Happy Mother's Day...Now Get to Work!

They whispered and giggled and planned all week long. They roped Daddy into their plans. They were all set to make breakfast in bed for me on Mother's Day. They wanted to give me that cliche but still very cute mother's day in which the children serve Mommy pancakes and coffee and homemade cards, and we all snuggle and eat together in bed. Sounds nice, doesn't it?

It didn't happen.

I had just found out the week before that I was expecting our fourth child and was having a hard time stomaching anything much. We still could have snuggled and they could have helped me eat my pancakes had it not been for one more little glitch in the plan. You see, Kathryn had a cat that was pregnant. This cat, named Fairy, had taken to sleeping on Kathryn's pillow right next to her head. When poor Kathryn woke on the morning of Mother's Day, she got quite the surprise... Fairy had given birth to her first kitten in her hair! Jehromy and I were ripped out of our sleep by Kathryn's horrified wail, and ran across the house to see what was the matter. We were imagining her falling out of her top bunk, or wetting the bed, or getting sick.

We immediately went into parental triage mode, assessing the situation and dividing tasks amongst us. Daddy got to bathe the yucky blood and birth gunk out of Kathryn's hair, while I alternately coaxed and forced Fairy to stay in one relatively small area (in the hopes of minimizing the mess) while she finished giving birth to five more kittens. Keeghan helped by fetching anything either of us needed and by keeping his toddler brother out of everyone's hair. When all was said and done, we had the best story to tell at church later in the morning!