O'Brien dictation 8/20/10

Nearly 10 years of social work has helped me to perfect my skills in documenting events. Parent/child visitations. Court hearings. Worker/child visits. Family Support Team meetings. I feel as though today was worth dictating. It's thorough i.e. long (shout out to Mawby), but I figured what the heck.

Started off with a half day of work. Sounds good. A nice way to end my week. I made a quick stop by my new favorite store, Lifeway Christian bookstore. Sidebar: everyone should expect xmas gifts from there because I LOVE it and find more cool things every time I go. Sidebar part two: well, not "everyone" reading this blog should expect a gift but if you do get one it's likely to come from Lifeway :)

Anywho, so I exchanged a gift that I had bought the week before because the first one broke. The sweetest lady checked me out today and last week. She has a kind heart. I could tell right away. She welcomed me to the store as I walked in and called me sweetie the entire time I was shopping. Perfect job for her except I get the feeling she doesn't actually know how to do the job. It took her about 10 minutes to complete my exchange. A computer "malfunction" which was later determined to be her failure to push the "finalize transaction" button on the computer. All the while she is chastising the computer and calling it (in the sweetest voice) Satan and Spawn of Satan. I think she's better off working the floor and greeting customers. I highly suspect she and technology don't mesh well.

So I picked the boys up and decided to run a few more errands before taking them home for a nap. I'm thinkin' its going to wear them out so I can get some work done while they sleep. That plan was successful for Leo (slept 3 hours). Not so much for Justin a/k/a Mr. Sassypants. After 90 minutes of fighting sleep which entailed removing every light, music, toy, and stuffed animal from his room, I gave in and let him get up. Now don't be fooled. He was tired. He has just developed some adverse reaction to napping in our home. But rest assured that every day when I arrive at Ellan's (daycare) to pick him up the first thing he says to me is "I didn't talk on my cot (at naptime)." Oh well, really pat yourself on the back there kiddo! That was about 15 months ago when you got in trouble for it at Ellan's and still it's his pride and joy everyday. I live for the days when we arrive AT Ellan's and he can report staying in bed. I digress.

So he was allowed to get up from nap. As he came down the steps I told him that because he did not stay in bed for a nap his consequence was "no special treats (food) and no Scooby Doo." Sure, no problem. For about 5 seconds. Until he saw the chocolate chip cookies sitting by my chair. So he walks over to me all sweet-like. Actually buttering me up by telling me he loves me. He asked for a cookie. I denied. He pouted for a minute (and this is the BEST part) and says "can I just get close to them and smell them?" I about died laughing!!! And I let him smell them and even let him put one finger on them like he asked. But he didn't get a cookie.

So the afternoon moves on. He is nearly delirious with lack of sleep. Wavering back and forth from sassy to hilariously uncontrolled laughter to zoning out. I'm pretty sure he was pestering me just to keep himself awake because if he sat down too long he almost fell asleep. Meanwhile, my laptop caught a virus. I called Jeremy at work for advice and he does the big 1, 2, 3 freak out on me over the phone because there isn't a "run" button when I push start. Well, sorry buddy! Talk to Dell but I'm here to tell you that there is no run button. I have Jeremy on the phone in full crisis mode over the computer and Justin trying to run a motorcycle over my face. It wasn't pretty. For the sake of our marriage, we ended our phone call. The laptop took a backseat to Sassy McSasserson. And don't worry folks, Jeremy is much better at managing medical crisis than he is home crisis. Grandview residents can rest safely. He calls back about 20 minutes later and tries to advise me again minus the frustration. It was minimally successful and we still chose to put off any sort of efforts to fix the computer with him instructing me over the phone.

Then my sweet baby Leo woke up. And I could just curse myself for this: I told him we were going somewhere (Parkville Days to see the sites and ride the rides...it was such a GOOD plan). Why or why do I do these things to myself? Do I not REMEMBER that he will demand to leave immediately? That he has his father and grandfather's patience? Why or why do I do it? And so I try to rush around to get us ready while he is screaming "shoes" and "doodie" which actually means "hold me" as in carry me to the car. So mama's got the diaper bag packed. The stroller in the car. And the rain starts again. So we are back in the house. A quick dinner at home and then the rain breaks and I make another attempt at Parkville Days.

Justin is PUMPED! He's all: "I'm being good, mom. Look at me, mom. I'm following directions, mom!" SWEET!

So we make a quick stop at the bank down the street (which will be an important detail later) which is not our home bank but I haven't planned ahead, shocking I know, so I have to pay a ridiculous $6 fee just to get my own money. And so we are FINALLY off to Parkville, which is all of about 5 minutes from my house. As we pull into downtown Parkville and pull up right beside the all of the big rides it starts to rain again. Big ol' drops. So I'm kind of panicking. I'm thinking how am I going to explain to Justin that it just isn't going to happen tonight? Justin? Justin? I look back and he is dead asleep! It's 6:15 pm.

So I just circle the park and head home. I had to call my sister to debrief and she helped me to see that this was actually a successful venture. We met Leo's goal of leaving the house. He never understood where we were going in the first place. And Justin is asleep for what I THOUGHT was going to be for the rest of the night.

We make it home. Justin is in bed. Leo is playing with his glow worm which he has named "mommy" and putting "mommy" to bed under the blankets and pillows in the living room. Pretty sure "mommy" will suffocate under all of that, but it's not a battle I'm going to fight tonight.

Fast forward about 2 hours and I'm cleaning house. God clearly supports me being at home tonight and not fiddling around on the computer so I might as well put my time to good use. And then I hear Justin bawling and crying in his bed. I run up there and he was totally out of it. He gets up and goes potty and can barely stand up. I put him back to bed and he kept asking if we were there yet and if we are at the bank. I finally just had to tell him yes, were are at the bank. He eventually fell back asleep.

I put Leo to bed for his (hopefully) last night in the crib because his big boy bed arrives tomorrow! Every time I tell him he just asks "why?" Because I said so, son. Just because I said so. Get used to it.

Jeremy and I take a stab at a joint effort to fix the computer which is clearly a success, hence the blog! I told him that it was a Friday night miracle and he responded "yeah, you fixed it and I didn't yell at you."

All is well at the O'Briens.