questions of the day: can i send him to the zoo? & can i cry now?

so i slept in this morning (until 7am) meaning i missed my chiropractor appointment at 6:30. this also means i had to reschedule for 8:45 and this means i had to bring my two little ones with me to the appointment. which means i had to battle with my two-year old about getting into the carseat twice before 9am. he thinks that he can put the straps over his shoulders all by himself and buckle it. when this was not working and i attempted to help him (not even do it for him but just give him some pointers) he screamed, "mama no, over dare" -and pointed to the other side of the car.

fast forward to lunch time. i am washing dishes at the sink (a never ending task in our house as we don't have a dishwasher) and luca is (supposedly) eating lunch with gia in the high chair next to him. when i walk into the dining room, his plate is empty. so i start cleaning them up and i find most of his lunch stuffed in gia's lap and in her chair.

we move to nap time. well, we move to luca laying in his dark room talking loudly, occasionally singing, and not sleeping for two hours before i finally concede to his refusal to fall asleep. at that point i thought, "can i send him to the zoo?"

the plan for this afternoon was to go to the public pool. we were there several times a week last summer, but decided not to get a pass this summer with opposing nap schedules and adjusting to the whole two children thing. but i thought we would splurge and i would pay for daily admittance and i was excited to get out of the house. after the nap fiasco, i had to decide, "is this still a good idea?" well, the other option was to stay home and have a repeat of yesterday - meaning i would need more than one pina colada tonight. i thought i would rather fight any battles with the distraction of the pool and having other kids to keep him occupied. so i pack up swimsuits, swim diapers, towels, sunblock, water bottles, pool toys, changes of clothes, gia's dinner, and probably a few others things. we fight another carseat battle and drive to the pool. luca sees the water and gets so excited and becomes remarkably compliant to all my wishes while getting unpacked and ready to enter the fun zone. i walk up to the counter with an exhausted yet large smile. what does the young girl behind the counter say?

"the pool closes at 4pm today (it was 3:24)."

i reply, "seriously?"

"yeah, there's a swimmeet. you can drive to fairview (the other pool in town)."

so i just stare at her for a bit. she gave me a "what's the big deal?" look. i wanted to scream, "do you know what it took for me to get here? i am not getting two children back into my car, driving across town, getting them back out, and paying $5 to spend by that time only a little over an hour at the pool!" i also thought, "can i cry now?"

what i actually did was go home, call our friends we were to meet, and have them come over to our house to play in the kiddie pool. the kids had fun (after we calmed them down from their dashed hopes for public pool enjoyment while dangling the use of our elmo sprinkler in front of their faces like carrots) and the moms relaxed.

at the end of the day, i have five more dollars than i thought i would. i think i will also have a piece of dark chocolate.

i hope someday soon, i will have enough mental energy to reflect on my day and find a bit more joy in the chaos. right now i am just relieved it is over.