Day 26: Not the Aunt!

I wanted to post last night, but by 8pm my brain had waved the white flag. Normally, on Thursdays, I just hang out at home with E. We lay around, run errands, cook, watch movies, and go on fun outings. But yesterday we had some visitors!

There are some exciting events happening in E's extended family (on his daddy's side). His aunt and uncle (Ex's sister) are currently in eastern Europe to adopt their adorable baby girl, which means their other three kids are shifting between the homes of the grandparents. Normally, they have this covered without issue (or at least, without anyone defecting to another family.) But yesterday the stars aligned so that there were several hours in need of coverage. In comes "Not the Aunt Sara!" And not only was I watching "Not My Niece" and (only for a few minutes, because then he was off to school) "Not My Nephew," the grandparents also had Ex's two baby girls with them. So I ended up watching "Not My Stepdaughters" as well. My life is weird.

When they got here, the kids commenced getting every toy E owns out of his room, and I attached the baby to my hip to feed my baby fever. Everything was great. I was giving her a bottle, rocking her to sleep, and loving every second. But not having a baby in my home regularly means there is no baby stuff around. No toys, no crib, no snacks, nada. As she got sleepy, I tried to figure out the best place to lay her down and decided to pull her car seat into my bedroom. I snuck in there away from the chaos to try and rock her to sleep. She was ALMOST OUT, when the two year old came in the room pulled on my shirt and sweetly said, "I go potty now." Seriously? Right this second? The baby's eyes were fluttering, but I knew if I set her down she would wake up. But there is no asking a two year old to wait. She had already peeled off her pull up and was launching herself face first onto the toilet bowl. I had to quickly educate myself on how to hold an armful of sleepy baby while simultaneously wiping an unsteady toddler. Success!

I played referee for the other kids for the next few hours. They all wanted to play with the same toys and they all got insanely upset when they couldn't have them all to themselves. There were some ugly moments, and at one point I designated spots on the kitchen floor where they all had to stand still in a makeshift timeout after world war three broke out over who got rights to the purple plate. But for the most part, things went well. Then the baby woke up. Again, I have no safe baby places, and by this time there was a landmine of choking hazards scattered across my house. While I'm all about annoying the tar out of the Ex, allowing his youngest child to choke on a squinkie isn't high on the list of ways I want to do that. So I attached her again to my side, which she loved for about 30 minutes and then loathed for the rest of her visit. She wanted to ROAM! I think she was fighting off another nap by the time the grandmother came to get her.

There were some sweet moments. The kids all worked together to build a giant lego castle, and at one point, while holding the baby, E crawled up next to me wanting me to read, and his two year old sister proclaimed loudly, "I want to sit by you too!" It felt nice.

All in all, the visit went well. But I may or may not have hugged E after everyone left and thanked him for being an only child.

Then I packed him up and we were off to Extreme Sculpt where my insane instructor told us to grab 10 lb weights and then proceeded to send us through hell for 45 minutes. I don't know if I'm getting sick, or my stamina is waning, or if the kids had just kicked my tail, but I was wrung out by the end of it.

By the time E was in bed, I was a heap on the couch, pouring over my new clean eating cookbook. Just a few days left before I turn into the Martha Stewart of Clean Eating!

Wife. Mom. Daughter. Therapist. Sister. Runner? Clean Eater. Not the Aunt. Not the Stepmother.

My life is weird. I am thankful for it.