This post brought to you by the letter 'P' and the number '3'....

It...has been a trying 24 hours at the Casa de Lange.  In fact, I think that the most appropriate description would be 'clusterf*ck'.  And it was a Wednesday.  I mean, come on now, you expect these things to happen on a Monday.  Which they do.  I have proof.  But no, my beloved Hump Day was beaten to an unrecognizable pulp.  And not by work.  Which is a first in and of itself.

It started out just fine.  Even got a walk in before the rain started.  Made plans with V to meet up with them for dinner at Red Robin, Noelle's favorite restaurant.  And pretty much only restaurant she's been to but eh, it's much better for the story being her favorite.  What a good mommy I was!  Such a special treat in the middle of the week.  Yeahhhh.  Should have quit while I was ahead.  And then...the drive home.  The routine is that I pick Noelle up from school after work seeing as her school is only 5 minutes from the office.  It's kind of 'duh' like that.  I should preface this whole thing by saying that Noelle likes hats.  She is one of the lucky ones who looks good in hats and she loves to wear them.  We have cowboy hats and princess hats and baseball hats and witches hats and sun hats and pirate hats and well, you get the picture. 

Walking into her classroom, I was immediately accosted by her friends and got a flying hug from Noelle.  Those?  My favorites.  Then she launched into the broken record of "I want to wear the pirate hat".  Uh, okay honey, we'll get it from your closet when we get home.  No, mommy, I want to wear the pirate hat.  One of her friends had a (really cool actually) pirate hat that she had brought from home.  Noelle, with her super-sensitive hat-dar keyed in on it and WOULD NOT LET IT GO.  Which meant tears.  Of course.  Over someone else's hat.  Which I would not let her wear.  Bad Mommy!  Finally coaxed her out of the classroom with visions of pirate hats and Red Robin dancing in her head.  Guess what we DIDN'T do before we left.  Go on, guess.  So halfway home she has fallen asleep in the car seat.  I fished out her daily sheet from her bag and yep, no nap today.  Well, crap.  So she's exhausted and did not pee before leaving school.  And it's raining.  Because of course it is.  Which means that traffic slows to a crawl because AH MAH GAD Maryland drivers CANNOT drive in the rain. 

Once we get home (finally!) she melts into a puddle inside the door.  Again:  tired.  Dyl and I traipse upstairs to find the blasted pirate hat as she roused herself enough to whine for it.  Dyl gets back down first and remember that puddle of preschooler?  Well, the puddle made a puddle.  Poor thing was so tired and had an accident.  This?  Was my fault.  Should have deposited her butt onto the toilet as soon as we walked in the door.  So, okay, an accident.  Not the end of the world.  Unless you are an exhausted 3 year old girl.  Then?  The end of the world.  She COMPLETELY freaked out over the accident (to which Dyl and I were all like, eh, it happens.)  The ensuing meltdown pretty much ensured that we would not be torturing the paying public with our little freak show that evening.  So 'Max and Ruby' it was. 

Okay, so no chicken bruschetta burger but Dyl came through with Qdoba for us (nuggets for Noelle).  Woo Hoo!  Love me some steak ranchero burritos with guacamole and sour cream.  Again, fine until the battle over the baths commenced and said burrito began disagreeing with me.  While arguing with Noelle over getting into the bath, getting out of the bath, getting dressed after the bath.  Poor Noah, who needed a bath, got shafted with all the drama and just was put to bed. 

I'd go into more detail but you get the picture and hey!  Noah decided it would be fun to NOT SLEEP.  Which was great.  So Dyl and I are punchy and tired and are very glad that the day is over.  And I had a cute video to end with but it won't load so now it's personal and I'm going to bed.