Home alone with the kids

Friday was the first day where I officially had both kids to my glorious self. And no, it wasn't something I was looking forward to. In fact I was dreading it, especially since the last time it happened, I came down with a out-of-the-blue high fever that came and left within 24 hours. The fever was so suspicious that I half-thought it was my body warning me that I am not meant to handle two kids on my own.

Anyway, the day started off all right. There was the occasional usual breakfast drama but we resolved that quickly. Nursing time went well with Ian peeking into the nursing box to play with some selected toys. Mia was quite happy to be carried around when I played with Ian. What we played with, I had no idea since he wasn't particularly inspired and was playing with each toy for a minute before moving on to the next. Mia had a half-hour nap in the morning, which we conveniently used for some craft time.

A friend popped by for a quick visit, and her appearance had Ian more subdued than usual - not complaining here! We had lunch -- that was tricky cos fresh spinach apparently is no longer one of the vegetables that Ian eats willingly now, before we went up for naptime.

I was dreading naptime because Ian has been having some problems sleeping on his own lately. However that went fairly smooth sailing amid bouncy chair and dummy time for Mia, and two stories and tons of talking with Ian. And I even managed to get Mia to sleep in her baby cot.

But what greeted me when I went around the house was just mind-blowing. There wasn't a room that we were in that didn't look like the tornado has been through it.

And just for a split second - I wondered if I should start cleaning up after our own mess or go for the rest of my lunch and cookies. But it was just that for that split second before sanity won and I wolfed down the food that I really shouldn't.

I reckoned I had about 30 mins of alone time before Mia started fussing, and another 30 mins of trying to stop her from fussing before Ian started wailing - at the TOP of his voice. I went to him, baby in arm, but maybe that was what pissed him off. He started crying really hard and won't stop. While I can do a lot with one arm, comforting a very upset toddler isn't one of them. I had to put Mia down and that really pissed her off and set her crying as well.

So there was me sitting on the mattress on the floor, holding on to a crying Ian in one arm and desperately hoping that Mia will take to the dummy I was furiously pushing down her mouth - but both kids would not stop crying. I contemplated crying but decided to mature up and acknowledged that this really isn't the time to try out any stupid how-to-raise-your-kids experiment.

And this is when I heard a deep voice going, "Ian?"

I have been imaging quite some baby cries recently so I didn't really trust my ears.

And then from the corner of my eye, I saw Wouter running up the stairs!

And even though he wasn't running up to embrace me, I have never been so happy to see him, and probably neither have Ian.  I handed over my sobbing-uncontrollably toddler to Wouter and headed downstairs with my other fussypot newborn.

And with that, I am comforted by the thought that white knights do exist and I am married to one -- after all. And home alone with the kids aren't too bad, as long as The White Knight appear in timely fashion to The Princess' rescue!