after vacation

My kids were seriously awesome on vacation.....for the most part.....

The childless family members vacationing with us may disagree but if you have an 18 month old, you know that noise is just part of it!

I'm ignoring the morning wake ups at 6 am (that's 5 am in Dallas and they usually sleep until 8:30 here!) and the last couple of days when Nolan became incredibly needy and cranky and mommy-obsessed (teething pain??? who knows). Having the toddlers in the beach house too long was the only truly stressful part for me....we rushed to get out and get them busy as soon as possible. The flight home was fine. They were so tired they slept most of both legs.

Finally to the point of this post:

The first few days home after vacation where tough! Give me two over-tired, confused, hungry toddlers, company at our house, a busy schedule of activities and let's throw in a little PMS while we're at it.  I reached the end of my rope!  Thank goodness Brad was working and was excited to see his kids at the end of the day! One evening, I went to break up a tug-o-war fight the boys were having over a freaking vacuum hose extension piece. On my way, I felt my blood pressure rising and the steam beginning to leave my ears. I stopped as I was almost there, looked at Brad and said, "I have to walk away right now."  I went inside, shed a small self-pity tear then shed another tear for being so weak when other loved ones are dealing with soooooooooo much more than two cranky babies.

All was resolved.....I mean...they fight over toys a lot. It was just that I had reached my limit.  Brad was awesome about it...seriously no big deal. He had a similar experience when they were infants and neither would stop crying and neither would go to sleep in the middle of the night when we were both sleep deprived.  I was rocking Carter and Brad was bouncing and soothing Nolan for some time. He suddenly placed Nolan in his crib, raised his hands and said, "I have to leave the room."  Every parent knows sometimes you just have to step aside and take a deep breath to refocus yourself and manage your frustration.

We took the boys to the pediatric urgent care that evening (they know us by name there).  I was partly hoping for some ear infections to explain their behaviors and my short rope. Nope....Nothing....they were both perfectly healthy.  I felt even weaker.  Yes, it could always be teething pain.  And Brad repeatedly reminded me of the fact that they just got home from a pretty big schedule changing week!

That night, they were down at 9:30.  They didn't wake up until 9:45 the next morning!!!  Amazing. Then they were up for a pleasant 2.5 hrs and slept again for over 3 hours.  We had a nice evening, nice dinner and routine bedtime, down by 8pm. 

Here's to hoping we are back in business!!!!  Back to our old entertaining, busy, pleasant, giggly, happy little selves.
Yes, I just raised my glass of mojito.  And I think I will say an AMEN as well!