15 October 2014

Day 2 in my week... I don't think I can keep this up!  Might skip tomorrow, will have to see!

11:00 p.m. I finally lay down to go to sleep.  It could be said that I have some poor sleep habits.  My most awake time of the day is the time from about 7 or 8 until about 11.  I thought this would change with having kids, but it has not.  Even when I'm exhausted I can rarely go to sleep.  I lay down and decide to read for a bit, but find myself going down the rabbit hole of Ebola new articles.  I feel slight panic when I think about it, so not a great bedtime topic.  At midnight I finally turn off the light and go to sleep. I'm not sure why I let myself stay up so late.

2:20 a.m. I hear Teddy squawking.  I go in to give him a bottle and he quickly finishes 6 ounces.

5:55 a.m.  I hear husband up, getting ready for the day.  I feel bad that he will have such a long day, but five minutes later Teddy lets out a few cries.   Greta opens the door and barrels into the room.   Looks like my day will be long, too.  Greta is upset that dad is leaving, but Dad calms her down and she climbs jn bed and cuddles with me.  Teddy has quieted down, I get about 10 more minutes of rest before he insists on assistance (messy diaper).  The day has begun. I get him dressed and head downstairs for breakfast.

Morning Mom.  We're ready.  

An open stair case is an invitation.  When I try to grab him he crawls away as fast as he can, then laughs hysterically.

The cleanest he'll be all day.

6:30  a.m.  Everyone's hungry, mom is not moving fast enough.  I hear MJ 10 minutes later, but it takes her 20 minutes longer to wander downstairs.  Independence is a glorious thing.  She comes downstairs wearing a too short dress and gets upset when I tell her she has to go put on pants if she wants to wear it.  A constant problem.  Greta spilled food on her Pajamas and freaks out about it.   I tell her to go upstairs and ask sis for help picking out clothes and getting dressed.

For once, she's looking into the camera. I explained to her that I'm trying to capture a whole week, she decided she's on board.

7:00 a.m.  MJ is finally downstairs for good.  I give her the leftover oatmeal that Greta and Teddy didn’t finish.  I have little baggies of it put together to make it easy every morning.  I keep Teddy in the highchair, against his will, until I'm done putting the dishes away because he won't leave the dishwasher alone.   Greta decides she has to go potty and goes and sits on the potty for a good 20 minutes.  She doesn't succeed but I'm still impressed for how long she'll sit there.  I start tying MJ's bats to the chandelier that she's been working on.   It's a Target craft project that required putting stickers on 25 bats. It took a very long time to finish.  Teddy chews on the end of a laptop cord that husband has left plugged into the wall and starts crying. I send a passive aggressive text to hubs.

Stringing bats on a chandelier.  I showed MJ how to use the camera so she could take some pictures; she told me this was a good one, so I had to use it.  You're welcome internet.

See that power cord plugged in behind Teddy?  I didn't.  Two minutes later there was crying.  Teething on power cords = bad.

Cooperative play.  I feel like it's going to be a good day.

7:40 a.m. I change Greta but she's missing pants. I go upstairs and get dressed myself.   Teddy immediately starts crying downstairs, and the girls keep screaming “Teddy’s crying!!!!”, which is entirely unhelpful.   I go downstairs to give him a bottle but he's mainly just tired.

Greta would rather try to shoot something than put pants on.  

Helpful big sis, zipping up G's coat.

Photo credit goes to MJ.  Let's see how many embarrassing photos I can put in this post.

At 8 o'clock we start getting ready to go. I scramble to get the diaper bag ready, as well as a bag for Greta because she'll be going to her “school: this morning.  It’s really just a “Mom’s morning out” program at a nearby church, but we wanted the opportunity for her to socialize regularly.  We are out the door by 8:15.  We take MJ to her classroom and then I pick up some soup spoons in the teachers lounge; last week the PTO made soup with veggies from the school garden.  I look forward to the time that I can help with things like this, but right now all I can manage is loaning some spoons. 

Ready to walk to G's "school".  This is the diaper bag I leave with her, and she loves being in charge of it.

We are back home by 8:30, and I pile everyone in the stroller to walk to Greta’s school. It's about a three-quarter mile walk, but her school doesn't start till nine and it’s a beautiful morning.  The first couple weeks the drop off was tough, but now she loves it and looks forward to it.

A couple of the beautiful houses on my walk to school.

Greta's "school".  I've always loved this church.

We arrive by 8:50 and the doors are open so we march right in.  She happily goes to her classroom, drops her bag and coat and starts playing. She doesn't even care when I leave.  I ask what songs they've been singing, because she comes home singing songs I can't recognize.  Turns out she has been singing the Itsy-Bitsy Spider, but the Greta version is tough to decipher.

Ready to start her day!

A far cry from the wailing child I left a few weeks ago.  I questioned whether I was making the right decision; turns out I was!

We're back home by 9:10 a.m. and I put Teddy in the car to run some errands.  I thought he might fall sleep in the stroller, but instead he falls asleep in the car.  He sleeps for about half an hour and then I go into T.J. Maxx.  I have to return a necklace I bought last week which instantly broke. I pick up a sweater for myself and a pair of pajamas for Teddy while I'm there.  Then I head over to Target.  I need a number of grocery items, but I get distracted by the Home Decor section and the “$15 off $75” offer.   I'm such a sucker for their coupons.  I end up putting a bunch of sofa pillows in the cart, that I probably don't need, and realize it's already 10:30.  I rush through the rest of the store and get the other things I need, and then go to the checkout line.   The checker takes forever. I've gotten fairly skilled at being able to tell which are the fast checkers, but sometimes they all appear to be slow.  That was the situation today.  It takes 15 minutes just to get through the checkout line.  Teddy is restless the entire time because I forgot to bring his bottle.  Furthermore, I'm running against the clock because I need to go pick up Madeline.  I do my best to subtly rush the cashier but she doesn't take the hint. When she's finally done I rush to the car, pile everything in and drive to get MJ.  

I drive up to her school at 11:10, just enough time.  I usually walk there with the stroller, so MJ doesn't quite know where to look for me.  I put her in the car seat and drive to pick up Greta.  I would usually walk but for some reason don't feel like it right now.  Partly because I expect Teddy to meltdown at any moment and I don't want to get stuck on a long walk if he does.  We wait for quite a while at the door to get her, and I chat with some other women I know from a local moms group.   We discuss the photo session, because it was set up through the moms group.  It somehow makes me feel better to hear that other people's kids were as crazy as ours.

There's construction happening over there.    It was torture that he couldn't crawl closer.

Every surface must be crawled on.

We get home a little before noon but I have a hard time convincing everyone to get out of the car.  Greta frequently stays in the car, buckling the buckles on all the car seats when we stop.  I give Teddy a bottle on the front porch while Greta plays in the van for a bit. I finally drag everybody inside, mostly against their will, and start giving them lunch.  

All the kids are fascinated by the motion activated owl.  Though this guy is a bit hesitant.

Teddy gets the quiche from yesterday, and I make grilled cheese sandwiches for the girls.  I tide Greta over with a banana until they're ready.   Meanwhile, since Teddy is in the highchair, I can get the groceries from the car and bring them into the house without Teddy trying to dive down the front stairs.  MJ helps me drag things inside.  I work on getting everything into the kitchen and try to remember not to burn the grilled cheese sandwiches.   I focus on getting the refrigerated and frozen stuff put away, because I know I don't have time to finish everything right now.  

I finally sit down and eat a sandwich and some soup with the girls. Teddy finishes and insists on getting out of the highchair, so I know that my time putting things away has grown short.  Everyone is done eating by about 12:30.  Greta plays with a puzzle, MJ works on her homework, and Teddy keeps trying to get into the dog bowl.  I continue to try to put things away, and also pause to vacuum, which I didn't finish yesterday.  I keep seeing Teddy put gross things from the floor into his mouth.

G eats very little, and instead pokes holes in her sandwich and shoves peas in them.  If the photo distribution in this post was representative, at least half of them would be of the kids eating.

MJ helps me put groceries away, but must pause to check out the Halloween candy selection.

This girl loves puzzles.  One of her top three activities right now.

The water bowl!!! Yes!!!

G is totally going to be one of those people that blinks in all the photos.

She plunged right into her homework.  The first couple weeks she hated it, but now she seems to love it.  Not sure why the change.  I think because there's enough of it she no longer feels like each one has to be perfect.  She realizes this is practice, and she needs to be getting better, but not be perfect.

Baby plumber butt is still so cute.  I love when G imitates Teddy.  Is this her trying to play with him?

Oh gosh.  And I thought it was bad before, now he found the food.  Time for bed.  

G is very concerned that he not try to crawl up after her.  So safety conscious.

1:00 PM.  Time for a nap. I grab a bottle and convince everyone to go upstairs.  We read a couple stories in the girls room, one about Spot, of course and one about Madeline, of course.  I tuck in Greta and MJ goes into the guest room to lay down, and then I take Teddy into his room to give him a bottle.  While I give it to him I look at my phone and see a free piano listed on Facebook.  I text husband with my brilliant idea.  I lay Teddy down in his crib but he isn't settled. I go tuck MJ in while he fusses a bit.  It takes him a while to settle down but finally succeeds.  While I’m tucking in MJ, husband calls to inform me the piano idea is not a good one.  I asked him how firmly he feels about this, and he assures me his feelings are quite firm.   I know deep down he is right, but of course I argue anyway.  That is the kind of relationship we have.

1:40 p.m. I lay down and hope to get a nap.  I read some blogs for a bit, including one that I feel compelled to comment on, even though I know I should be sleeping.  

2:15 p.m. Teddy wakes up. I guess he was still hungry when he fell asleep.  I give him 4 oz and then rock him to sleep.  He’s a crappy napper.

2:35 p.m.  Up again!  This makes me feel a bit better than I couldn’t be asleep if I tried.  This time he puts himself to sleep quickly.  I finally close my eyes, not sure if I'll fall asleep, but quickly feel myself start sinking.  I wake up about 3:50 to the sound of Greta yelling at the door.  Teddy starts crying shortly there after, and then MJ comes out of her room.  Everyone is up, everyone piles on mama, everyone is hungry.  But for the first time all day, I feel totally rested.  This daily nap, for all of us, has become a ritual for me.  I rely on it.  I never used to be a napper, but for some reason now my body needs them.  I think, in part, because the end of the day is the hardest part of the day.  It’s when the kids are at their worst, and I therefore need to be at my best.  It also gives me the energy to get things done after the kids go to bed, so I don’t actually accomplish any less.  These are the things I tell myself to make myself feel better. :)

We head downstairs. Everyone gets pears, Greta gets yogurt, and Teddy gets cheese.  While they're eating I continue to try to clean up the kitchen, which I don't seem to be able to get ahead of.  I make some chicken meatballs for dinner and stick them in the oven.  Everyone finishes eating and we head out back for a bit to enjoy the nice weather.  I spend my entire time keeping rocks out of Teddy's mouth.  For a while I let it go to see what happens, and he sucks on them a bit, then spits them out.  I notice that one of the legs on Greta's baby doll is about to come off.  It has looked like it's about to come off for a couple months now, but it is now hanging on by just threads.  I try to explain to her that it will fall off soon.  She starts crying, apparently understanding what this means.  I'm curious to see how she will feel with a legless baby doll, as there is no real way to reattach them.

My beautiful girl.

She loves to take the leaves from the Day Lilies and "weave" things.

"Slide down my cellar door..."

My other beautiful girl.

This is her feelings on baby potentially losing a leg (or 2).

Sometimes G likes to lay in my lap and pretend she's a baby.  I'm just thankful I have at least one cuddly child.

Her weaving, complete.  See also: I preferred when she didn't know how to pose.  The fake smile kills me.

5:30 We eat dinner.  Teddy eats a ton, meatballs, spaghetti, cheese, Cheerios, peas and some frozen peach.  Greta chews up her carrots and spits them out, eats no meatballs and some of the spaghetti.  MJ eats everything.  Teddy is filthy and smells bad from all the food he's smeared on himself today.  I let him out to crawl around a bit.  He keeps biting me, which he thinks is hilarious.  Unfortunately, so do the girls, so my firm "No!" is ineffective.

MJ's arrangement of my frivolous pillow purchase.  I like them but don't think the color works.  There is some blue in the room, but nowhere else.  What say you internet?

After dinner Greta says she has to "go poop" and I set her up on the potty, and bring her some books.  She has said this a lot, so I'm skeptical, but she starts yelling "MOOMMMM!!" in a few minutes and I go in to find her dumping her potty in the toilet.  She spills pee on the floor, which is gross, but I am amazed that she initiated this moment.  Fingers crossed, but it seems that potty training this girl will be a breeze.  Of course, she instantly wants a treat.  And she poops in her diaper 10 minutes later.  But whatevs.  

At 6:45 Teddy goes to bed.  He is squirmy and wants to play, even though he's exhausted and fussy. I sing to him to try to calm him down, which works until I stop.  He fusses but finally goes to sleep.  Meanwhile, the girls are angelically quiet downstairs.  This has been a work in progress, but they finally understand the sanctity of putting babies to bed.

 I clean up the kitchen.  We go outside and light up the Jack O' Lanterns for Dad to see when he gets home, and meet some neighbors a block away out for a walk.  We've been discussing proper things to say to strangers, and how "Where are you going?" can be rude and nosy.  A better thing would be "How's your day going?".  So of course, MJ asks the neighbors this, making her sound like she's about 75 years old.  I'm used to over the top verbal eloquence, but it still catches me off guard some times.

I took an obscene number of these pictures.  Can you believe this is the best shot?  

I will never understand why Vito's dog food is such a source of fascination.

The girls play out back, in the dark, while I put stuff away inside.  We have piles of produce on the counter.  I don't know where to put it all.  If I put it in a cabinet I will forget about it and it will rot.  

I send G upstairs to put on pajamas at 8:00, and she melts down.  I finally calm her down, read her a couple stories, and by the end of them she is pushing me out of her bed so she can go to sleep.  Husband gets home at 8:45, chats with MJ, eats some dinner, then him and MJ go to bed.  And here I sit, in my quiet house, loving the silence and the peace that comes after a long day with little children.

14 October 2014

It's been 6 months since I did a Day in the Life.  I photographed the summer edition, but I was on vacation and just didn't have it in me to write it up.  So when Navigating the Mothership made a call, I couldn't let this one pass.  Furthermore, this is supposed to be a Week in the Life, which I'm at least going to attempt.  Though today was so involved, we'll see if I really have that in me.  When the hubs set to work the next 5 days straight, I'm not sure what the week will hold.

Today is October 14, 2015.  MJ is 5, Greta is 2 and Teddy is 9 months.  Because he still wakes so much at night, I started my day the evening before.

11:00 p.m.  In bed.  So nice to cuddle next to husband, one of the great things about winters  and our feather bed.  I love when he's home in the evening and we get to talk at bed time.  For some reason, it is the time that we often (lovingly) mock our children while recapping the day. He goes to bed and I play a mindless game on my iPhone for 15 minutes to turn my mind off. Can't decide if this is a bad habit or a good habit 

11:20 p.m. Night night!

3:00 a.m. Teddy wakes up and cries for a bit; it sounds like he might fall back asleep.  I wait to see if he will but he gets quite upset and so I decide to go in and give him a bottle. He downs about 4 ounces and I question whether I needed to go in to begin with. When I put him down he cries for a little bit and then goes to sleep.

6:00 a.m. Teddy starts crying, likely awake for the day.   All in all, not a bad night for him.  Hubs said last night he would be the one to get up with the kids this morning.  He seems to not be a fan of that idea this morning.  Begrudgingly, he does get up with Teddy and I pop in some ear plugs.

My messy kitchen with the terrible colors.  Hate starting the day looking at a mess.

7:00 a.m. Hubs is backand it is now my turn to get up.   I'm a bit grumpy, because I thought he meant he'd get up and stay up with them, and because I was deep asleep.  The time after I put in ear plugs, when I know he is on duty, is always the best sleep I get.  Otherwise I sleep pretty lightly and every little noise wakes me up.  I go downstairs, where  Greta and Teddy are eating Cheerios, and give Teddy a bottle.   I make coffee and think about how when I can yet again use my French press in the morning I will have returned to a state of low commotion 

G thinks the flash is hilarious and asks for me to do it several times.  Weird.  See also: Go dog go!

Somebody wants to be part of the book reading action.  A first for him. 

Look Mom!  I can write a day in the life post too!

Trying to figure out what's so great about chewing on things.

G spots an older lady in the paper and is CONVINCED it is Nana.  She refuses to put it down.

There's a fish in this book.  Thus, her rendition of fish face.

Our fish face selfie.  You saw it here first, folks.

7:20 a.m.  Sit down to read "Go dog go!" I've had dreams about this book lately, I've been reading it to Greta so much.  Teddy pukes all over my arm and the couch pillow, so I have to interrupt the sotry to try to clean up the mess.  I sit back down to finish the book. Teddy actually listens for one of the first times I can remember. He gets super squirmy and I pause to finish giving him the bottle.  Greta takes over flipping pages, and I discover that she really doesn't care when I flip five pages at a time.  I've been known to do such things, when I'm tired and don't feel like reading the book for the 7th time om the day.  Teddy starts chewing on my flip-flops and my knee and I talk Greta into getting him some toys so he stops. Greta steals my phone and starts using the auto dictation, as I've been doing while recording my day.  And she pretends take pictures.   Now that I'm awake and have my coffee, I find these guys to be a riot in the morning. Perhaps I should start setting the coffee pot the night before.

7:40 a.m. I stopped to change G's diaper, because it smells and apparently is the same diaper from last night.  I often change her on the floor, so that I don't have to drag everyone upstairs, but that requires fending Teddy off from crawling in the messy diaper.  While I'm changing her, Teddy grabshold of my coffee cup and tries to chew on the side of it; I grab it just in time.  This boy is teething on everything this morning.   Greta decides she wants to go try to poop on the potty. And it's almost time to wake up MJ. I set up G on the potty with some books, and instruct her not to get off if she poops, but to yell at the top of her lungs for me.  The moment I start walking upstairs she starts yelling "MOMMMMM!!".   I should not be surprised by this.  I continue to go back-and-forth between upstairs and downstairs.  While I'm getting Teddy dressed she yells insistently.  I go down to check on her and she has peed on the potty.  She's so proud!  I think this girl could be potty trained if I had the wherewithal to commit to it; she'll sit on the potty for long periods of time if she thinks she has to go, and she really wants to succed.

8:00 a.m. Deep in the chaos of getting everybody dressed. Teddy is trying to crawl away will I dress him; G tries to dress herself but doesn't know how and keeps putting on pants without a diaper.  MJ is furious when I tell her a T-shirt with tights is not appropriate.  While getting dressed, MJ says "Nothing is the same without nana here, we're back to real life".  I couldn't agree more.  Nana left yesterday and the chaos is intense today.  I finally squeeze into the bathroom, wet my hair and put on make up.  Meanwhile, MJ sets off the alarm downstairs when she goes outside to get her boots.  She starts crying, but it is a good lesson about not going outside if we don't know about it.

It was apparently epically cruel to wake her up with a flash.

nuff said.

MJ likes to make our bed.  I can't say I discourage it.  G is inhibiting this from happen.  

Trying to corral them.  It's an exercise in futility.

Teddy threw this rug in the shower.  I bet you can guess what happened when I took a shower five hours later.

8:15 a.m. The final push to get out the door is truly difficult today. I think because Nana left yesterday and we're not used to it yet.  G ends up wearing MJ's coat; Teddy wears big boy shoes because we can't find his.   We just can't get it together.  We walk MJ to school and she wants to walk into the school by herself.  We stand and talk to Jenny, an aid in MJ's class, who gives us the low down on MJ;s new boyfriend.  Yesterday, Amir walked her from the breakfast line into class.  She has also told us how he likes to watch her dance.  What?  Weird!  Jenny talks about how cute they are, and that they dance together.  How he's struggling in school but this is really helping him.  And how she has the self confidence to say a firm "no!" if she doesn't like something.  I had previously heard that Amir wasn't nice, prior to MJ deciding she really likes him, so I'm not sure what changed for her.  I'm more than a little concerned that she is already drawn to the trouble makers.

Ready for school.

Apparently this is my "no one is listening to me" face

Hubs about to join us on our walk.  Travel mugs are at a premium in our house.

I love going for walks in our neighborhood at all times of year, but especially right now.

Hubs, looking pensive.  

My third little dare devil

If you look very closely, you will see that there is a squirrel in the stroller.  Trying to get G's apple, I imagine.  She was not going to have that.

G is very concerned about making sure Teddy doesn't try to climb up on the horse.  I think because she is bucking wildly and doesn't want to hurt him, but I can't be sure.

8:30 a.m Back home and trying to get ready to go for a walk.  I cancel my reservation at the gym because hubs has decided to join us.  G completely undresses and we have to completely redress her.  We get everyone in the stroller and I forget my camera.  I go back to get it and it's not until we started walking I realize I've also forgot my phone.  We run into a neighbor and discuss siding for our house.   We walked to the Holly tot lot (where I think we went the last time I did a day in the life).  There's one other mom there with her two year old son; it turns out I recognize her from MJ's school.  We play for a bit but G gets tired and wants to go home.  She throws a tantrum when we ask her to put on her coat.  I put both of them in the stroller and give them each an apple.  

Guess who the coldest one in this picture was?  Guess who then threw a tantrum because she was cold?  Ugh.  She's so two.

My first 7 years living her I saw no chipmunks.  I've seen about 5 this fall.  Amazing.

We all walk to a nearby bakery, where I get some treats and drop Hubs off at the restaurant across the street.  He desperately wants to have a sit down breakfast, but I'm not game and would rather just take them home.  Teddy falls asleep in the stroller on the way back.  

10:00 a.m.  Arrive back home.  I drag the stroller up the stairs into the house with Teddy asleep, and fight Greta to come in the house.   G gets a snack of cheese and bananas, while Teddy miraculously stays asleep and I pick up a bit.  G practices drawing in a book of letters, but it is still far beyond her.

Fast asleep, despite being bounced up the stairs.  

My lefty.  Trying to teach her something about writing, which was really just scribbling.  

10:40 a.m. Teddy wakes up.  I try to vacuum, but Teddy keeps unplugging it and I don't accomplish much.  Hubs gets home from his breakfast and I start getting ready to go pick up MJ.

Look at that amazing sweater!  Thanks Baba!

10:50 a.m. Head out to get MJ.  Both littles are unhappy when I leave, and I feel kind of bad for leaving them in such a state.  Prob just in need of lunch, Teddy didn't eat much for breakfast.    I get to MJ's school and the teacher is reading a story.  I forgot to remind MJ about her doctors appt and I'm not sure if she'll come easily, but luckily she does.  We pile in the van; it feels weird to have only one kid.  I give her a granola bar to tide her over, since we usually eat lunch right after I pick her up.  We discuss shots.  And her drop off at school that morning.

This girl never lets me take her picture.  I gotta take what I can get.

Always running away.

The van feels so empty. 

11:10 a.m. Arrive dr office and check in.  MJ is bored with toys in waiting room, most of which are broken.  We don't wait long.  We go and have her weight and height checked.  Then vision and hearing, followed by temp and blood pressure.  The nurse asks a bunch of questions to me, though MJ answers them all herself, incensed that someone else would talk for her.  I can't believe I'm in this same waiting room where I  previously brought her as a screaming infant and crazy toddler.  Now she's sitting here nicely, answering eloquently and entertaining herself while I write.  How can this even be the same child?  She comments on a picture of a dog with a butterfly on its nose.  I remember her staring at the dog when she could just barely say "dog" and getting all excited about it.

Excellent vision!

And hearing!

Yay!  I get a smile!

Excited to be weighed.

Add caption

11:30 a.m.  We wait for the dr.  I read to MJ and she practices reading.  She objects at first, but then realizes she actually enjoys trying.  She's doing pretty well, despite having never seen this book before.  It's the first time I'm confident that it's really sinking in and not just memorizing the readers we have.

11:50 a.m. Doc comes in.  Asks her all sorts of questions, MJ keeps rubbing her eyes, clearly exhausted.  Discusses shots, gives MJ the choice of nasal or shot for flu.  MJ asks her lots of questions about the shots, what they do and why she needs them.  She chooses shot, even though the doc tries to talk her into the mist.  I'm proud of her eloquence, politeness, inquisitiveness, and perseverance in having her questions answered.  The doc discusses inappropriate touching, which is a nice thing to hear her say.  She discusses her tiny stature (6th percentile for height, 13th percentile BMI)..  We discuss that she prob would have been ready for kindergarten but it's fine she's in prek.  Given go dog go style book; I can't escape!

12:30 p.m.  Shots!  She's very brave but does cry.  Says she wishes she got the flu mist.  She asks for a Drive Through, which I think is funny, and I agree to stop.  It's something we never do so I guess it's a treat for her.  We call dad to ask for requests.  

12:40  p.m. Long line at McDonald's.  Thankuflly MJ chooses quickly when it's our turn.  She's incredibly excited about her Happy Meal.  Ha!

12:55 p.m.  Arrive home.  We have an interesting conversation in the car, about how Nana is afraid of the water because she's afraid of drowning, which MJ says is the funniest thing she ever heard.  Then we discuss how MJ would rather play T-ball than soccer next summer, because she doesn't want to have to wear the same thing as everyone else, which I tell her is the funniest thing I've ever heard, because T-Ball has uniforms too.  She says she only wants to be on a team where everyone can wear whatever they want.

The love of McDonalds apparently comes naturally.

 When we walk in the house I hear Teddy crying upstairs, immediately assume it's because hubs put him to bed too early. I go upstairs give him a bottle and bring him back downstairs.  The girls and I sit down to eat lunch, husband runs upstairs to join a work teleconference.  Greta makes a lunch of apple slices and chocolate milk, but MJ eats pretty much everything.  I have a salad, which is a questionable decision because it has Dorito chips in it.

1:20 p.m.. Time to put G down for a nap.  I run into husband coming down the stairs because he couldn't get into the teleconference. He offers to put G down for a nap, so I go back downstairs and talk to MJ.  Teddy is crawling all over the place.   MJ goes to bed five or 10 minutes later.  I try to pick up and pay some bills.  Teddy is fascinated by the chains hanging from the cuckoo clock and also sees me use the shredder and immediately wants to try. But he's pretty content with an apple that he finds in the stroller and gnaws on that for a while.  Hubs runs to work for a bit.

Ugh.  The mess is deep today.

He found the corner we hide things we don't want the kids to get into.  

2:00 p.m. I lay Teddy down. I check on the girls (who are both asleep) then hop in the shower. I wouldn't normally take a shower, (I just had one last night), but we have family pictures later and my hair is looking pretty wonky.  I come downstairs and sit down for a while. I've had to train myself to do this during naps, because sometimes I don't know when the next break will be and there's always plenty to do. I look at recipes and think about dinner when I rest.  Decide on quiche. Look at Facebook and laugh to myself about people my age still posting their GPA from college online. Pretty sure that mocking this makes me a bad person.  (But seriously, isn't this just the new age equivalent of waving your report card around?  It was tacky then and it's tacky now.)  Hubs comes home and lays down for a nap.

And one more!  A 4th nap!

The triple nap is a beautiful thing.  

2:50 p.m. Teddy starts squawking.  I give him the rest of his bottle.  He starts to fall asleep on my chest, but then Vito wanders in and T wakes up.  I throw a shoe at Vito to get him to leave; I feel bad about this but it's the quietest way I can get him to leave.  It's not use, though, because now T is quite awake and I rock him vigorously to try to get him to fall asleep again.  Finally lay him back down at 3:10.

I go downstairs to make a quiche, adding about four times the veggies called for, and not sure if it will turn out.  MJ wakes up about 3:30.  I get ready to go, put on makeup, change my clothes, fingers crossed that Teddy won't puke on me.  I wake up hubs from his nap.  He wakes up G.  Hubs takes shower, I get annoyed that he is not helping get anyone ready.   Everyone changes, chaos, etc., bottle for Teddy.   Greta is furious about having to change clothes and I basically end up wrestling her.  I know I am supposed to seek her cooperation but I sometimes just don't have it in me.   I take the quiche out of the oven, stick it outside with a plate on top (hopefully squirrel proof) so it stays a bit cooler.   In the car by 4:30 p.m.  Hubs brings Vito along, and I request some pictures without him because he is always trying to dash off and never looks at the camera.  Everyone thinks I'm horrible. because he's part of the family, etc.  I don't tell them about the shoe; maybe I am horrible.

Not bad for a mad dash into the oven.

4:45 p.m. Arrive at the session.  Haven't met this photographer before, but she's cheap and I try to do these every year.  The kids don't have long sessions in them, so the mini sessions are perfect.  It's only supposed to be 20 minutes but she goes to 45 minutes!  I think she thought she was doing us a favor, but it was torture to try to get the kids to cooperate.  G kept running off, MJ kept screwing around, Teddy just wanted to crawl away.  True to form, Vito kept leaving the frame so we removed him.  If we got more than 2 good shots I'll be amazed.  I popped cheerios in Teddy's mouth to get 5 seconds of good behavior out of him.  I bribed, I cajoled.  I tickled.  I actually wondered if perhaps I should be a photographer of kids, because I think I did a heck of a lot better than the photographer did.  Eventually, I sang Happy Birthday, and they all set there happily, though they tried to sing along so their mouths are probably open.  

This pretty much sums up our photo shoot.

Some handsome dudes.

Didn't intend to take such an artsy fartsy selfie.  

Wishing I had my good camera.

When it's done, we let the kids run around a bit, then pile in the van and head home.

5:45 p.m. We get home.  Hubs takes MJ and my step-Dads laptop to the UPS store; he forgot it here and we need to send it off.  I pile Teddy and Greta inside to get some food in them before they have to go to sleep.  Teddy loves the quiche (broccoli, turkey, peppers, onions, cheddar). After some quiche and pear the littles are done.  I take recycling out.  Greta gets put in timeout for screaming (the high-pitched, I'm-just-doing-this-to-piss-you-off scream).   MJ and Dad come home, and MJ eats.  The girl takes forever to eat!  She brought lollipops home for her and her sister, and Teddy gets a hold of one that fell on the floor.  He's pretty ecstatic about his discovery, but it doesn't take long for G to snatch it away.

6:45 p.m. Dad is on the phone.  G is a crying mess, and Teddy needs to go to bed.  I bring Teddy upstairs to change into jammies.  I give him a bottle and he gets squirmy so I lay him down.  I think he'll settle, but he doesn't (could it be because Dad and the girls are playing with the Nerf Gun downstairs?)  He finally does and I sit upstairs, in the quiet, for a bit before I head back downstairs.  I try to clean the dining room and the kitchen.  It's better than when the day started but not as good as I hoped for.  But I'm tired.  Very tired.  I finish the essentials (dishes, anything gross), corral the girls into helping me pick up a bit, then hand them the iPad to watch some Sesame Street.

Tucking baby into the kitchen drawer, giving her a bottle of juice.  Must have learned that from me.

7:45 p.m. I finish a little more in the kitchen, then grab a beer and head to the family room (third floor) to watch some Modern Family while I write.  Hubs is in charge of putting Greta down, and at 9:00 I wander down to read to MJ and put her to bed.  I love this girl so much.  We've been getting along so much better, and she's becoming such a person.  Such a nice, inquisitive, hard working person.  I am more hopeful about our relationship than I have been in a long time.  I talk about how proud I was of her at the doctor, because of how much she stood up for herself but how nicely she did it, and how bravely she took the shots.  I tuck her in then finish this post.

(I don't finish until 10:30!  Will need to tone it down in the future or I'll never get through a week...)