April 15: Today

Mornings in this house hinge on Cecelia's very unpredictable mood. All of yesterday was tainted by a crabby, emotional, demanding little lady who began her day entirely too early and just couldn't push past a crappy start.

But this morning? She walked downstairs with a huge grin, ran over to me, and hugged me authentically. It was a fantastically normal morning without the three time outs before 8:30 am. I liked this morning 100x more than yesterday, plus there were pictures like this:

Who knows, Porter. Who knows.


The boys sort of worship her/love to push her buttons


Ducks were spotted next door shortly before I left for work, which also means Cecelia's day was made. High fives all around for an above-average morning.

And then something happened at work that yanked my head down from the clouds. Driving to my 11:00 patient's house, I passed the Walgreens that's just two blocks away from my patient. It's a Walgreens I've used as a bathroom break plenty of times and it's not in a particularly rough neighborhood, not a place that makes me stand on attention or where I feel uncomfortable or overly concerned about crime. Which is important to note because when working in home care, I am not always in the safest areas although I try to stay close to home.

As I passed this familiar Walgreens, I saw police tape around the entire perimeter. Cop cars were everywhere, blocking off the street, dozens of people lined the outside of the tape. There were news reporters, helicopters in the sky, and a 'incident command center' truck from the Milwaukee police department, too. At first I thought somehow it was a really awful car accident but I didn't see any smashed up cars. Once I arrived to my patient's home a few minutes later, she was watching the news and there had been a shooting at Walgreens. An undercover cop shot a masked and armed robber who was planning to rob the pharmacy for prescription drugs. It happened about an hour before my appointment with my patient and I could have easily seen her earlier in the day and might have taken a pee break at that Walgreens.

This was the first time in my four years of doing home care that I was really freaked out about crime. Just another reminder that life can change in an instant and I'm going to have to push my bathroom breaks even more now.

Truman and I picked up Cecelia and Porter a little early from Lori's, since she called me to say CC's eyes looked red and gunky again. <Sigh> No clue if this is pink eye round two or what but this is getting really old. I took all three kids to Target on our way home which was *definitely* pushing the limits of a work day witching hour. Two potty stops for Cecelia, busting open a can of baby cheese puffs for Porter (clean eating!) mid-trip, and a mostly-complete Target list? I call that a success.



Dinner was touch and go for awhile, but once Porter ingested more calories than both of his siblings combined he was much happier with life. And the siblings somehow plowed through their potentially critical attitudes, ate their dinner, and hopped over to the school playground as their reward. I drilled them before we left with the facts: fifteen minutes, no whining when I say it's over, and get out alllll of your energy pre-bathtime!

The clouds were pure insanity. Breathtaking, really.










Thank you God for clouds, for sunshine, for sunsets that happen later and later each evening, and for lightweight jackets. Winter sucks. Spring is the best.

Also, clean babies are the best. His personal goal is to soak me with incessant splashing throughout the duration of the bath. He usually achieves this goal, obvi.


Bedtime was fairly painless for all involved, and Truman asked me to read two stories from his children's Bible storybook. This reminded me that a lot of Biblical stories are INTENSE and full of death and fighting and scary stuff (i.e. Satan as a snake in the Garden of Eden, and then David and Goliath). Truman is now officially obsessed with the giant Goliath and pretended to be dead after our story, just like the giant. Very intriguing subjects of discussion for a five year old! Thanks, Old Testament!

Nate arrived home shortly before I laid Porter down for the night, and to see that baby's face when he recognizes his dad. I heard the sweetest sound of, 'You're the best mommy ever,' from my darling Cecelia. And now that I think of it, Truman also randomly told me in the van today, 'Because I love you, mom.'

So yes. A good day today indeed.