Mother of four

You may think that I became a mother of four two weeks ago when I gave birth to Clay. That is not true. Today was the day that actually happened, because today was the first time in the last two weeks that I had all four kids--five, if you count the twins, Max, which I think we should because he was ALL there today--completely to myself. And I didn't just ease into it, either. I earned my mother-of-four (five!) stripes the hard way. It went something like this:

2:45 am--feed Clay
5:45 am--alarm goes off and I stumble to the shower to start my day
6:30 am--get Ruth up for breakfast and make sure she has everything she needs for her SAT test
7:00 am--wake Clay up to feed him before we hit the road
7:30 am--Ruth and Clay and I hop in the van and head to Round Rock
8:00 am--turn the van upside-down, looking for No. 2 pencils to take to the test
8:45 am--drop Ruth off at testing site and head over to ENT's office for Clay's newborn hearing screen
9:15 am--quick stop at Walgreens for some beauty necessities
9:45 am--feed Clay in the van, in the parking lot of the clinic
10:15 am--put Clay, kicking and screaming (literally), in his carrier and go into clinic
11:30 am--leave ENT's office and head into north Austin to collect the other two boys from Jeff
12:10 pm--drive-thru at Chik--Fil-A
12:30 pm--arrive at testing site, with boys covered in crumbs and desperate to go to the bathroom
1:05 pm--leave testing site and head to Academy, looking for black boots for Weston
1:15 pm--leave Academy, sans boots
1:25 pm--unload everyone at fancy-shmancy (expensive) boot store across the street
1:40 pm--leave boot store, sans boots (Weston's feet are cubes, and shoes don't fit him well)
1:45 pm--drive to neighboring Big Lots!
1:50 pm--enter Big Lots! with the whole crew, looking for a birthday gift for Ruth's friend
2:00 pm--lose Max for a moment and find him testing out the rocking motion of some of the recliners in the furniture section
2:02 pm--give stern lecture to Max and confine him (whiningly) to the basket
2:02 pm-2:25 pm--tell Max multiple times to sit down and stop touching things
2:25 pm--perfect birthday gift found and bought
2:30 pm--feed Clay in the van, in the parking lot of Big Lots
2:55 pm--head to Marble Falls
3:15 pm--potty stop
4:00 pm--arrive at Payless
4:10 pm--purchase "wedding" shoes for the three big kids
4:15 pm--pick up "take-n-bake" pizzas for dinner
4:25 pm--drop Ruth off at piano lesson and send desperate boys to the bathroom
4:30 pm-4:45 pm--try to make the DVD player in the van work, finally giving up and settling for music
4:45 pm--feed Clay in the van, in the parking lot of the music school
4:45 pm-5:05 pm--tell Max multiple times to sit down and stop touching things
5:00 pm--send Weston back into music school to go to the bathroom
5:00 pm-5:05 pm--listen to Max whine about also needing to go to the bathroom
5:05 pm--send Max in with Ruth to go to the bathroom
5:10 pm--finish feeding Clay just in time to step out of the van and stop Max from running out into the parking lot
5:15 pm--head for home
5:50 pm--arrive home and unload van
6:00 pm--put pizzas in oven
6:10 pm-6:25 pm--sit on the deck, engaged in largely interrupted conversation with my in-laws
6:30 pm--take pizzas out of oven and start serving everyone
7:00 pm--send whiny three-year-old to bed
7:10 pm--feed Clay
7:30 pm--talk to Jeff (who stayed in Austin for several meetings) on the phone
7:45 pm--comfort crying baby, while trying to eat the rest of my now-cold dinner
7:50 pm--get puked on
7:55 pm--authorize Ruth and Weston to watch a John Wayne movie with their Grandpa
8:00 pm--feed now-hungry baby (again!)
8:30 pm--sit down at computer and commence eating chocolate chip cookie dough
9:00 pm--send oldest kids to bed

I am officially a mother of four!