Tuesdays with Marmie

I know it's Wednesday, but yesterday was Tuesday and my Mom came over to help. Halleluia!

We've been barely making one foot in front of the other with PJ irritable and waking several times inexplicably at night, and an extra-rough weekend, sleepwise. Jack was a terrible sleeper as a baby, but at least I didn't have to keep up with a toddler during the day, too. PJ's been a gem so far, sleeping most nights from 8ish to 6ish with only one wakeup at 3 or so. But lately...not so much. He's up several times and very fidgety. We've decided all signs point to TEETHING!! Can you believe it? Already?! Poor kid. PJ will be 3 months this Friday, and I don't understand how that happened so fast!

So between bad sleep at night and keeping up with Jack during the day, I don't think I had done one of the chores on my chore chart for this week. Well, maybe one, but that's about it. No stickers for me. But my Mom came yesterday, helped me with laundry, stayed overnight and took care of PJ to give Patrick and me a full night's sleep, and watched the boys today while I cleaned bathrooms and vacuumed. It was amazing.

She offered to come every Tuesday for a few hours to give me time to run errands, get some cleaning done, rest a bit, or just do whatever I need to do. Does that not sound like a dream?

I remember having a few Mother's Helper sort of jobs as a younger babysitter (11 or 12ish), and I always hated those ones because the kids were always naughty while the parents were there and I felt awkward correcting them in front of their mother. This one time, both parents were home and wanted to paint or something on a Saturday afternoon, and the boy just kept jumping on the couches, pulling my hair and smacking the top of my head. I really just wanted to drop-kick him, but kept trying to get him to stop with "Now, Billy, that's not nice!" because his parents were in the next room. Do you think that stopped him? Nah.

Man, the things I did for $2 an hour...

I can't even pay that little emolument (today's word) for a warm body to watch TV and eat snacks in the living room while the boys are in bed for the night these days.

But now I totally understand the need for a mother's helper-type person. And the boys just love spending time with their Nana.

Don't you just totally appreciate your Mom more once you have kids? Both for the ways she can help now, and for all the things she did while raising you. It's been such an eye-opener for me.

So now, I have clean bathrooms, a full night's sleep under my belt, and a bottle of teething tablets. I'm ready to take on the world!

At least until next Tuesday...