The Bag Lady Needs a Vacation

I may have mentioned this before, so I apologize if I am being repetitive. However, sometimes I am overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stuff I need to carry with me any time I leave the house. Monday mornings are the worst, because that is when I have to re-stock at daycare. This morning I left with the following: 2 kids, 4 lunchbags (1 has todays milk supply for Cosette, 1 has empty bottles which I will fill for tomorrows' feedings, 1 for Juliette and 1 for myself), 2 diaper bags, 1 pocketbook, 1 sleeping bag, and 1 empty bag (at the end of the day it will be filled with empty lunch bags, dirty clothes, daily notes, and Juliette's artwork). If you count, that makes 9 bags for three people. I left my pump and my computer at work on Friday, as I do most days, just because I don't have enough arms to carry it all.

This is my morning routine: Wake up at 6:30 to shower and dress before Juliette wakes up. (Unless Cosette wakes up at 6:00- in which case I feed her and then bring her into the bathroom with me while I shower and dress myself.) Juliette usually wakes up a little after 7 shouting "Mommy come get me!". Hopefully I am finished dressing at this point (otherwise I go to work with wet hair, in a ponytail - like today!). I run downstairs, get her, sit her down to watch Sesame Street, and go downstairs to get her some milk and me some coffee. Then, over the next hour and a half, I struggle to get her to eat breakfast, make her lunch, make my lunch, feed Cosette, bottle Cosette's milk, keep Cosette occupied, get Juliette dressed, get Cosette dressed, load the car, and get out of the house. Some mornings I will also empty the dishwasher or throw in some laundry. When I am finally ready to go, if Greg isn't on the phone, I shout up to him to help me load up, in which case he meanders downstairs, grabs Juliette and a bag or two and puts them in the car, leaving me to follow with Cosette and the rest of the gear.

It is no surprise, then, that despite my careful planning, when I got to the daycare this morning and went to unload all the children and bags, I realized that I had forgotten 2 of them. Bags, that is, not children. I had left the bags by the back door and probably stepped over them on the way out of the house, as did Greg when he was loading all of the other bags into the car. For a little while, when I was driving home again to get these 2 bags, I was cursing Greg for being clueless and not remembering to load all the gear, and then I was blaming myself because I know he is clueless, and I should have double checked.

I have decided that I need a vacation. Next time Kim calls to invite me for a girls night out... I am going.