing change. These are my successes. Hollering at my husband, neither a sucess or good choice in reality. Currently, my two daughters are not speaking kindly to one another upstairs, and why they have also woken up an hour early is a mystery to me. Break.
Okay, they have breakfast and an attitude change. Here comes the me-me monster all ready for her morning topper.
So the easiest solution is very obvious, isn't it? Be a morning person.
Ha, no, really.
Get up BEFORE the children if I want my adaption time. Even if it is only a half hour. Or get over myself. Or maybe I could acquire a new neck, one free from rugby injuries and car accidents! Obr just count it all joy when I am up against adverse trials....would James count this in that category?