I believe in little things.

Well, vacation is over.  Or, Todd's vacation is over, which means that I don't have the option to tag anyone in while I'm parenting.  And the little things helped illustrate that this morning.  By 11 a.m., I was lamenting, "This day!  This day!"  And by the way, what does it tell you that my three-year-old now says, "I can't take it!" when she's upset?  Where on earth did she get that one?

We began the morning with a call to Roto Rooter because our toilet clogged last night.  I  stoically held it for several hours after unsuccessfully attempting to forgo my morning coffee.  Then Marley and I had several arguments culminating in two time-outs and a tantrum that prompted me to turn off Rudy's baby monitor.  (Neighbors recently told Todd that they can pick up our channel.  Um?!)  I think the tantrums were just Marley and I vying for control since we realized that it was just the two of us again (and Rudy, of course, but she is blessedly un-bossy).  And what does it tell you that as we left the house (eventually, see below), Marley advised me to "go get a coffee or something so you'll be happy"?

As I corralled Bean and Toot and Toot's diaper bag and bottles and Marley's snacks, I remembered that Marley's car seat cover was still in the dryer because she spilled chocolate milk all over it yesterday.  I ran to the basement to grab it, raced upstairs, slid on the icy driveway, and spent the next twenty minutes I didn't have yanking the seat's harnesses through the cover's narrow openings.  I thought I could do it without unlatching the seat, but halfway through, I ending up pulling the thing apart anyway.  In a wind chill of, oh, fifteen degrees or so.  And just as I was about to latch it back in place, I noticed two things:

1.  There were actual puddles of chocolate milk in the plastic wells of the seat itself.

2.  I had crisscrossed the harnesses and they needed to be pulled out and tugged back in correctly. 

So I ran in to grab some paper towels and muttered something to Marley about her not being allowed to have milk in the car for a while.  Rudy was already inconsolable on her playmat.  I moved her to her infant car seat and gave her a nuh-nuh (pacifier). Marley took over the crying for her, wailing, "I want milk!  I want milk!"

When I finally had the seat clean enough and hooked up safely, I came back in to get Rudy, who had spit up all over her harnesses and shirt.  As if to say, "I want to make a stinky milk mess, too!"

It gets better.

Where were we headed in such a hurry?  We were picking up my mom to bring her to the adult day services center at which we recently convinced her she would be volunteering.  She has early-onset Alzheimer's, she doesn't drive, she lives with my older sister, and she really shouldn't be on her own when Heather's at work.  I had called her two times before we left to remind her that we were coming, that she needed to bring her insulin, and that I'd be taking her to the neurologist after her volunteering was over.  By the time I picked her up, she didn't have the things she needed and my gas light was on.

"I guess I need gas, " I said, once she got in the car.  "I'll get it after we get you where you're going."

"Oh.  Why?  Am I going somewhere?"

For crying out loud.  I know that I am a lucky lady in so many ways.  My kids are cute and smart, my husband is kind and talented, I have a warm and cozy house in the town I love, blah, blah, blah.  But wouldn't it be better to start the day with a working toilet?  Without day-old milk spills and fresh Similac vomit?  Without being responsible for a three-year-old, a three-month-old, and a sixty-two-year-old?

Here are some little things that help:

1.  Last night I discovered that Marley actually diapered one of her super balls.

2.  Marley has developed a nerdy, gasping, honking sort of laugh.

3.  Rudy has sweet smiles and her tiny frowns are so cute you want to punch something.  

4.  Wine can be purchased by the box!