Today started out...

With a load of dishes (thanks Mike!), 3 loads of laundry, 8 kids up and dressed and fed breakfast, meds given out, teeth brushed, hair brushed, three boys off to school, a shower for myself, a friend coming to babysit and our house fairy coming, all before 9am. And then... The day changed.

Then I remembered that Emma may need antibiotics before her dental cleaning, and I rushed around trying to print off the new(2007) standards showing she in no way was in the window of people needing them... Just in case the dentist wanted to see them. Then of course it wouldn't print at all, so I messed with the printer. Then it ran out of paper during the test print it was running. All three ink lights were also on. Then I got the document to print, but somehow the information about congenital heart defects was blank. Seriously... Blank.

I figured this must be a mistake and tried printing to a .pdf instead of to the printer. And it did it again. That entire area was simply blank. Next I copied and pasted to a Word document and from there was able to print. How strange!

Aleksa, Emma, and I went to the car at 9:10, when I was planning to leave at 8:50 or so for a 10am appointment in downtown Orlando. As I said goodbye I realized my purse had been left in the big van... Which Mike drove that day. We walked out to the car with the realization that I'd have to drive to the church before leaving town, and got to the van only to realize that the vest I use for Emma in the mini van was not there. Thankfully we have Radian carseats that have high weight capacities (she's over the 40 lb limit for most car seats) and with a little adjusting she was in and the three of us were off.

We stopped by the church, grabbed my purse, programmed my phone gps with our destination and we were off. I even called the dentist to let them know we were a bit behind and without even asking our names they waived it off as "fine, not a big deal". Maybe... they are really used to downtown traffic. Or maybe, I was one of the only morning appointments without a Spanish accent :).

We arrived about 10 minutes late but the wait wasn't awful, despite the 21 people standing in the waiting room which had park benches lining the walls which would seat only 12 people! Emma went first, since I knew her anxiety would just grow and grow if she had to wait for Aleksa to go. She did really well, though it was definitely a struggle for her to tolerate. She was really good, though :). We have known her teeth were bad, however we have been trying to get her in to the dentist for over two years without it working. Today was the day! Emma has 3 cavities and has two baby teeth that aren't coming out, however her adult teeth are already in behind them. She is having a sedated procedure scheduled to take care of those things.

Aleksa did ok... Though even though she understands more (as far as her ability to understand more complex thoughts... Not her ability to understand words or to be obedient...), she still behaved worse. Let's just say I'm not surprised. I held her mouth open and she whined and fussed through it all, but it was done. She has one cavity and one baby tooth that needs to be pulled-- same as Emma-- because the adult tooth is in behind it. She, too, is being scheduled for the procedure to be sedated. The other option was a full restraint and local anesthesia in the office. With neither of my girls would do well with at ALL, especially considering their pasts!

Michael came home at lunch time to relieve Chris from childcare duties and eat with the kids while the girls and I drove home for a quiet afternoon at the house with five of the kids. Michael also brought the boys home--very thankful that he can do that!!-- and we had a good afternoon with 8 littles and myself as well.

Since Michael had a meeting tonight, he didn't come home between work and the meeting so he could make up some of is missed time during the day. That left dinner to me, which was just fine. Dinner was made and served about 5:15, then baths for the 5 that have places to be in the morning, except for a detour where James and I had a battle of the wills over whether or not he would drink more than 1/2 oz for dinner. In the end, he had roughly 8 oz in his stomach, therefore I believe it's safe to say that I won that battle. He stopped his lovely angry fit and answered with "yes ma'am" before heading off for the second torturous experience of the night... Bath time.

Between his dinner and his bath, meds were done and teeth brushed, Kristopher got his shower, and the kids all headed off in their respective directions for bed. Kristopher read to the girls for 10 minutes before getting his lunch ready for tomorrow and getting himself ready for bed, and after the torture session of one of the fastest baths ever, James took a nice long diaper-clad cuddle on my chest before getting his pjs on and heading off to bed himself. With lots of hugs and kisses and I love you's thrown back to me with sweet little doe-eyes. Even if I am the evil mommy that makes him eat...

Wesley was last to be talked in to eating the rest of his dinner, but with him it's a pointless battle most days. He got pjs and off to bed with Kristopher by 7:45, just in time for me to go sit in the girls' room and ask them continuously to stop giggling, talking, getting out of bed, and better yet... Jumping on their beds!

Mike got home about then, and relax time set in :). For some reason the girls all recognized that when Daddy was home they'd best just go to sleep... ;)

Today's long day will be followed by a restful Tuesday! One where five kids are off to their activities in the morning, I set up our meal menu for the month and maybe even grocery shop, and we have no plans at all for the day :)

Thankful that this week we have no appointments on Tuesday and Wednesday, that I have our new sitter coming on Wednesday for a bit just so I can get things done around the house, and on Friday all the kids AND MIKE have off for Good Friday! We also have a sitter coming a few hours on Friday so Mike can get out and just to prepare for a Holiday weekend! Looking forward to a great week this week and a fun weekend as well!

And... I'm glad Monday is over with!!! :)