Run, Matt, Run

Wednesday is a busy day in our house. Every day is busy in our house, but Wednesdays especially. Wednesday is library day, the day when I take the kids to the library for 20 minutes of director-led music and reading while my kids run circles around all the other well-behaved toddlers who are sitting and listening attentively. I only have two hours to get the kids up, fed, changed, and out the door if we’re going to make it in time to hear the opening song.

The time drain is one of the hardest adjustments I’ve had to make since the children arrived. When I was still being paid for my slave labor, I woke up 45 minutes before walking out the door. That gave me enough time to shower, dress, eat, read the newspaper, make lunch, and let the dog out before beginning my commute. I could even make it out the door in 15 minutes by paring down to the essentials: Eat, dress, and of course let the dog out. Today I need two hours just to get the kids ready. I could get out the door in an hour if necessary, but trying to do anything quicker is suicidal.

I need to leave the house at 10am for library time. That means I need to wake the kids up by 8am to leave comfortably. Yesterday I was already behind schedule after sleeping in a little and grabbing the boys at 8:15. Actually, the tardiness started the previous night when Abbie stayed up until about 10:30 banging around the room, delaying my opportunity to check the Internet in peace.

Note that I only grabbed the boys. Abbie was not surprisingly still asleep. Fair enough, I had plenty of work to do with the boys. I fed them, cleaned some dishes, set out clothes for the day, changed their clothes, and of course let the dog out. It was 9am by this time, and this is what I saw in Abbie’s bedroom:



I stopped caring about her sleep and started changing diapers on the changing table next to her bed. The noise and potentially the smell roused her from slumber. I quickly dressed her for the day and shooed her into the kitchen for breakfast while I finished with the boys.

Abbie finished her breakfast around 9:15. I took 15 minutes to eat my breakfast, and decided to tempt fate by cleaning the dishes. I always crash late in the morning, and if I waited until we returned from library time to clean dishes, they’d probably sit until after lunch, and I don’t think I have enough free afternoon time to take care of the post-breakfast and lunch dishes simultaneously.

I went to work, but between putting away clean dishes, washing dirty dishes, and checking the kids every time someone screamed, it was 9:50 by the time I finished. No problem; I can rush everyone out to the car in ten minutes as long as I suffer no delays. I put shoes on Ian. I put shoes on Tory. I started to put shoes on Abbie … and discovered a poopy diaper.

I changed her, and returned to work. No problem; I can still make up the lost time on the drive. I put a coat on Abbie. I put a coat on Tory. I put a coat on Ian … and discovered that he’d removed a shoe and sock. No problem; I reattached the footwear while I carried him out to the car.

With everyone strapped into their seats, I pulled away and put the pedal to the metal relative to the speed limit of the residential streets we’d be speeding through. I needed to make good time to arrive for the opening song, and the traffic goods blessed me with green lights instead of the freshly changed red ones they usually throw at me.

I pulled into the parking lot right before the scheduled start of library time. I threw the boys in the stroller, set Abbie by my side, and implored her to run with us to the door. She dawdled to the door, as toddlers are wont to do. We walked inside, turned the corner, and saw the director about to close the door. We walked through, and I removed everyone’s coats as the opening song began.

I finally had a chance to rest. Not for long, though, since the kids were running in three different directions and disturbing the well-behaved children, but at least I could sit for a couple seconds.