Saved by a Service Dog

Our morning began kind of rough, and seemed to just fall to pieces by noon. I’m usually ready for naptime when it rolls around every day, but today I was damn near ready to change the clocks and pretend it was 1pm. It just couldn’t get here quick enough.

Dakota woke up at 5:45am. 5:45 is just too darn early. Seriously. But, I’ll tell you what, her smile makes up for the serious sleep deprivation. She is so incredibly happy to see me when I come in her room that I just can’t be upset with her. It takes me a few minutes, but she just keeps giving me her award winning grin and I’m mush. She ate a bottle, played for a bit and then crashed at 8:30am for a nap. Stinker.

Harper asked for fruit this morning. I asked what kinds he wanted and he said strawberries, apples and grapes. Score! We had all of the requested items which meant he’d be happy as a lark, right? Wrong. Silly me, I put them all in a single bowl. Like, fruit salad. Big mistake. This only induced a tiny tantrum but was quickly remedied by allowing him to sort his fruit into separate dishes. Phew.

I decided today was haircut day for Dakota. I’ve just had it with the wispy stuff in her eyes, so it was time to get a trim. I figured she’d cry as she isn’t too fond of strangers at this age, but all in all, she did pretty good. I held her on my lap facing me and kept her as still as I could while the beautician worked as fast as possible without taking out anyone’s eye.

Since we were already there I thought I may as well get Harper’s hair trimmed as well. The past couple times he’s gone he’s done great. Sitting by himself, happy and cooperative. Today, not even close. He threw the mother of all tantrums until, by some stroke of luck, a woman walked in with her service dog. Her dog was a tall black standard poodle, not something you see every day, especially in a beauty shop. Just the dogs presence immediately calmed Harper down enough that the haircut was able to get finished.

Thankfully Landon was there to help me through all the trauma. He did his best to occupy whichever baby wasn’t in the hot seat. After the haircuts I thought, hey, today’s already sucking, lets go to Wal-Mart!

Oh yes, I did.

Wal-Mart wasn’t too awful. Actually, let me rephrase that. My kids weren’t too awful in Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart was as awful as usual. We scrambled through there as fast as we could getting only what was on the list, and made it out unscathed for the most part. Out of 30 registers I think maybe 10 were open and each line was about 5 deep. I really hate shopping there.

I figured the meltdowns of the morning were over and going home would be easy peasy. But then, we got home and things were more like hell.

The second Harper got out of the van, he took off running in the snow. I figured what the hell, I’ll give him a few minutes of glory while I unload the van. Dakota wanted out of her car seat the very instant I opened the door to the house, and screamed about it until I solicited Landon’s help in getting her out while I chased Harper down. He got her out and gave her a toy and started unpacking bags while I spent the next few minutes outside coaxing Harper indoors. I told him I’d let him bring in some snow in a bucket to play with and that finally did it. Unfortunately, he was super excited about it and as he ran into the kitchen, he fell face first on the ceramic tile in the kitchen. Those wet tennis shoes just went staight out from under him and he fell flat on his nose. That’s when more screaming began. Harper because he was hurt, Dakota because she decided she’d had enough of the bs. At least I guess that’s why Dakota was crying. It’s why I wanted to cry.

I got them both calmed down, gave some kisses and then went to get some wooden spoons and such for Harper to use to play in the snow. Well, that stupid idea cost me another tantrum. He yelled through more tears “I. DON’T. WANT. SPOONS. IN. MY. SNOW!!!” and I promptly picked up the bucket, tossed it outside on the deck (spoons and all), picked him up and placed him in time out, picked up Dakota and walked into the kitchen and reminded myself that there were only about 20 minutes until nap time. I made a quick lunch for the babies, fed them, changed diapers, read two books and got them both in bed.

Thankfully they both slept and I had a little time to regroup and relax. Unfortunately, I had the entire afternoon to figure out.

Woo.

Hoo.