Week in the life, Day 2: April 23, 2013

This needs to be quick today, because I have a Mad Men episode I want to watch.  I'll do my best at brevity, and probably won't do a very good job proof reading.  Sorry 'bout that.

5:55 a.m. Greta squawks.  Bottle and swing, and she instantly falls back asleep.

6:something a.m. I hear MJ up. Thankfully she usually goes to hubs first because she knows he's more patient in the morning.  But even he tells her to go back to her room.

7:15 a.m. She's up again.  In my sleepy haze, apparently hubs decides to get up with her and let me sleep.  Jackpot!

8:25 a.m.  Lots of noise in the house, and I'm feeling very awake.  Apparently that's as late as my body will allow me to sleep.  I check my phone, not yet ready to face the chaos.  This is probably why MJ now asks to "plug in her phone" next to her bed, and why we already had to make a "no phone at bedtime" rule, even though it's not even real.  Vito sneaks in to my bedroom, leaving the door open. A couple minutes later MJ spies an open door and runs in screaming.  My day has begun.  I head downstairs to find that hubs has made pancakes, coffee, and emptied the dishwasher. Stellar hubs today, did he know this would be recorded?.  I eat breakfast and feed Greta, while hubs hops in the shower.

9:00 a.m.  Hubs leaves for work.  I need to be at the rental at 10:00 a.m. to meet a furnace guy, so just need to kill some time.  MJ gets dressed to play outside in the snow, and I sit inside with my coffee to watch her.  Perfect way to start the day: quiet for me, exercise for MJ.

I have to nix the car cleaning, even though I don't want to, because she's too close to the road.

9:25 a.m. Back inside. We all get dressed, Greta gets a bottle. MJ comes down the stairs in her wedding gown announcing she is a "principal".  I think she means "princess" but it's too cute to correct her.

"Principal" MJ.

I also get sucked into the "principal" story.  I am apparently the groom.

10:20 a.m. Still no word from the furnace company (they're supposed to call to give us notice to head over).  I call them and they say it will be very soon.   Quick load of laundry.

Got hold of her sisters flute when she wasn't looking.  Tries to blow on it,  gives up and beats the ground with it.

10:49 a.m. MJ is back outside, but it doesn't last long and she announces that she is done with the snow.  "I'm very frustrated, I don't want any more snow."  Yes, dear, we all feel that way.  I call the furnace company again, and they say another 45 minutes.  Greta's already rubbing her eyes.  This doesn't bode well.

Chew beads.  Everything is better with chew beads.

11:00 a.m. They call to say they're on their way.  I confirm that they are doing a furnace inspection and installing a gas line shutoff.  They say they are only doing an inspection, this guy doesn't do gas line shutoffs.  I'm fed up and tell them I'll be finding a new company.  So now, a morning wasted and nothing accomplished.  The snow doesn't make me want to go anywhere, but still....

11:10 a.m. I put Greta down for a nap and put some tea on for MJ and I, so she can use her new little mug I got her in Vegas. I give her the iPad since Greta's asleep and get some more rental stuff done, including finding a new heating company.

11:20 a.m. MJ turns to me and asks "Are taxes a boy?"  A few weeks ago she heard me groan a lot about doing taxes, and even pretended to do her own, but this is a confusing question.  Even when I explain why it's a confusing question we are both at a loss.  She loses interest and watches more Curious George.    At some point I decide that the annoying sounds of Curious George are not doing much to help me maintain sanity so I ask her to watch it in her bedroom for a little bit.  

12:20 p.m. Dad comes home and sneaks into MJ's room.  He manages to climb up next to her before she notices and screams with delight.  George is done, time for lunch.  PB&J, as per usual.   Quesadilla for mom.  Pasta with clam sauce (yuck!) for Dad.  The kitchen is busy and we all chatter.

12:50 p.m. Greta wakes up, smiling from ear to ear.  Love how much this girl loves life.  Discuss more rental issues with hubs; we had a fire safety inspection and have several findings we have to fix, including what to do with a room we put in the basement that we never pulled a permit on.  Tear it down?  Get a permit?  The whole thing sounds like more time than I have time for.  Also need to paint a garage, install new deadbolts, fix two doors, etc.  Not sure when I'll find time for it all.  Not excited to pay someone else to do it all, either.

1:00 p.m. MJ gets in big trouble for turning the heater in Greta's room on.  I try to scare her a bit, explaining the fire hazard, but she just doesn't seem to get it.  

1:15 p.m.  Nap time for MJ.  We read "Ivy & Bean", which I'm enjoying, and which MJ seems to enjoy, though I'm not sure how much she's understanding of it. 

1:30 p.m.  Lunch for Greta.  Make some pasta for her try feeding herself.  I hear lots of banging upstairs as MJ defies nap time.  Make some more baby food for G with plans to freeze it.  Clean up from lunch.

2:25 p.m.  Finally throw in the towel on a nap.  I go in, she's laying on the floor with her feet up in the air. We clean her room (I secretly love that she's so good at entertaining herself in her bedroom, even if it means a mess and no nap). We wait for dad to finish a phone call to go grocery shopping.

The daily room clean up.  Not too bad today, but trying to avoid reaching critical mass.

3:00 p.m. Leave for Whole Foods.  Hubs and I constantly disagree about whether "organic" is worth the money, but since I do most of the grocery shopping and most of the cooking I usually win.  Furthermore, we have fewer meltdowns at Whole Foods because I don't have to argue against Cinderella toothpaste and purple cheerios (both real Target arguments).  Hubs takes MJ, I take Greta in the cart, who is a perfect angel despite having been awake for going on 4 hours.   I hear shrieking the next aisle over, know it's my kid, and sort of hope that they stay over there so I don't have to acknowledge that it's my kid freaking out.  I see my cubicle neighbor from my last job and feel too awkward to say hi.  The last time he saw me I was 9 months pregnant so he prob didn't recognize me, anyway.  Dad finally gives up and takes MJ to the car.  I finish in peace, except for accidentally deleting my grocery list from my phone.  But without a whining threenager I have the time to go slow and don't think I forgot anything.  Greta briefly falls asleep in the car.  I guess that's the afternoon nap.

4:10 p.m. Back home and unload the essential (i.e. frozen) groceries.  I planned to make meatball hoagies, but the sun is out and the snow is almost gone and MJ wants to scooter.  I give in, this spring has been too crappy to let a single moment of nice weather go unappreciated.  We stop at the playground where some older girls befriend MJ.  She loves it, and they're so sweet to her.  This has not been her experience lately, and I hope we run into them again.  Hubs leaves for work and we say hi as he drives by.

Apparently all my sunglass photos are weird, but at least Greta's cute.Love that tongue.

Getting pushed on the swings by older girls = heaven.

4:35 p.m. Back home when the cold wind finally got to be too much.  I make some frozen ravioli, but MJ is so hungry even that is a hard thing to wait for.  I feed Greta while the food cooks: quinoa mixed with spinach and beef.  Also yogurt with applesauce.  And some cheese, for the first time.  She loves all of it.

5:00 p.m. Finally we are all eating.  I give some more cheese to Greta so she can "eat" with us.  Both of my girls look like they're going to fall asleep while eating.  MJ turns to me and says "Mom, I'm pretty fragile."  It's an expression I use when she's tired and easily upset; I can't help laughing at her mournful little face.  But the food perks her up considerably.

My "fragile" girl.

She climbs in my lap after eating.  Proof that she is, indeed, fragile.

5:20 p.m.  I somehow get confused about time, thinking it's 6:20 when it's only 5:20.  I was getting G ready for bed before I notice.  So instead, we all get in jammies and just play.  MJ and Greta lay in my bed laughing for a long time; MJ keeps tickling her and poking her to get her to laugh.  It looks too rough to me but G loves it, so I guess it's okay.  After a while we go downstairs to clean the kitchen from dinner.  I let MJ have a piece of candy, which takes her about 40 minutes to eat.

Some pre-bed rough housing.  MJ as instigator, Greta as encourager.

6:10 p.m. I start Greta's very brief routine, and she goes down without a fuss.  Tired girl, it's no wonder.     I agree to play the "Big sister" game with MJ, no really knowing what I'm agreeing to.  But MJ is usually content to have me do very little in her games, as long as she gets to be in charge.  This game involved her putting me to bed, and me getting to lay there for a while as she did who knows what else.  Then she came and woke up and we went to "Lizard Land".  I nixed the going-outside-in-our-jammies part.  

6:40 p.m. Teeth brushing time.  Then quite a few stories.  Before the end of the Ivy & Bean chapter we read she asked if she could crawl in bed.  

Two very tired girls today.  Here's hoping they sleep all night.   And now for some Mad Men....