Chaos!

This afternoon, I made my first trip to the base CDC and Youth Center to pick up the kids of a friend of mine. She just needed someone to watch them from 5 pm until she got home from work. They are great kids and T and S just love them, so I was looking forward to this for me and for them.

T gets home from school and I let him have about half an hour on the Wii before we need to leave. Only we rented a new game to try last night and I ended up spending more time on the Wii than T did trying to figure out this idiotic game. One of the characters says "Mama will help you" (it's a cooking game) when you don't do well but let me just clear one thing up right now. Mama is no help at all. I actually had to read the instructions --- read the dang instructions --- to have a clue what to do. I? Am getting old. Sigh.

So we pile in the car and head to the commissary, because on top of procrastinating, I've decided the excitement of seeing their friends will make my two behave extraordinarily in the commissary. Bwhaahahahahaaaaa.

In all fairness, they were good, they were just actually hopping with excitement and the commissary was crowded as usual. Retirees don't seem to find my kids adorable when they are touching everything they can get their tiny little mitts on. What's up with that? They aren't screaming or being destructive, so what's not to love? ::Snort::

So we got through the commissary as quickly as possible and headed over to get the youngest of our afternoon guests. There is a new CDC and an old CDC. Both of them are being used. Okay then. Once I figured out the traffic pattern, I took the first available space and tried to figure out which building I needed to head towards. Which way do I go? Which way do I go! I went against my instinct and headed to the building that had people coming out with kids the same age as the one I needed to pick up.

Yay! I picked the right building. After a quick stop (read: not quick at all) at the front desk to verify my identity, sign him out, find a potty for both of my kids who swore up and down that they did not have to go before we left the house, figure out where he was, then find him....well, I'm glad I erred on the side of caution time wise because we were there for 20 minutes. 20 minutes. Crazy.

Next up? Kid #2. Or should I say #4? After I found parking, pulled all the kids out of the car, went inside, found someone to help me, showed my id, signed my next kid out, and found someone to help me find said kid, I have a whole new respect for dual working parents around here. The CDC's were sooooo chaotic.

We finally tracked down our target..err...I mean our last guest, and starting moving towards the door. Have I mentioned we were outside yet? No? Well, we were. And at 5 pm, the National Anthem plays. And so it started playing and I'm trying to show my kids to stand, face the flag/music, while holding a kid who just makes me laugh because he's so darn cute and then he says loudly...WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING?!?! And you know? I have no idea why other than I'm now sweating from the effort of finding, gathering, and keeping my four kids together and non-rowdy. It's not going well.

When we finally got out of the CDC (have I mentioned CHAOS yet?), I'm trying to get everyone buckled into my van. Kids are small. There should be no reason why three kids with booster seats can't fit easily into the back seat of my van. No reason at all, do you HEAR ME Honda?!? While I got seats and kids in the backseat? I couldn't get the dang seat belts fastened because there wasn't enough room or leverage to grab the part attached to the seat and then fasten the belt into it. 15 minutes later I admit defeat and move one of the kids to the front seat. I made it one of my kids because well, if we get in a freak accident, I don't want to harm anyone, but I really don't want to harm someone else's child. Of course, R suggested we put the other middle seat in the van last night, but what does HE know?

Once everyone was buckled, we took off for our house. It was now 5:20. What most parents can accomplish in 15 minutes? It took me an hour. How's that for productive?!?

The rest of the evening went pretty smoothly if you don't count that S got in trouble about six times for screaming like she was being ripped open all in the name of having fun, the fact that one of my kids shoved an entire roll in their mouth and tried to talk around it, which then made everyone act a little food silly, and T broke down in tears that our guests had to leave. Awwww...T's got such a huge crush on his friend. It's so cute and heart wrenching all at once.

As I was putting the kids to bed, T tells me, "Mommy? I like my friend, but I love you."

And I said, "I love you too, T. But it's okay for you to love lots of people during your lifetime. So don't worry about making me sad that you love someone else, because I'll always love you and I know you'll always love me."

To which my little heart breaker replies, "But I'll always love you best, Mommy."

Such overwhelming love for this kid. I swear. Love, love, love.