I am behind on my writing by a day. Not horribly behind, but behind nevertheless. It was my goal to catch up today by doing two separate writing sessions, one in the morning and one at my usual time after the kids were in bed. For some reason, I forgot I am a mom of two toddlers who instinctively know when mommy has a deadline and have their timer set to go off at "naughty" at just the right moment. During my scheduled writing time, we had a bit of a naptime rebelion. When the skirmish was ended and the smoke cleared, the wee ones were sleeping...but I was wiped out and passed out on the couch.

When I woke up, Tadd announced he needed to run some errands that he wanted to get taken care of before the predicted snow storm came in time for tomorrow's commute. Right after he left, the kids woke up so I went to changed them and give them something to eat. Somehow, Peanut's diaper had managed to loosed and slip down his pant leg, thereby leaving him uncovered and soaking wet. Got him clean and dry, while Pumpkin chattered the entire time. "Mommy, I no lose my diaper. Mommy, I not wet. Mommy, I sit on potty. Mommy, I hungry. You hungry? Mommy, whatchu doing? Mommy, I want that. Mommy. Mommy."

The chattered continued as I got Pumpkin changed in to her playclothes. She almost lost her mind because the snap on her pants wasn't working properly. I told her it was broken, but she would be ok with having it left open since we were just hanging around (and because mommy NEEDED to do laundry and she and her brother were wearing the last pairs of clean pants.) Her need for order kicked in and she became whining and obsessed over the snap on her pants. (I am pretty sure she is an ENTP, for those out there familiar with Myers-Briggs. She is outgoing and sociable and loves to please, but when she is sure something is supposed to be a certain way, she becomes fixated and frustrated.)

We finally got them both down to the table with clean hands. I served them up plates of food...delicious mahi mahi burgers with homemade aioli, broccoli and, to encourage them to eat, pineapples for when the were through. There was some eating, but mostly playing...painting with the aioli, putting broccoli in cups. I noticed Peanut's mouth was still full. He is old enough to eat most foods properly but sometimes, just to be mischievous, he will hold food in his mouth like a chipmunk. "Chew and swallow, sweetie," I reminded him. Usually, that's all that needs to be said and he chews up the food and it all gets to his stomach with no incident. That was not to be today. Instead, he shoved a bit more into his mouth until he finally triggered our good old buddy, the gag reflex.

I will spare you the gory details and leave it to say it was not pretty.And it was all over the place. And those last pair of pants? Umm, yeah, he spend the rest of the evening hanging out in his diaper and a pair of dinosaur slippers. I gave up on my children getting any real nutrition and excused them from the table while I cleaned up the grossness.

There were some more squabbles over toys, some tantrums, and some whining before Tadd came home. My planned writing session turned into a distant, foggy memory of a person I confused myself with. After dinner, putting the kids down, walking the dog, cleaning the kitchen, answering work email, and taking down holiday decorations, I finally got to writing three pages. The story is coming along nicely and taking some interesting turns. I need to research legendary references alluding to fires in the sky not related to dragons or lightening. But that will need to be a project for tomorrow at some point when we are all snowed in. I might be kidding myself, though, since I will most likely be juggling work with entertaining two keyed up children while trying to combat cabin fever.