Can We Start Over?

I had an eery feeling this morning when I woke up to Noah crying. Normally, he wakes up happily chattering away with his stuffed animals, so I knew it was going to be a rough morning when he started the day in tears. Ricky and I get up and go through our morning routine of diaper changing, feeding Maia, and giving Noah his milk. Everything seems to be going okay minus a little whining but I can sense that chaos is lurking around the corner. Sure enough as soon as Ricky leaves for work the poop hit the fan! I put Maia down in her bouncer and start to make Noah his oatmeal. She immediately starts crying. Noah's attempts at kissing her head to soothe her result in slobber running down her face and a blow to the abdomen. Needless to say she is now screaming. Shoot! Noah just got a glimpse of the watermelon when I opened the refrigerator and now he is yelling "Naa naa" (watermelon) repeatedly and starting to freak out. I pick Maia up to calm her down and turn off the stove because the oatmeal is boiling over and making a mess that I will never have time to clean up.  With my free arm, I grab Noah by the armpit and put him in his high chair and sit Maia in her swing. Both are screaming. I cut up some watermelon, serve some oatmeal, take a deep breath, ask God to keep me from running out of the house and sit down to feed Noah. He stops crying, thank God. Then, he spots his toy sitting on the table and when I won't give it to him , he starts sobbing uncontrollably.  I pace back and forth between my two screaming children not really knowing what I should do next. I decide that this would be a good time to take a picture. I take a picture of him and then one of Maia so that I will remember this moment forever...okay really the picture was for the blog that I knew would be written about this incident. I say a quick prayer, gather my thoughts and come to  the conclusion that sleep is the best thing for crying children. I swaddle Maia and place her in her crib for a nap even though she just woke up.  I return to the other screaming kid and wipe away the boogers that are starting to make their way into his mouth and talk to him calmly explaining that he needs to eat his breakfast and can have his toy afterwards. He finally stops crying and finishes his breakfast. I take him outside for a little while in an effort to give Maia a quiet environment to fall asleep in. We return to the house 20 minutes later and Maia is asleep. It's time to put kid #2 down. I change his diaper, give him a pacifier, and lie him down in his crib. I pour myself a glass of scotch on the rocks and sit down to blog...don't get all crazy on me, I am totally kidding! Although if I did drink, I'd probably pour myself a glass of wine right about now... Here we are 30 minutes later and all is quiet and peaceful. I can hear myself think and I don't feel like sticking sharp objects in my ears anymore. I survived another mommy morning. The time is 9:53 a.m.