A Good Day

As you have read in my last post, we have been having some challenging days lately. We've instituted the marble rule, and things have been improving. That is not to say that all of our challenges have stemmed from Big Sister Bear. Oh no. Since our trip to Ohio, the baby Bears have not been sleeping through the night. Naps have been completely off kilter. Brother Bear seems to have eczema and has an itchy rash over most of his torso, elbows and the backs of his knees. We've been trying many things to help this, but he has been a fussy little cub as a result. So now we have a Mama Bear home all day with a tantruming and defiant Big Sister Bear, a night waking Small Bear, and an itchy Brother Bear. This, no doubt you already realize, is a recipe for an irritable Mama Bear to say the least. A bleary-eyed, where-is-that-coffee-cup, please-don't-ask-me-what-you-can-do-because-you-are-bored-one-more-time, irritable mama.

So imagine my surprise, my delighted shock, that we had a great day yesterday. Things were far from perfect, if such a thing actually exists around 3 small bears, but we had a smooth happy day that left me feeling that we have really turned a corner in our family. Big Sister Bear does not have preschool on Mondays, so I have all day with her. That can be a good thing, or a bad thing depending on how the day goes. I like to think that we have more good than bad days, but life has definitely been crazy for the past 7 months.

Small Bear and Brother Bear took good naps at opportune times. Big Sister Bear was on her better behavior. I found the time and energy to sit down and spend some time with Big Sister Bear like we used to. It was wonderful. We read books, played bingo, played playmobil, and made lunch together. We went to gymnastics with a "Yay, gymnastics!" instead of the "I'm not going to gymnastics! I want to go to gymnastics!" that I have heard so often lately. Afterwards, we worked on her ant lapbook, had quiet time, and played Have You Herd? She helped make dinner with her nifty wavy vegetable chopper. Yes, you read that right. I actually made dinner. It was a recipe I found for crockpot Shepherd's Pie. It was very good. I also got everything done on my to-do list for the day. Alert the presses!

All joking aside though, I'm finally starting to feel that we have reached equlibrium. We have our routines figured out. We have a flexible working nap schedule. We're getting most things done in a day that really need to be done. We're actually having time for fun things like impromptu games and reading more than one book a day with Big Sister Bear. We can run to the park to play for a little while without everyone completely losing it. Our family is meshing. We have achieved normal.

Well, as normal as I'll ever be. :)