When Mornings Melt Your Heart and Singe Your Hair

 Sometimes in the hurriedness of the morning, things at my house get intense. I may say something to one of my kids that I wouldn’t normally, but when we are already 10 minutes late getting out the door my frustration gets the best of me and one of my kids starts their day in tears. Today was one of those days, but let me begin my story at yesterday 4:40pm……

   I had already picked the kids up from school and we were literally walking in the door as a storm hit. I don’t know what it is with my neighborhood but even if it LOOKS like a storm, our electricity goes out. This storm was no exception. First there were strong winds then a heavy downpour for about five minutes. As the first gust of wind hit, we lost power. When the power goes out the kids always think it’s cool for a minute but when it doesn’t come right back on, they get in armageddon mode and start to panic. Of course it didn’t come right back on and to ease fears we went outside to play. You couldn’t even tell there had just been a storm with the sun shining, however, all of the blown over trash cans and split trees blown around the neighborhood gave it away. I decided to order pizza since there was no way to cook or see to make anything and I use any excuse big or small to order pizza anyway. When the pizza came we decided to sit outside picnic style since it was cooler and brighter out there. We are having a grand ole’ time when all of a sudden McKenna gets stung by a wasp. She’s crying and her hand is swelling up and I’m cursing the city of garland power company for doing this to my baby! I give her Benadryl and an ice pack and I decide it’s time to go in. By this time it’s almost pitch black in our house. We bust out the flashlights and the candles. I knew the kids had to take a shower so I hunted down my tall candle stands and put them in the bathroom so they could see. I knew the big girls could handle taking a shower with an open flame (although I had my doubts about Avery) so I let them go first. When it came time for Maizy’s turn I told her I would help her. 

   Maizy and I go into the bathroom and I tell her to get undressed while I turn my back for a second to start the shower. She was wearing a ponytail and her hair is really long. I beg her to cut it but she says she’s growing it out like the girl on Tangled so she can use it to swing from if she ever gets put in a situation where she would need to swing from it. Anyway, I turn back around and the end of her ponytail is on fire. I know what you’re thinking, “Terrible mother! She let her baby’s hair catch fire!” But seriously it was a split second that I turned to start the shower and she must have raked that ponytail across that candle and poof! I instantly grabbed a towel and snuffed it out. It didn’t burn her in any way. As a matter of fact she wouldn’t have even known it happened if it weren’t for me screaming “ Oh Lord your hair is on fire!!!!” After that I gave her a shower and trimmed the singed ends off so you can’t even tell it happened except for the black burn mark on my tile wall in the bathroom now. 

   After showers were completed it was past bed time. Still no power. I told the kids to all pile in my bed and I raised the windows to get a breeze going in my 85 degree house and before long they were all snoring. I waited and waited thinking the power would come on any minute. Well it took a while and when it did finally come on, every light and tv in the house came on, our burglar alarm started going off and the dog started freaking out. Everyone woke up. It took me a while to get them back to sleep and by that time it was REALLY late. 

   Here is where the part comes in about morning tears. So this morning I’m trying to wake Maizy up and it’s not going well. She’s exhausted, which is expected since she’s only 5 and hey, she had a rough night. I finally get her up 30 minutes later than usual and I’m rushing her. “Hurry up and get dressed!” “Hurry up and brush your teeth!” Blah Blah Blah. She’s not feeling it and she’s taking her sweet time and telling me she doesn’t need to go to school today since she already learned stuff yesterday and she’s too tired to brush her teeth. She finally gets to a point where all she has left to do is brush her hair. Well her hair is in bad shape because she got so sweaty the night before with no AC in the house among other things. I told her I wanted to put her hair up in a bun. So I get it in a perfect bun and I’m like, “Thank God we are only 5 minutes late out the door!” She goes to the mirror to check it out and starts crying and taking it out stating that it looks dorky and she will never wear her hair like that! We get into a yelling match  and I get her hair back up in a ponytail and she’s crying all the way out the door, partly from exhaustion and partly from stubbornness. We get halfway to dropping them off and I’m really late at this point when she informs me she didn’t eat breakfast. I tell her we don’t have time now and she will have to wait for lunch. So I drop her off with the incredibly patient woman that drives them to school and I’m wiping away her tears as I’m pulling her out of the car and I give her a kiss and hug and say “Have a good day I love you.” As I’m driving to work I can’t help but cry a little too, partly because I’m exhausted and partly because I couldn’t stand the way I had left her. When I got to work I emailed her teacher and basically said "Our morning was rough, please give extra hugs" and knowing the teacher she has this year I felt a little better because I knew she would do that for me.
    My point here is, it’s not just mornings that are rough when you have kids. It’s actually a LOT of the time that ends up being rough, but no matter what happens you still need to hug and kiss them and tell them you love them not just because you feel the urge to in your heart but because they feel the need in theirs. Here’s to a 3 day weekend and no storms in the forecast!!