Let's recap, shall we?

Oy ee vay.

I have to say, I am impressed with how many times I didn't lose my patience today.

Jackson woke up yelling No! to me, so that's fun. He had to go to his room and play by himself by 9 am because he kept crying and tantruming.

Charlotte hasn't been sleeping long shifts the last few nights, so I'm a little extra tired.

We went to Target to get ingredients to make cookies for Leo's home "teachees". Target was dandy. However, we didn't make tons of friends there because Jackson had a raunchy poop in the toy section. I tried to hurry him away from the toys to go change him and every mom we passed, smelled her own child's bum and then looked at me disgusted. (That's slightly exaagerated, but one mom actually did check her own child's diaper and I said, don't worry, it's mine. And she gave this pity smile, like ok, get that smell away from me.) Then in the checkout line, a sweet little grandma smiled at Jackson and started to put her stuff behind ours on the belt and Jackson wasn't okay with that. So he kept yelling, "Excuse me!" (too-me is what it sounds like) and gave her a grump face.

Once we came home, Charlotte decided that she wasn't going to take independent naps for the rest of the day. Every time I laid her down, I would hear her wake up within 10 minutes.

Jackson didn't take a nap. I did leave him in there for an hour and a half, which did give some form of break. He would just yell every couple minutes to let me know he was still awake. "Morning!" is what he yells to say he's done with nap.

One of the times, I tried to put Charlotte down, I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with Jackson, but I forgot the baking powder annnnd the cinnamon. Needless to say, they were ga-ross. Not sweet at all, which I guess I don't understand what the cup of sugar does, but not enough sweetness. So those 2 dozen cookies were a bust. Even I couldn't eat them, so there was no way I was going to give them to other people.

On to treat #2. Mint chocolate brownies. Way more successful, but I did leave them in a few minutes too long because I was trying to clean out the car quickly. They were still edible at least.

Then, I realized we didn't have any paper plates to put them on, so we made a quick trip to the dollar store and grabbed some little candies to put with the brownies.

I came home, got the treats on plates and wrapped up. 5 minutes later, I hear a crash from the kitchen. Charlotte's crying in my arms and I'm trying to not be mad at Jackson for pulling down a plate of treats. When I want into the kitchen, his face showed he knew he was in trouble. I tried my very hardest to not yell, because I don't want to yell at my kids when they spill stuff. I still do sometimes, but I have the goal to not. Anyway, he frantically tried to grab the brownies and put them back. I told him it was fine, but to walk away. Leave the kitchen.

Short story, long.

We eventually recovered. Charlotte gave me sweet smiles and I talked to her for awhile when I was getting her pajamas on. I put Jackson to bed. To be honest, he was crying and screaming while I gave him a hug and kiss and said goodnight. I was patient but he was pushing the boundaries today.

Today, I felt the monotony of being a stay at home mom. I thought, man if I could just have one hour to myself. I even tried to give Charlotte formula which was a no go, because I thought, if she takes it consistently for a few days, then maybe I could leave her with someone else for more than 2 hours.

Charlotte's asleep in the swing. She'll wake up soon, but that's okay. Jackson's asleep upstairs. I've eaten dinner and gotten some time to myself. Hopefully, Leo will be home soon. Poor guy has long hours and then rides his bike to and from the train in the freezing cold.

Most importantly!!!We're heading to California for the rest of the week for Thanksgiving! Stay tuned for some pics! I'm so excited to see my family.