His side.
Mother's Day weekend.

I was telling Andrea that I was thinking of tell-tell signs that your mom were if you read a news article and you are jealous when you hear someone is in a coma and if you are watching Snow White and you think the Queen is so nice for letting Snow White take a nap and believe the villain is the guy who wakes her up so that she can continue helping take care of the 7 little people.  We had a nice full Mother's Day weekend, but today I am feeling the affects and am overly exhausted.  I can't tell if I am sick or just a worn out dad.  Either way I know I can't feel more exhausted than Andrea who had to do just as much as me this weekend but while taking blows to her inside by a restless person that is quickly outgrowing the limited space her body provides for them.

FRIDAY NIGHT...

 Andrea was suppose to have a relaxing night out with other moms from her social circle.  The plan seemed simple enough.  I would go to the store and get food for dinner for the three children and myself, then I would come home and Andrea would go out.  Simple right?  Except that I forgot to go to the store on the way home, not a big deal, I thought, I would come home and take at least one child out with me to the store, it would at least make it an even easier night while Andrea would have one less child to worry about while I shopped.  The problem was that while I was on my way home Nella was doing her normal routine of trying to make it impossible for Andrea to leave us alone flawlessly.  She had been throwing up continually for the previous hour.  Andrea had originally passed it off as maybe too full of a stomach from a large lunch. When I get home I decide I can take Amie or Gordie shopping while Nella is resting in bed.  Except Amie doesn't want to go to the store, she does want me to play with her though so while I play with her for a couple of minutes and get my hugs from Gordie Nella comes from her room and within a minute has thrown up right next to Amie and I.  I jump to my feet to get her to the restroom while now Amie is complaining of getting thrown up on and hearing Andrea yelling at Gordie to stop playing in the throw up.   I get Nella set up at the toilet and direct her on how to throw up in there as I prepare to clean up the trail from the original spot of discharge to the restroom.  Andrea is getting a large towel to clean up the original spot after locking Gordie safely in his room.  At this time Amie is still complaining that she has it on her, turns out it was just some splash back that got on her foot so I cleaned it up and went back to Nella who was stating she was done.

So at this point I get Nella in a bath while I finish cleaning up and getting things to the laundry room.  Andrea is adding her stuff to the laundry from Nella's earlier discharges.  I put Gordie down stairs where he has more access to toys and when Andrea is done in the laundry room she relaxes with Gordie while I finish cleaning Nella while trying to entertain all of Amie's questions including what is for "lunch" (she still thinks every meal is lunch).  I explain to her that I am busy and I can't make dinner because I am busy cleaning Nella, but that even if I wasn't I would have to go buy food, and I can't do that until I am done cleaning Nella and she is slowing me down by asking so many questions and expecting me to help her play with her toys.  "A good daddy would make dinner" she says.  "Well" I reply " I guess I am not a good daddy".  "Yes you are a good daddy, don't talk like that to me" she responds.  This puts a smile on my face and makes me laugh a little.  I get Nella in her room and down with a smart phone to help keep her calm as she relaxes and I talk through coming up with a new plan for the evening with Andrea.

At this point Andrea and I decide that I will take Amie shopping since Nella is calm in bed and Gordie is doing well downstairs with her.  Yet Amie still doesn't want to go, she is doing well playing with her toys though so Andrea and I agree I will just take Gordie.  Goride and I go shopping and I come home with some food.  At this point it is close TO 6:30, the same time Andrea was suppose to meet with her friends.  Except Nella is still having issues that need to be dealt with,  I help Nella while Andrea takes over the dinner prep which is just microwaved veggies and chicken nuggets to keep it simple.  Gordie and Amie do their part to eat the food while Nella rests on me while also stating she wants to eat, but Andrea and I know better than to risk it.  After dinner I take the three down stairs while Andrea still plans on leaving and tries to make that possible.  7 pm comes and Andrea is finally ready to leave.  Within the next hour I have to get Nella to the restroom 2 more times, but after she finally goes down at 8:00 pm she is able to keep it down.  With Gordie and Nella asleep I start to prepare a dinner for myself with Amie is waiting for me downstairs to finish the movie we had started.

This was the start of the weekend and after that I did relax waiting for Andrea to come home and we don't get to bed til after midnight, which I can tell you is very rare and we typically know better than to allow ourselves to stay up that late since we know that our children will have plans for us early the next morning.

...NEXT MORNING

Saturday morning starts at 6:30, or at least that would be the girls' plan.  They attempt to wake Andrea and I up but we both pretend we don't hear them until we finally cave to them and get up with them.  So our day has a nice firm start of 7 am.  It is a nice day so we do breakfast outside, by 'we' I mean Andrea and I act as a full waiting staff for the three children, Andrea and I don't eat at this time.  Andrea's time comes prior to work that she leaves for at 11 am.  My time won't come until 1 pm, after going to a garage sale, scraped knees being bandaged, teaching Amie how to ride her bike and scooters, inflating a swimming pool, and a trip to the library.  Now the kids are down to nap so I eat the leftover food from the children so it doesn't go to waste.  Now I finish inflating the pool then it is time to mow the lawn because I know I won't get any other time.  I feel lucky that I get that done while the kids are napping with time to spare to take a shower while the pool fills with water.

The kids are awake as evidenced by an open door that I notice on the back of the house when I come back from filling the pool, so I go to the girls room first and sure enough they are in there playing.  So I get them all up and we play in the pool while I keep track of the time because I know that when Andrea gets off work we have a children's birthday party to go to.  I get them inside, dressed and hair done on all of them.  Now we relax as I read a magazine that came in the mail and wait for Andrea to come home.  We go to the children's party and this pretty much finishes off our Saturday.  As the rest of the night is pretty uneventful because when we get home it is obvious the kids are ready for their beds.

...MOTHER'S DAY!

It is Sunday so it isn't that different in the morning as we get ready for Church, with a slight interruption of the children giving mom their mother's day cards that we obtained from the library for each child to fill out.  The plan for the day is to go to Six Flags where we will meet my mom and my aunt.  Andrea has expressed concerns about going due to a lower back pain that has been afflicting me the night before and her being pregnant with a new rash on her face that she thinks could be inflamed by heat.  I tell her she can spend Mother's Day alone if she would like, and she does like the idea but isn't sure yet.  So we go to Church and table that conversation.  After Church she decides to go through with going to Six Flags.  We get the kids home and feed them and prepare a bag for Six Flags.  The hope is that the kids can get enough of a nap to make them rested enough for the park.  This idea only is 2/3rd successful as Gordie never sleeps on the way.  The trip goes about as well as it can when the trip consists of a 3 yr old, 2 yr old, and a 1 yr old that never napped along with a pregnant woman with 8 weeks left on her 9 month sentencing.  I think of the trip as uneventful, but I am sure anyone else seeing it for the first time would not see the juggling and perfect timing needed to make this type of trip a success as uneventful.  Afterwards we go to get dinner and then home where the kids go straight to bed while Andrea and I retire to the couch to wind down with a movie.

...Monday

I am back to work and Andrea is back to her week, but no week is without an event, as this morning proved for Andrea, she has another child sick.  This time it is Gordie is wakes up in a puddle of throw up that Andrea has to clean and she makes a doctor appointment for what she believes could be shingles on her face.  The weeks plans include Andrea working tonight while I care for the children, ballet/tap dance class Tuesday, Church on Wednesday, Circus show at the library on Thursday... and as of now a free night of Friday.  Though a free night doesn't mean an easy night.

So the question is where does a person get one of those apples that put you in a magical coma and how do I make sure the little people and the other's let Andrea and I enjoy it?