YOU DON'T ALWAYS HAVE TO BRUSH...

posted by Jannelle Cioffi, Monday, November 11, 2013, 11:30 PM

I need to get business out of the way first – don’t forget to set your tv’s or dvr’s to FOX tomorrow night @ 10:00 for Rachel and Jenn’s Interview with Maria Stephanos.

Also, Rachel had quite the busy day, Karen and her tribe came to visit Rachel and kept Rachel on her toes. Ellie and Lilah came to visit Rachel and brought some treats from the gym. Thank you girls, Rachel loved the card you all signed and for the awesome craft. ☺ Rachel can’t believe how lucky she is and that Sylvie and Mihai sent her an autographed picture of Aly Raisman and an autographed t-shirt to boot. She has been showing it to all the staff since she go it. Then Auntie Mel came by with Mason and Blake and they stayed thru dinner and we all went downstairs for snacks.

Tonight I am sorry to disappoint but this is Auntie and not Jenn writing the blog. After lots of insisting and basically kicking Jenn out of rehab she finally left for a few hours and not only had she taken the night off from dinner and the bedtime routine but I also gave her the night off from writing the blog. I know hold the applause – I do sometimes rock but in all honesty I thought my night would be easier at rehab than my night at home, because after all there are nurses in rehab with my niece and the staff has t be the ones to do the bedtime routine – well I could not have been more wrong with that assessment. Let’s take a step back for a second - for those that don’t know me – let me tell you by 8:30 I am done, totally done, no more patience, no more bed-time drinks, no more anything. Ellie, Sam and Lilah know that once 8:30 hits they better not ask me anything else unless their arm is falling off or they are puking. Up until 8:30 I can be pretty patient after that not so much; actually not even a little bit. By 8:30 I don’t even want to be in my own skin forget about some little human asking me to help them. I should have remembered all of those times my sister has told me how long it takes to get Rachel ready for bed. 60 fricken minutes that is how long and if you are grumpy it takes longer. So even though I was going to turn into a raving lunatic at any given moment because I started getting her ready for be at 8:45, 15 minutes after I usually turned into a pumpkin I thought okay – so let me get the nurse to help us. Rachel goes, “Auntie, I want you to do it, we don’t need Darcy.” Really Rach you may not need Darcy but I do. Do you know how tired I am? Okay notice, I didn’t write any quotes because I didn’t say it out loud I just said that in my head – I was about to loose my mind, but I didn’t I just went with it. So while Rachel was peeing I realized the potty was in the same spot as the shower. I AM NOT KIDDING. They are five okay more like three feet away from each other so as Rachel was peeing (and it took forever) I said, Rachel wouldn’t it be great if you could just pee and shower at the same time? You could be so efficient – you could pee then shower and just wash your body and not wipe. Since you are already half naked just get all the way naked (dad like George Castanza when he pees but just all the way – everything can always go back to a Seinfeld episode) and get all your business done at the same time!! Thank goodness she already had peed because I think she would have peed everywhere at that point because she was laughing so hard. So I decided since Rachel was going to bed clean she could wear her clothes to bed and she would still be clean when she woke up because after all how dirty does one get in bed when they sleep. Rachel now thinks I am a GENIOUS. She can’t believe Jenn hasn’t thought of this before and she can’t wait to tell her. I do this to Lilah at least once a week because at the end of the day it doesn’t have to be all about the kids sometimes it is about the parents or caregiver. Then of course Darcy, the wiper snapper nurse comes in and asks if we are ready and did Rachel brush her teeth. Clearly Darcy really has never met be before – it is almost 9:00 and really she wants to know if Rachel brushed her teeth!!!. I said, Darcy well you see – nope we didn’t brush our teeth and the beauty of it is no one is going to care or know because there is not always time to brush our teeth. Darcy was totally surprised. Then Rachel says, do you want to hear something great. I am going to bed in my clothes because I am clean now and well why not go to bed in clean clothes. No one sees me in bed so who will know if I changed or not. Exactly Rachel – welcomed to the dark side!! My side. So the good news is, Rachel did not pee herself since she peed before she went to bed. ☺ I gave her and her friend Emma hand facials and painted their nails – for the record I have never even painted my own kids nails – not that I don’t like to or want to – but if we have time to paint their nails we are going to a nail salon so I can get my nails painted too. Again Rachel thinks I am a genius….

So it is now 9:15 and I am done until Jenn gets back and I hear – Auntie you forgot to help me with my exercise. Really there are exercises. Yes and apparently if we don’t do them she might not sleep well – which means no one sleeps so what do I do – stretching exercise with her. MY HEAD IS ABOUT TO SPIN OUT OF CONTROL – but we do her stretching and she feels so much better. I said goodnight to her – tucked her in bed and fixed all her animals, blankets and pillows and she said, Auntie, Lilah said you get so mad at bedtime when you put her to bed that you get so aggravated sometimes but you didn’t get aggravated with me that must be because this is Rachel’s world and you are just living in it….. Really – Rachel really you are funny!!!

So at the end of this I realize maybe my kids could be funny too after 8:30 so I promise myself that I will try not to let my head pop off at bedtime until at least 8:40 but I am not sure I can go much past that because after all some days are so long but what I have learned it isn’t my world its the kids world they are just letting me live in it.

Goodnight from an Auntie who is going to be a different person than I woke up this morning – may you feel as blessed as do tonight. I am so thankful that Rachel lets me live in her world because in just one night she has taught me so much….

Lots of Love,

The two Rachels

PS Those that don’t know – Rachel was named after me – Rachel is my middle name

PSS So Jenn your are welcome I just realized you gained an extra hour tomorrow morning since Rachel is already in her clothes. ☺