What in the World...

... is SO difficult about taking a nap?!?!?!? Argh! If I can lie down and fall asleep within minutes, why can't (won't) Lucia? She just called me into her room to inform me that she wanted to get up (and it's not even 2:30), and when I told her "no", her world shattered. Whereas my world shatters when my kids tell me I have to get up.

Other tidbits from my afternoon from Hades:
-I have a splitting tooth/jaw ache (is it really my tooth, or am I taking my naps with clenched jaws because I keep hearing Lucia over the monitor in my subconscious?)
-Rhea was up from 1:00 until 4:45 - about 2 hours past her normal time to go back down, which resulted in non-stop screeching at the top of her lungs ALL AFTERNOON
-Lucia didn't sleep (as mentioned above), and that despite having gone to bed way too late due to small group last night. Result, an overtired 2-year-old who is constantly asking WAY too many questions (and when I said, "Ok, now stop asking any more questions. All done with questions." she responded innocently, "Why MOM? Why you say 'no more questions'? Why you say dat?") Argh!
-Any little thing that wasn't going as Lucia wanted it to ... (example: during my several attempts at putting Rhea down, Lucia would eventually come in the room and want to stand RIGHT BY the crib or ask me more questions in the LOUDEST whispering voice she could muster up. If I tried to quietly push her out of the room, she would be hurt to the core and melt down, of course RIGHT IN THE DOORWAY. Needless to say, Rhea wasn't going down.) ... resulted in a major melt-down. Other example: while I was putting Rhea down (read... attempting to put...), my phone rang and Lucia answered it. I heard her talking to someone ("Hi!" ... "What's your name?" ... "Rhea's trying to sleep." ... "Yeah!" ... "bla bla bla!!" ... "yeah!", so I tried to sneak out to see who was on the phone, and when I told Lucia it was my turn to talk on the phone, "could you please give Mama the phone?", another melt-down ensued and she very upsetly told me that she wasn't done talking to Miss Sarah (a friend from church) yet and "please, Mama, can I talk to Miss Sarah?", accompanied by huge and innumerable crocodile tears. I try to end the conversation and comfort Lucia and explain to her that it's MY phone and it was appropriate for her to hand it over, when Rhea starts crying again.
- I try to contact 3 dentists in the area to see when I can come in for an appointment, only to learn that they either close at noon on Fridays, or are at an all day dental conference on Friday, February 26th, or "I'm sorry we can't answer the phone right now." All this while Rhea is screeching and Lucia is crying or asking questions. I guess it's good nobody answered, because if they had, I probably wouldn't have been able to understand a word they said.
- When I finally succeed in putting Rhea down, I come out to Lucia running towards me bow-leggedly, "Mama, Mama, I went peepee in my pants!", and her legs are wet down to her shoes. And this after she's been accident-free for how many MONTHS?! And can now unbutton all her pants by herself, sits on the potty without the potty seat, and insists on wiping herself?! I asked, "Lucia, WHY didn't you go peepee in the toilet?!?!" ... Response: "Because I went peepee in my pants." Oh. Right.
- Needless to say, she's now in the bathtub, Rhea's sleeping, and David just called telling me he's 15 minutes from being home. Hallelujah. The Moment I've been waiting for ALL afternoon. Aaaaaah.

P.S. I'm sure there are several things I forgot to mention.