Birthday Mommy Guilt!

Can you ever really shake away the Mommy Guilt?  Today is my youngest son's birthday.  He is 4 years old.  After work yesterday I brought my oldest son to his drama class and then planned on rushing to buy a cake for the daycare before I had to pick him up.  Didn't think it would be so hard except that every cake I could come across in that hour had that little warning at the bottom of the ingredients list: May have come into contact with tree nuts!  Of course his daycare is peanut-free so I can't get any of those cakes.  As the clock was ticking I was getting more and more panicked that I wouldn't find his cake.  That's when the mommy guilt started to set in.  I could hear the little voice inside my head say: "I should have baked him a cake myself" (don't know when but I should have), "I should have spent the extra money and ordered a cake from a fancy bakery where I could make sure it was peanut free" (not really in my budget, but again, I should have).  Finally the hour was up when I had to go pick up my son from Drama class and I was cake-less- "Worst Mother of the Year".
Thankfully, my father agreed to help me and he is running around right now trying to get a cake for him to bring to the daycare.  I know it will be ok but I can't shake this Mommy Guilt!
That's one of the things that's hard about being a single, working parent.  You want to be able to get everything done but the fact is, there just aren't enough hours in the day!  I can get through the day-to-day pretty well but special events just throw me for a loop.  Thank goodness that I have the support from my father and brother to help me out because I don't know how I would be able to get things done otherwise.  I want to be able to give my kids everything they would get if they were part of a two parent home but sometimes I just can't.  I don't like to complain about it.  It's not really my style and I don't want anybody feeling sorry for me.  I love my life it's just hard sometimes.

Toddler Nightime Woes

Nightime is always unpredictable at my house.  With two little boys aged 2 and 3 I often find one crawling into my bed in the middle of the night.  I don't mind- I just pick them up, plop them next to me and we can all have a good night's sleep.  The problem occurs when both wake up at the same time!  This is one of the moments when being a single mom is the most difficult. Putting them both in bed with me doesn't work because one always bothers the other one usually my 2 year old bothering his older brother.  If I bring them back to their room, I end up awake between them trying to coax them back to sleep.  Last night was one of those nights. We tried to stay in the same bed, didn't work.  I brought my 2 year old back to his bed and asked my three year old to stay in my bed.  Just as I was lying next to my two year old in his bed and he's almost asleep, my three year old comes in the room.  Wakes us all up again.  Now they are both in their own beds and I am still with my two year old in his little toddler bed.... Just when I'm sure that he is now sleeping and I can finally return to my own bed- he meows (pretending to be a cat).  As funny as that sounds (two year olds are so unpredicatable) it is very frustrating at 4:30 in the morning!  I stayed for about 20 minutes more- finally they are both asleep.  Of course, by then it was 5:15 in the morning, half an hour before my alarm goes off.  Being a mother of two toddlers is never without surprises!