We survived, but barely

I suppose you could say that attempting to take a 4 year old, 2 year old, and newborn to 5PM mass (when dinner is normally at 6PM) followed by dinner at 7PM (when bedtime is normally at 7PM) was The Perfect Storm of events to create total chaos. So, I can't really blame the kids for their insanity (and I don't), but let me tell you -- it was a long evening!

Mass started out OK ... meaning we actually got all 5 of us dressed, fed snacks, and loaded into the car early (!) so we could get a good seat at mass. (This was a farewell mass for our pastor, so it was packed!). So we had that going for us. It was record heat here yesterday, and our church's air conditioning was working overtime, but it was still pretty hot inside. Everything started out well enough, but by about halfway through, the boys had had enough. They were wiggly and Thomas forgot everything we ever taught him about whispering. And he kept asking "All done?" loudly :). Peter was fast asleep in his car seat, which is what I expected since I had just fed him before we left -- I was hoping for a 2-3 hour nap, but that was not to be.

Just as Thomas's loudness was ramping up enough that David decided to take him out, Peter woke up and started fussing. Jack was still with me in the pew, and I was worried that if Peter started really fussing, I'd have to take him and Jack out and then we'd lose our seat (the mass was standing-room only and I didn't have a way to save our seats). I took Peter out of his seat to try and calm him down, only to discover that his diaper had lost containment and there was a poopy mess on his legs, outfit, and carseat! Thankfully, David and Thomas came back in after the homily (David actually had to give Thomas a time-out in the narthex!) and I was able to take Peter and out and change him. Once I changed him, Peter decided that he was hungry again, so I looked for a place to nurse him. Normally I would head to the mother's room where it's a little more quiet and I could nurse more comfortably, but it was closed due to the farewell dinner after mass. And the daily mass chapel (used for overflow seating) was totally packed. So, I headed back to the pew and nursed Peter there. Aside from Thomas asking "Where Peelo go?" loudly several times because I was nursing him under a blanket, that went pretty well .... until Peter spat up all over once I put him back inside his car seat. :).

After mass, everyone headed to the church parking lot where they had set up tables and chairs for the big farewell dinner for Fr. Pat. We got a good table with a nice family from church, and the mom of the family held Peter while David and I ate our food and tried to keep the boys in line. Jack and Thomas ate a good dinner and sat nicely for quite a while, but eventually they got antsy and proceeded to run laps (literally) around our table. Every so often Thomas would just take off running and David would have to herd him back. David and I were taking it all in stride, though, and we had a good sense of humor about it. Plus, our expectations for the evening werem set pretty low -- we just wanted to survive it -- and that we did. We stayed as long as we could, but we realized that it was going to be a very long evening because after dessert they started in on the farewell tribute speeches, and I think they had 4 or 5 speakers lined up, so we headed out. By the time we got the boys in bed it was 9:15PM, and Peter was wiiide awake and fussing. Eventually he conked out, too, and slept about 7 hours straight, which was awesome.

Today actually went better than we expected, considering how tired the boys were. They had a good Feast Day -- doughnuts for breakfast (they got to apply the sprinkles!), watching a movie, watering the plants, playing in the pool on the deck, helping David BBQ hamburgers, and having a chocolate chip cookie and milk for dessert. This week will be rough, I'm sure, but we'll take it one day at a time. Once again, I'm grateful to be feeling great, so I think I'll be able to handle whatever the boys can dish out.