Since Sara started back at work, this baby stuff has really gotten out of control.

Suddenly all of the little things that we were handling so well just reached the boiling point. It’s a lot of little things: Alex being a bit grumpier when his momma’s not around, everyone getting up a bit earlier, spending just a bit more time solo-parenting three kids. Even Sara not being at home during the day; whereas previously she might have only been able to do one thing, like a load of dishes…well, that’s one load that doesn’t get done now.

The sleeping thing is a big one. It’s not so much that we’re not getting enough sleep (though we aren’t getting enough sleep), it’s more that in order to GET enough sleep we have to go to bed at like 8, which means no time in the evening to do all of the things we didn’t do during the day. And everything takes longer when you’re holding a baby; I now have to get up at 5:30 a.m. in order to get to work by 9 (I don’t know if that’s better or worse than Sara going to work at 6:30).

Sara and I are also burning through our vacation time trying to make up for the hours that we don’t have time to work. A half day here, a couple more hours there…

I don’t know. We just crossed some magical line where everything went from:

to

There is something about a baby’s cry that just removes all of your patience, and when Sara’s not around, there are times when there’s just no way to stop him from crying. Add that to older kids pestering you non-stop with questions while you’re trying to make dinner…I guess I didn’t realize how much of a toll it was taking on me until the other day when Sara came home and I handed her the baby and then just straight up sobbed for about 5 minutes. Me! The seasoned veteran, with 2 kids behind me! (There also may have been a separate incident a different day in which I told the kids, “stay right here, don’t move, I have to go downstairs and yell as loud as I can for a minute.”)

I do kind of feel like the log jam is breaking up a bit. School is winding down, Evelyn’s play is over, and we’re going to get into a routine sooner or later. Sara and I are also making an effort to remember that we typically go out of our way to do things in the most difficult possible fashion, and we need to give ourselves permission to just…let things go sometimes.

But in the meantime, I just kind of feel like I’m running really fast down a hill and if I don’t keep my feet churning as fast as humanly possible, I’m going to do a spectacular face plant (probably right in front of all of the REALLY POPULAR kids too).

Which reminds me of a great story, which I’m going to include here instead of making you click over to read the original post.

So the final funny thing that happened was that there was this MONSTROUS sand dune that we encountered a few times.  We took pictures, but the pictures couldn’t possibly do it justice.  It was so steep at the top it was like a wall; straight up and down.  It was just amazing.  It was so much fun to run down that you couldn’t help but laugh like a loon even as you were busting out all your teeth on a tree.  Right about when you hit 70 mph you realize “this is going to end badly” and the rest of the time is spent just trying to get your next foot out in front of you.  So my brother missed the first trip there so I had to go with him the next day.  Walking (actually crawling, literally, on our hands and knees because it was so steep) up the hill nearly killed me!!  It was so much worse than I could ever have imagined.  So anyway, after going to the beach, we walked back and I went down the hill first so I could take pictures of him coming down.  So he really gets going, obviously a little too fast, because he just does a perfect face plant right into the sand.  I thought he died, so I tried to get a picture of it, but then the most amazing thing happened!  For a split second the shutter was closed so I didn’t see it exactly, but the next thing I see is him running straight at me!  Apparently his momentum was great enough that his feet just flipped over his head and landed back on the ground and he just kept going!  When he got to the bottom you couldn’t even see his face, it was just a solid mass of sand with eyes blinking out.  He couldn’t even swallow because all the sand in his mouth dried it out.  It was HIL ARIOUS!

So hey, here’s to face planting with enough momentum to land back on your feet again!