Early Shift

Last night and this morning I took over my roommate's shifts so she could go into town and spend the night with her girlfriends. Last night went without incident; I even finished changing my kids and tucking them in half an hour early.

I didn't sleep well last night; I kept waking up and had bad dreams. Yet strangely I woke up at 6:15am, ten minutes before my alarm was set to go off. I pulled on yesterday's clothes and a sweater (it's COLD here in the morning!) and stumbled downstairs.

I'm really glad all 4 of my babies are happy in the morning, because it's a lot easier to change an overflowing, over-poweringly stinky diarrhea diaper when the child is grinning up at me. Did I mention we use cloth diapers? We wash them in waist-high "Hungarian toilet" contraptions (not sure why people call them that).

Apparently I am colorblind in the morning. I dressed Hope in a pink and white onesie with white cloth overalls. Cute, right? An hour later I realized the overalls were actually yellow. Likewise, Rachel donned white pants and a pink sweater. Or so I thought. Luckily her pants ended up being pink, so at least she matched in the end. I just left Hope in her Easter ensemble.

I am learning very quickly that toddlers can be really helpful. I was sitting on the floor feeding bottles to Amina and Nina (7 months and 5 months) while Nelson (9 months) was about 6 feet away with his bottle. Amina wouldn't grasp her bottle, I needed to burp Nina, and Nelson lost his to a pillaging toddler. In one of my rare moments of brilliance, I instructed Rachel to feed Amina. I hoisted Nina onto my shoulder and burped her while striding across the room to fix Nelsons predicament. I let Rachel finish feeding Amina, and then I sent her to the kitchen with the empty bottles. Afterward she felt the impulse to kiss the babies. I love her more every day. :)

When my shift ended I headed back up to my apartment, intending to sleep (which I haven't yet done). It was ten minutes after 8am. When I came out the back door, I noticed two young guys (about my age) changing in the backyard. Yes, changing. I kid you not and I exaggerate not. I immediately looked at the ground and quickly walked up the stairs to my apartment (they really didn't pick a very inconspicuous place). When I got upstairs, I thought, "What in the world?!" Usually we don't have guys that age on campus. Especially not at 8am. So I hurried back down the stairs, still averting my eyes (they weren't very quick at changing either). I found the guard and asked him who in the world the guys were. It turns out they were working for the painter we hired. Maybe tomorrow I'll inform them that they can change in the bathroom. Or at least behind a tree.