Week in the life, Day 1: April 22nd, 2013.

Four times a year, Laura over at Navigating the Mothership does a "Day in the life" round up.  I participated for the first time last fall, on a dare.  I loved it. It turns out, this time in my life is comprised primarily of details.  Yes, there are overall themes, but they are the same for me as they are for every parent of young children: lots of diaper changes, never enough sleep, difficulty trying to maintain sanity, etc.  If you've had little kids I suspect this is all very familiar to you.  It is really the details that are memorable, and those I so often fail to capture.  The cute thing my kid said, or the frustration of cleaning play-doh out of the rug yet again.  So that's what these blog posts are good for.  Once a year, Laura challenges folks to a week-in-the-life.  This will be my first.  I'm not sure it will work, or that it won't bore you all to tears.  But I'll give it a shot.

7:00 a.m.  Greta squawks a bit.  I get up, take the bottle I prepped the night before and left on the banister, and give it to her.  My last several day-in-the-lifes have been on a 24 hour clock, because newborns suck like that, but this time I'm happy to report my day starts at 7:00.  It has been 6:00, which I can never seem to adjust to.  7 I can do, and I hope this is a trend.   She seems sleepy so I put her back in her crib and go back to bed.  I can hear her coo and eventually calm.  I only sleep lightly, but it's still nice.


7:20 a.m.  MJ is up.  We've had problems getting her to sleep past 6 am, so this is also a nice treat.  She plays in her room until 7:30 ("when the clocks match", i.e. when the picture of a clock in her room lines up with the actual clock in her room).  She comes into our room and asks for the iPad.  This is new!  I was out of town over the weekend (girls weekend in Vegas!! Glorious!) so Dad apparently broke some rules in my absence.  I say no and suggest that she can crawl into Greta's crib (who is now fully awake in the other room).  She does and proceeds to shout "Greta!!!  Greta!" for what feels like ten minutes.  It's loud and annoying, but Greta is laughing so I let it go.  When I finally go in Greta's sitting up in her crib.  This is also new.  She can now go from laying down to sitting up, and it's weird to see.  Glad we got her sleeping well before this new discovery....

7:50 a.m.  We finally all head downstairs (except for hubs, who I let sleep in since he watched the girls all weekend.  He has no early meetings and has to work late, so it's a nice treat.) I give Greta a muffin I cut up; she's experimenting with finger food and I baked these a few days ago.  She loves them, and Vito loves all the crumbs.   MJ gets "hot buttered toast", in homage to "Mercy", a series of books she's been obsessed with about a pig who loves hot buttered toast.  They're a nice change of pace and I find that I also love them.  And I also love hot buttered toast, so win all around.  And, of course, coffee for me.  Even though I'm caught up on sleep these days, I couldn't exist without it.

Muffin love.

Self portrait with dishes.  My hair is truly frightening in the morning.

8:30 a.m.  Breakfast is done.  MJ and I hatch a plan of going to the YWCA, so I start getting dressed and getting our things together.   I hide in the bathroom for 8 minutes of peace; MJ has not stopped talking since waking up and the mindless prattle really gets under my skin.  Can't believe I've only been out of bed for an hour, the number of words she has fit in makes it feel much longer.  We have been talking a lot about asking "thoughtful questions" but I try very hard not to discourage legitimate curiosity.  It's a fine line.  I go upstairs to get some things, and hubs is in the shower.  We discuss some life decisions through the shower curtain, which is how things seem to be done these days.  I finally sit down and give Greta another small bottle before leaving.

9:25 a.m. We finally depart.  How did it take so long just to get out of the house?  5 minutes later I am at the Y, and I drop the girls off at the kids area.  Greta is a bit more clingy than usual and I stay with her a bit.  By 9:40 I'm on the treadmill and enjoying some mindless Friends rerun and a light jog.  I usually shower after but today just couldn't get it together, so I putz around for a bit before going and getting the girls.

10:30 a.m  Go back to the kids area. Greta's asleep so I play with MJ a bit and read to her.  The ladies are both very nice, grandmother types, but they both feel the need to impart their vast wisdom to me ("She doesn't like her shoes", "She doesn't like the snack you packed, you should pack something else", etc.) 

10:50 a.m. Greta wakes up, so we pack up and go.  I lose my cool with MJ a bit in the parking lot, and vow to stay more patient because there's still a very long day in front of us.  

11:00 Head back home and eat an early lunch.  MJ has peanut butter and jelly (of course, that's all she ever wants) but at least has some broccoli with it.  I let her have a gummy candy after; I brought her back some from Vegas, and she chooses the large "J" I brought.  Greta wolfs down a mix of lentils, chicken, sweet potato, couscous and broccoli.  I feel pretty lucky that both my girls are such good eaters and will try most things.  I also start steaming some more baby food for Greta as we are almost out.

Preparing to scooter.  I love how much these girls love each other.

12:00 p.m.  I see the sun occasionally peeking through the clouds and decide to take MJ outside to scooter.  I put Greta in the Moby and we head out.  This spring has been total crap, so any chance to play outside must be seized.  And we just got hit by another  snowstorm this afternoon so it was a good decision.  We see our neighbor who had a baby about 3 weeks ago and briefly chat.  As MJ scoots ahead I can hear her testing out her "naughty" words, saying things like "stupid", "damn" and I'm not sure what else.  I ask her what she's saying and she looks uncomfortable.  She lies and says something nonsensical but I let it go, figuring she's testing out her vocabulary in a harmless way.  We wander a bit too far and the cold sets in, so there's lots of whining from MJ and grunts from Greta as we all head back.

I decide to do a self portrait on our walk, only to realize I have my hideous sunglasses on that make me look particularly weird. This, coupled with a baby coming out of my torse, explain some weird looks.

Resting at our turn around.  She talked me into walking all the way to Summit today.

12:30 p.m.  Although I had thought MJ might not nap today, given that she wasn't up early, it becomes clear on the way back that she's tired and grumpy.  So I force her to lay down, against her wishes.  We start with a story (Mercy, of course) and I tuck her in.  Greta's pretty fussy throughout story time so I hope she'll go down for a nap soon, as well.   

12:40 p.m.  MJ's in bed, so I get some time to just play with Greta.  She's such a sweet, happy baby.  98% of my frustrations in the day are centered on MJ, and Greta really gives me no stress.  She's so happy, content to just play and I just love this age.  I give her a small bottle (she's not drinking much these days).  She starts waving at me, a pretty new trick of hers. 

This one also fought the sleep, and also lost.

1:00 p.m. MJ comes downstairs and says she's not tired. I send her back and tell she has to stay there until I come get her.

1:20 p.m.  Goodness, another poopy diaper, already the 3rd today.  We're fighting a rash and have been mostly in disposables; the same issues we went through with MJ and cloth diapers.  I decide Greta seems tired and hope it's not just wishful thinking.  I put her in the crib and expect a bit of a fight but she calms instantly.  I check on MJ, who is sound asleep.  I sit down for a moment and pull up Greta on the camera- she's sitting up, not falling asleep.  But I decide to enjoy my peace while I can and do some work on the computer.  When I check her again she's still sitting up but swaying back and forth; I can't see her face but think she's falling asleep.  I'm afraid she'll fall asleep and hit her head on the crib, so I sneak in to lay her down and she goes right to sleep.

Fighting the sleep, but swaying.  

2:05 p.m.  I hear rustling.  I look at the camera and she's awake, sitting up again.  This time she decides to lay down again.

2:20 p.m. MJ is up.  Lucky thing.  Usually when she does take a nap I have to wake her or she would sleep 3 hours and have trouble falling asleep at night.  This is a good length of nap.  I let her climb in bed with me, where I'm working on my computer, and watch the iPad.  I only really let her watch TV/iPad if Greta is asleep.  She enjoys it, actually gets something out of it, I think, and the calm is much needed.  Today it's "Eloise".  

2:30 pm.  More sounds from Greta's room, and when I look she's sitting up again.  This time she's upset, but I know that wasn't a long enough nap. I give her a moment and she falls back asleep.  Apparently the novelty of being able to sit up whenever she wants is very exciting.

2:45 p.m.  I've finished the computer stuff I need to, so I get a shower and throw in some laundry.

Look mom, just one hand!

Their games often look annoying to me, but they seem to love them.

3:15 p.m.  Greta wakes up, this time for real.  She smells overwhelmingly like puke; this girl yaks so much still, I'm really ready for it to stop.  I change her and we play some more.  She practices standing, which she'd be happy to do all day long if I helped her.  She also practices waving some more.  She's getting confident standing while holding on with one arm and has tried standing  along a few times.  This girl is relentless in her quest to walk

3:40 p.m.  I decide to make quesadillas as a snack/early dinner, since I know our actual dinner will be late and minimal.  I give Greta some cut up sweet potatoes and she loves them.  She loves feeding herself but I have a hard time thinking of good things to give her.  I play "bride and groom" with MJ; I need to get better at playing pretend games with her, because she loves it and she doesn't have as many opportunities for other people to play them with her as she should.  

Bride MJ.

4:30 p.m.  MJ is driving me batty.  I have no patience for 3 yr olds. Loud, non-stop talking and she just will not give me any space.  After I ask for some space and she seems hurt I feel bad.  I let her watch some TV, because it seems the only way I can get her to give me some distance, and my patience is apparently low today.  I figure better to allow some TV than force her to put up with an impatient Mom.  I must get better.  I put some laundry away and clean up the kitchen.

5:15 p.m. Time to get ready to go.  We are going to the "Blessing of the Animals" at our church today.  I am not excited about it, given that Greta's rubbing her eyes, the snow is coming down and I just feel like it will be very hard.  I try to talk MJ out of going, but she's been excited for weeks, because Vito gets to come to church.  So we all get dressed and pack up.  I am very grumpy about this, I'm not proud to say.   I know I could say "no" but she's so excited.  

Our snowstorm.  Twice weekly, it seems.

6:00 p.m.  We arrive.  I am juggling a 3 year old, a baby in a car seat, a diaper bag and a dog on a leash.  The moment we walk in and Vito starts going nuts about all the other dogs I know that I have taken on too much.  He is so yappy, and I have a hard time calming him down.  We put in a contribution for dinner, of which I got to eat about 5 bites but at least MJ ate quite a bit.  The minister introduces herself to me, but this is about the 6th time she's introduced herself to me.  I find this pretty annoying; I don't think I'm that hard to remember, given that I am always present with a very wild 3 year old and a cutie-pie baby who can't stop smiling at everyone.  When she asks if I've been before and I say "Yes, about 6 or 7 times" she looks embarrassed, as she should.  I have loved how welcoming this church has been, but tonight was apparently not a good night, because only one person offered assistance when I clearly had my hands so over-full.  Yes, it's my fault, but isn't it supposed to be a church family?  Furthermore, during the short worship service, we all stood in a circle and MJ insisted on dancing in the middle during the hymnal and even during some of the spoken tribute.  At least it's not her Gangnam Style dance, and it was kind of innocent and cute, but considering that Vito kept yapping and I was the only person sitting on the floor because I was trying to calm him and hold Greta, the whole thing was ridiculous.  I'm sure people either found us riotously funny or totally heathen, but probably nothing in between.  Vito did get his dog treat and his blessing, though, so hope he appreciated it.

7:00 p.m.  I drag everyone back out into the snow.  We drive the short distance home.  I am so glad to be back, and so glad that bedtime is nigh.  I put Greta to bed (diaper, bottle, songs) and she goes right to sleep. Meanwhile, MJ has been packing for a trip and has turned our kitchen into a hotel room.  I get her to clean it up and help her clean up her room.  We finish a Mercy book and start reading "Ivy and Bean".  I love that we are into chapter book territory.  

8:10 p.m.  MJ is in bed.  I have some leftover pie in my hand.  I sit down to write (only getting interrupted by MJ coming out of her room once).  Hubs comes home about 9:30. It takes me until almost 10 to finish this, so tomorrow will definitely have to be shorter. It will all start over again at 7 a.m., if not sooner..