Spring 2013 Week in the Life: Sunday (aka finale)

I love doing a day in the life.  Maybe even two days in the life, but a week has me tuckered.  The past couple posts have been more like check marks, and I don't like blogging in this manner.  Today I will try to be meaningful (HAHAHAHA!)

4:00 a.m. Greta up.  Yelling.  One of the beautiful things about sleep training, and finally having a sleeping baby, is that I now know when something is actually wrong. Previously, there were times when I thought nothing could be the matter and I would let her fuss for a while, only to find she had a poopy diaper.  But now, when she cries in the middle of the night I know something is up.  Last night, poopy diaper.  These middle of the night poops are weird to me.  Is she pooping in her sleep?  I can't imagine dream pooping.  I flip on the hall light so it's not bright for her and change her diaper, using about 27 wipes in the process.  I decide I can't risk washing my hands after because she'll be furious if I disappear and will wake up too much to fall back asleep.  Or will wake MJ up.  So she gets minimally wiped down poop hands; gross.  I'm not sure why I'm telling you this.

I put her in the swing since it was fairly close to her normal wake up time... have I mentioned I'm hooked?  So is she, apparently.  Someday that will change....  I'm sure you'll hear about it when it does.

7:15 a.m. I hear MJ up and playing in her room.  Hubs gets frustrated at the noise level and goes in to say something to her; he worked until 11:00 p.m. last night, and probably didn't go to sleep until 1:00 a.m.  I didn't go to sleep until midnight, which is just my own dumb fault, and is the reason I was wiped out today.  At 7:30 I open the gate to our downstairs so she can go get some breakfast.  I know that this usually entails crackers or something similar, but that seems a small price to pay for more sleep.  But by 7:40, when I hear her crashing around, it's clear that sleep is done, and I really need to suck it up so hubs can get more sleep.

I go downstairs to find that her breakfast today consists of a banana (already engulfed), graham crackers, candy bars (left over from the birthday party) and marshmallows.  She tried to hit all the food groups and didn't just go straight for candy, so I'll give her some credit.  But everything got put away except for the banana.

MJ's idea of a balanced breakfast, plus the bananas she already stuffed in her mouth.

We put a leash on Vito, hoping to take him for a quick walk before Greta wakes up so that hubs doesn't wake up while we're gone.  I'm tired and inexplicably grumpy but MJ prances the whole way, full of joy.

An early morning walk with my girl.  Joy, personified (but not well captured in this photo)

When we get home we hear Greta start stirring and go get her.  The morning then devolves into chaos, as most mornings do.  MJ fashions a Play-Doh hat for Greta.  She dumps milk all over the table.  MJ accumulates 3 timeouts for being too loud by 9:00.

"Look Mom!  A pancake hat! A PANCAKE HAT!! HAHAHAHA!"

We talk to Baba (my mother-in-law) on FaceTime.  Greta scoots around a bit to show off her newfound skills, and once again MJ spends very little time actually talking.

9:30  MJ rocks her baby to sleep.  She tells me I'm being too loud and need to quiet down, then sing-shrieks to her baby.  Hypocrite.

::sigh:: if only my babies slept as well as hers always seem to.

We wake up Dad after MJ stubs her toe on the door and SCREAMS for Dad to look at her toe.  We  get ready for church and I insist that MJ has to wear her shirt the right way for church (we really dress up around here).  I'm stressed and tired, and hubs points out that I'm taking on too much, but I insist we have to go because MJ gets so little time to play with other kids these days.

My  church attire (and yet another very messy room. Do you sense a theme in our life?)  Hubs informed me my skirt was too short as I was walking out the door.  Too bad!

By 10:00 we're packed up, everyone in the double stroller.  Dad stays home to sleep more (and because he's Catholic... I swear the church must think I'm a single Mom).  We walk the short distance and I realize I've forgotten my phone (so no church pictures for you!  My best chance to be creepy today and I missed it....)  We settle in a pew, MJ is being good and Greta is looking around smiling.

10:30 a.m. Once the service starts, though, Greta starts shrieking.  Happy shrieking, but people are turning around in their pews to look at me.  I come to realize I should have taken her to the nursery, but now it's too late because MJ wants to stay and I can't leave her by herself.  So I do my best to quiet her down by standing in the back of the church, and I watch as MJ picks her nose, too far away for me to do anything about it.   Finally, they call the kids to the front of the chapel.  All the other little kids have parents go up with them, but MJ refuses to let me join, so she sits up there "by my own".  They're then dismissed to go to Sunday School and I bring Greta to the nursery.

I go back to the chapel after all the kidlets are settled, and today they are discussing the strategic vision of the church.  I wanted to poke my eyes out.  Seriously.  They put together a powerpoint, which included at least 3 pie-charts, a word cloud, and many, many flow charts.  I felt like I was in a corporate team building exercise.  I have decided I am not impressed by this minister.  I like the people in the congregation, and I love the youth minister, but the main minister provides zero inspiration.  I thought about ducking out early but resisted.

11:30 a.m. I finally escape.  I find Greta on the playground in the bright sunshine with no sunscreen on.  MJ is finishing up in her classroom and being a pill.  I try to grab them and run before I get sucked into a conversation, and thankfully MJ is happy to oblige because she knows her Dad's at home.  On the way home we walk by another church and I ask her how she'd feel about trying that one.  Thankfully she's into this idea.  Maybe we'll have to explore this church idea elsewhere.

12:00 p.m. Arrive home.  Now onto the other tasks for the day.  I decided to make some Lemon Chicken Dill Orzo soup (too many nouns happening there).  I've had all the ingredients and never got around to making it, so it's now or never.  Hubs watches the girls so I can have some alone time in the kitchen, which I always enjoy.  I think it's the only part of my day where I experience flow (which is supposedly one of the key components of happiness, so I embrace it).

12:30 p.m. Hubs lays G down for a nap.  I know he also relied on the swing and I try not to judge him for it.  Girlfriend is a pretty terrible napper.  While he sees me cooking he decides to make pizza and we end up cooking for quite a while.

1:00 p.m.  We finally all sit down to eat.  Pizza, soup and cantaloupe.  Outside, on the back porch.  Any meal eaten outside is a picnic in MJ's eyes, so a picnic it is.

1:30 p.m. Nap time.  MJ woke up early enough that she might just go for it today.  We read "Guess who lives here" and then it's bed time.  She is not a fan.

1:45 p.m.  I finally sit down.  Not for long, because there's still a lot to do.  I read a bit on my phone.  MJ comes down to protest and I send her back up.

2:00 p.m. Start cooking again.  This time a quinoa salad to bring to our friends BBQ this afternoon.  At 2:30 p.m. hubs checks in on his way out the door, and observes that I'm overdoing it; also mentions that MJ was still awake when he was upstairs..  I know I'm overdoing it but I can't stop.  Beautiful weather, good friends, must take advantage of it all.  I destroy the kitchen in the process and don't finish until 2:45 p.m.  I'm not sure how I did so much damage and why it took so long.  I think I'm just mentally slow today.

2:45 p.m.  Rather than clean up I sit down to rest for a bit.  I take a bike rack to the car that we're giving to a friend.  I peak at MJ and she is sound asleep.  Greta is also still sound asleep.  I read the New York Times for half an hour (I usually just read the most-emailed stories, I'm a follower like that).

The kitchen I swear to myself I'll clean in the evening.  (Guess what?  Surprise!  That didn't happen.)

3:15 p.m. I get everything packed to leave and wake up the girls.  I try MJ first but she's sleeping too deeply.  So I wake up Greta (all smiles) and we wake up MJ together (all frowns).  Knowing that we're going to a friend's house makes it better, but not much.  She decides all she wants to bring is a teddy bear (a pink one that, of course, says "Princess"... should have gotten rid of that bear when she was 1 and hadn't yet fallen in love with it) and some chapstick.

MJ, sound asleep.

Greta, well rested and loving life.  And that darned swing.

3:30 p.m.  In the car, on our way.  Driving 60 mph and I see a jumping spider on my dashboard.  Not a huge one, maybe the size of a dime, but it's fat and it freaking jumps.  I involuntarily swerve a bit and try to collect myself.  I hate spiders.  I grab a tissue and think I manage to squish him but there's nothing in the tissue.  So I grip the wheel and vow not to swerve if something jumps on me.  At one point I feel something (not the spider) and jump again, so I'm not sure how much good my self-talk did.

We drive through a tunnel on 94 to get to our friends house, and this cheers MJ immensely because she gets to shout "AHHHHH!" as we go through the tunnel.  We never taught her this, she just started doing it on her own.

4:00 p.m. We arrive at our friends house.  They moved in a few weeks ago and this is our first BBQ at their new place.  MJ whines a bit about not liking the sun (freaking Minnesotan) and I tell her no one here will have any sympathy for that kind of talk.  When we arrive I slather the kids up with sunscreen.  MJ refuses and I chase her throw the yard and tackle her to the ground.  My skirt is probably too short to be doing this but whatevs.

I love my friends for many reasons, but one of the reasons is that they're amazing cooks.  All of them.  It can make gatherings a bit stressful as I always feel the need to have inspiring food, but it makes for amazing gatherings.  Today was pork steaks grilled to perfection, cowboy beans made with heirloom beans, some amazing cole slaw, fruit salad, marinated cauliflower, homemade pickles, and some quinoa salad we brought.  Everything made from scratch, everything delicious.  Knowing these people has made me a better cook.

But anyway.  Most of the time is spent chasing the girls (or allowing/savoring other people chasing them).  At one point MJ goes upstairs to "drop a deuce" and insists on turning on the heater, just like her Dad.  A few rain showers send us inside, but everyone is just full of joy due to the weather and the food and the company.  I will not tell hubs all this because he is already sad to miss it.

"I swear I've seen them use these cups this way."

A lovely, lovely BBQ.

Greta's second experience with grass (her first was on Friday). Turns out, it's been a long winter.

Since MJ took a nap I try to stay as long as possible, but by 7:15 Greta is tuckered.  It takes a while to drag MJ away and she makes plans to have a sleep over at their house soon; Greta falls asleep in the car instantly.

7:40 p.m.  Get home, move G upstairs in her carseat.  MJ gets ready for bed without a fight.  We read "Lulu and the Brontosaurus" tonight, which I love and keep reading far longer than I intend to.  Finally tuck her in, go outside to "walk" Vito around our house and chat with our neighbor.

When I come back inside I move G to her crib (after giving her a bottle). I can't find the motivation to clean the kitchen.  The house is really a disaster, which I hate waking up to.  It starts the day off rough for me, but I've got to get some sleep.  I won't publish this until tomorrow but had to get it mostly done.

Before I fully go to sleep, I will go back downstairs to get some bottles for the night.  I usually give G a dreamfeed before I go to bed, but since she just went to sleep I don't know if I'll do that tonight.  Maybe I'll stir when hubs comes home and do it then....