for thanksgiving i'm ordering pizza

Last week as I was writing out my mean plan/grocery list Mike brilliantly suggested I make a turkey dinner. I can't really say what was wrong with me that night, but before I could stop myself I was agreeing to his harebrained scheme. I guess apparently I don't have anything better to do then cook a turkey dinner on a Tuesday. Now I wasn't entirely crazy, I did refuse to cook an actual turkey and instead bought a stuffed turkey breast. One of those cook from frozen Butterball dealies that makes my Mom insanely crazy with it's "not-from-scratch-ness".

Obviously I was going to have to cook this on the weekend unless we wanted to eat dinner at a very European ten at night. This weekend was a bit of a busy one with Mike being out Saturday night and the entire family being out Sunday night. So Monday it was going to have to be. On Monday around lunch time I slide the turkey breast into the oven so it can do it's thing and not long after "company" begins to arrive in the form of my Mother, bearing pizza for lunch and Robin, Tim and the girls. All of this pre-arranged, so it's really no big deal. Mom was there to drop off some school clothes for Abby. Including this adorable skirt that Abby is dying to wear for the first day of school. Robin, I think, just needed a friendly face and a sympathetic ear. Everything was going well. We were having a nice visit and then..... Maya woke up.

I have to break story for a moment to tell you about Maya. I have said it before, but I'll say it again. She is the classic second child. Different from Abby in so many ways. So much more work than Abby, with the not sleeping and the needing to be in contact with me all the time. She drains me, robs me of my patience, leaves me with nothing for myself. Some days, not all, but the balance is definitely in her favour. Most of the time I don't mind. I understand and appreciate that she has different needs than her sister did or does. I understand that her and I being so tightly bonded, to the exclusion of others sometimes, is largely my fault. Today was a "someday". And I hate it. I hate losing my patience with her. I hate being "that Mom", but sometimes it just becomes bigger than the both of us.

This afternoon she got up from her nap after the house was full of people. Now Maya, once she finally gets to sleep is not a child that wakes up easily. She needs a little while to get to her most charming self. I'm not sure what kept her from getting there today, but it's very likely waking up to three extra adults and four extra kids in the house had something to do with it. A first she was content to sit with Mike at the kitchen table. After a very long while she finally got down to check out what the girls were doing, but routinely she'd be back attempting to scale my chair and me. Once settled she'd want down and then immediately back up again. The whole time chanting Mommy Mommy Mommy. I tried everything to distract her. Settling her with Mike in the living room. Bringing her to play with the other girls. She might give me a few moments peace, but before long she'd be back. All I wanted to do was give my focus to Robin. Be a supportive friend and Maya was hampering that. Robin, of course wouldn't agree, but she has twice as many kids as I do.

I'd like to say that her mood improved when the house emptied out, but it did not. By this time the temperature outside was pushing 30 degrees and here I am standing over a hot stove whipping together a turkey dinner with Maya hanging off my leg. As the meal preparations were reaching their crescendo Abby realizes that I have yet to teach her how to cook. And if I don't teach her how to cook, well then she won't be able to cook. So now she has a chair right in front of the entire 20 inches of counter space I have in my kitchen. "What can I do Mom?" she chirps. Oh did I mention Maya is now sprawled across the kitchen floor not crying or whining, but only because she found a pen and is too busy writing on her legs and face. And I let her since it was the longest stretch we'd gone without her glued to my person and/or chanting my name. And anyone who knows me knows that is not the kind of Mom I am. So I juggle pots and serving bowls, get the biscuits of the oven, finish setting the table that Mike only partially set. I'm not exactly sure how one forgets silverware and cups. Then I embark on all those "Mom errands" that keep us Mom's from sitting down and enjoying the meal we just cooked with our family. You know, getting the Dora cup for Abby, a bib for Maya, forgotten pepper and so on.

Finally get to sit down to eat and Maya remembers she had decided to be in a bad mood today. Not a morsel of food goes in her mouth, but rather gets stuffed down in her high chair and thrown all over the floor. She cries and/or whines through the entire meal, reaching her arms out to be lifted down only to twist away from me when I attempt to. To top it all off my core body temperature was about 7,000 degrees. I am not in the least bit hungry. In fact the thought of turkey dinner makes me just a little sick. It may have been an unmitigated disaster if not for Mike's effusive thank yous and offer to bath the kids. Before bath time though he took off to run an errand with Abby and Maya proceeded to scream the entire time he was gone all because I dared to make her lay still for a bum change. Girlfriend was angry and not willing to let it go. She ended up going to bed angry and, boy, did the whole street know, for much longer than they wanted to.

So today, not my best parenting day. Also the absolute worst day to cook a turkey dinner even if it was just a stuffed turkey breast.

So let's review shall we.

cranky kid + turkey dinner cooking + surface of the sun like temperatures = sucks major ass.

I am so glad today is over. The turkey, I must mention, was moist and delicious. Thank God, for my mad cooking skillz.