You're Gonna Miss This!

I never ask "What else?" Never. Because I might find out and I don't want to know what else! This week has been one of THOSE weeks.
Mason woke up Sunday with a nose that was running like a faucet. Brandon left Monday morning and will be home TONIGHT. {That's 4 evenings alone if you are counting} Biz and Tim were at the beach until last night. I was completely alone with Biz's 2 sick cats, a sick dog {Jack}, and two sick kids. Not to mention that I was responsible for keeping all of those animals and humans alive AND tending Biz's flowers and garden. Oh. My. Word!
Mason didn't sleep at all Sunday night. Brandon left at early-thirty and I overslept. So I am rushing around and run into the bathroom to dry my hair, turn on the hairdryer and NADA. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
Mason's runny nose started to get worse and by the time we were headed home from school on Monday he was running fever. My wonderful Mama had already planned to come and help me with the evening routine that now not only consists of dinner and baths but also gardens, dog and cat care. I called the doctor's office on the way home and got an appointment for Mason for Tuesday. I also remembered that I had an after work commitment {for work}. Mom decided the best plan was for her to keep Mason home Tuesday and I would meet her at the doctor.
Ellie and I went on to school and then I met mom and Mason at the doctor. What I thought was just a summer cold turned out to be "allergic bronchitis". The doctor added that it's not pneumonia. YET. He is on 4 different medications and thankfully already seems to be improving. I kept him home on Wednesday. Fatal error.
Lordy! I often wish to be a stay home mom. I dream about what our days would be like. I imagine caught up laundry, yummy dinners, fun projects, and a generally happy household. And then we stay home and I realize I am mental! Yesterday was a rainy day so the kids were in our 300 square foot house all day {it's actually more like 800 sq. feet, but it is closing in on me!} I tried to encourage play and give them ideas of things to do, we got out play doh, we read, we played, we cooked but by 4:00pm when Ellie was asking if she and Mason could have dinner {our of boredom???} I knew we were all just going batty. We survived.
And I really hesitate to post this bit about staying home being hard lest Brandon remind me of it if the chance ever actually came up for me to stay home. I mean I COULD make it work. Especially if we were not living on top of one another. This too shall pass. Right? I will look back on this in a few months and laugh. RIGHT???
Mason's sleep issues make pretty much every other issue we deal with that much worse. It's HARD to function when you have been up for an hour and a half in the night trying to get someone back to sleep. We tried to let him cry the other night and he ended up throwing up. I can't handle that and I would certainly much rather rock for hours than have my baby throwing up because he is so upset. I try to put it into perspective. Ellie sleeps great and there was a time I was sure we were ruining her and she'd never learn to sleep on her own and she was spoiled and all that because of all her night waking. I was talking to Brandon's dad about it and he said this is payback for Brandon. {I'm sure my parents would say the same thing!} He told me he and Brandon's mom used to have to DRIVE AROUND IN THE CAR to get Brandon to sleep. {I found this particularly humorous since my dear husband is the one who gets particularly enraged over the night waking. I mean it is no picnic for me, but Brandon's patience runs super thin.} As Kenny and I know, Brandon did grow out of having to be driven around to sleep so it's pretty likely Mason will not require rocking to get back to sleep when he is 15. But I bet when he is 15, I will miss these days like crazy!
There's a song by Trace Adkins called "You're Gonna Miss This". It talks about different stages of life and how we all kind of wish them away and rush through them. The chorus says:
You're gonna miss this.
You're gonna want this back.
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast.
These are some good times,
So take a good look around.
You may not know it know,
But you're gonna miss this...

Ellie calls it the "You and Me Song". So true. It's me and Ellie..and Mason...and Brandon...and Mama...and Biz...and Dad...and my life. I need to take a deep breath and soak it up because it goes by too fast!