Day in the Life - Fall 2011

There is still plenty of time to participate in the "These are the Days of Our Lives" round-up post for fall! Just get your day in the life done and posted by this Sunday and then email me at navigatingthemothership@gmail.com. More details here.

Sunday, October 2

12:05 AM - Oliver fusses quietly and begins to wake up in his co-sleeper next to the bed. I slide him out (heavy!) and nurse him in bed and then let him sleep next to me.

5:something AM - Oliver wakes again and I put on my glasses and am delighted to see that he slept that long stretch and therefore I got the longest stretch of solid sleep since...March? Or something? Maybe last week? Who knows! HUZZAH, anyway. I feed him and then let him sleep on my chest for this last stretch.

6:00 AM - Oliver seems up and at 'em so we go downstairs. I kind of cherish this "alone" time in the mornings, even though I would love more sleep.

6:05 AM - I change his diaper. Pink because I don't buy into gender stereotypes.

Heh. Actually, it's because Husband is being a total party pooper about buying new cloth diapers to replace the 6 pink ones. Get it? Party POOPER. Soooooo funny.

6:10 AM - Speaking of poop, doesn't matter about the pink diaper because he had his first poop of the day. Switch him to a blue diaper.

6:15 AM - Mmmmmrow? Mrow? MROW? Cats. Not exactly like Folgers in your cup. Needy little creatures. So many, many needy little creatures in my life.

But I still heart you, my cat friends. Let's play Hidden Pictures a la Highlights. How many cats can you see in this photo?

6:20 AM - Blogosphere, meet my 31st b-day present.

6:30 AM - I have some quality one-on-one time with my baby boy and guzzle coffee and also check the extended weather forecast which is completely awesome - highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s.

6:50 AM - Oliver seems to be getting sleepy so I put him in his swing to see if he'll fall asleep. I get a few dishes done and when I check on him a few minutes later he's sleeping peacefully. Easy baby, yo.

7:00 AM - I hear Bella get up. I let Husband get her and bring her to the potty. Then he brings her down to me and is all grumpy, "How come I have to bring her down on my mornings to sleep in?" Aw, poor guy. I agree that it sucks to have to get up when you are sleeping, since, you know, I do it EVERY NIGHT. BOO-YA! She shoots and scores! Husband nods once and says, "Oh yeah" and goes back upstairs. He's a cranky young man in the mornings and not nearly as delighted by my wit as he should be.

7:15 AM - Bella is a bundle of energy, as always. She runs around and grabs her art work off her easel to show me - she is very proud. Then we do some random playing. I believe this is some sort of Dora thing here - she is Swiper and I'm saying, "SWIPER, NO SWIPING!"

Then we play that I'm the cats and I chase after a string that she dangles in front of me. We do about 20 revolutions around the couch. I may have taken pictures, but my pride prevents me from showing you. Just know that my old school Victoria's Secret red velour pants are looking goooooood.

7:30 AM - Fix breakfast for B and I. The oatmeal overflows despite many precautions taken to prevent that. I shake my fist in rage at the injustice.

We add frozen blueberries and brown sugar. Bella requests, "Just a pinch of brown sugar" but then gets mad when I add it to her oatmeal. I realize she means she just wants brown sugar and no oatmeal. Nice try, small fry. She eats a bunch of frozen blueberries and gets many things blue. I note this and do nothing. She also starts in with "I'm ready for a nap." This is trickery as she would never take a random nap at this time and it is basically code for "I'm super cranky-pants: have fun!"

8:00 AM - Oliver blissfully keeps sleeping away. I get Bella set up with her one Dora for the morning (we do one in the AM and one in the PM) and I sit down to do some writing on Chapter 4 of our Love Story.

8:45 AM - Wow! I'm getting so much done. I must be so productive today! I hear the ending song of Dora and go and sit next to B on the couch. Why does the timer on the bottom say 45 minutes? WHAT? Oops. It must have been a special end of the third season episode that was double the length. I tell myself that I will still let her watch a second episode, because it must be that way. It simply must.

8:46 AM - Let's do an art project! YAY. Lasts a whole 8 minutes. She doesn't want to keep painting unless I do it with her. "No, Mommy. You paint with Bella!" Independent play continues to elude us for the most part.

8:54 AM - B feels warm and keeps acting super crabby so I check her temp. Normal, but then I inspect her molars. Ah ha. Two more are busting through.

9:00 AM - Bella and I wake up Husband (he had asked we get him up at 9) and we head back downstairs. I start up my Jillian Michael's Ripped in 30 Days DVD and Husband gets breakfast for himself, which he'll share with Bella. They also make coffee together and she requests some "baby tea" (milk with cinnamon that she gets to shake in herself). Husband puts it in her special mug that he brought her from Paris.

9:15 AM - B runs back and forth between Husband and I and Oliver sleeps on in his swing. He's doing so great with sleep today. It's magic!

9:20 AM - Oliver finally wakes up and I feed Ollie mid-workout (yuck, don't like nursing while sweaty).

9:30 AM - I finish my workout while Husband cuddles the kids on the couch. He announces that it's times like this that makes him want more kids. Then crabbiness/fussiness happens 5 minutes later and he threatens vasectomy come Monday.  He's mixed-up like that.

10:40 AM - Potty time. Bella enjoys reading about "Pwoodence" and her pooping escapades. I don't so much enjoying reading about "Pwoodence" and her pooping escapades. Especially since Bella insists I say "Prudence" while she gets to say "Pwoodence." Also, Bella makes me read the special multi-paragraph letter to parents, despite my pleas that it is very boring. "Is not boring, mama!"

Daddy and Oliver hang out in the hallway outside the bathroom and coo at each other.

11:00 AM - Bella keeps acting crabby and Oliver begins fussing so we decide to go outside. The effort it takes to get outside is really frustrating to me and I feel so annoyed - like way too annoyed for the situation, but there it is. I leave Husband with Bella and go downstairs with Oliver to put him in the carrier. And then I realize I'm STARVING. All I've had is coffee and a little bit of oatmeal. Hence uber crabs. So I scarf down some peanut noodles while Oliver fusses in the Ergo. Husband finds me chowing down in the kitchen.

11:15 AM - We get outside, but don't get far as Husband begins to chat with some random guy who lives in the neighborhood and his dogs. But of course. Husband loooooves strangers. And talking to them. Oliver is fussing and we need to get moving. I'm still crabby and low blood sugar. We finally get going and walk half a block when...

11:31 AM - I step in dog poop. As I'm after scraping it off as best I can, I announce that I need to go back home. I'm too crabby for this family walk. Oliver and I head back and Husband takes Bella on a mini-adventure.

11:35 PM - Ugh.

I want to cry, too. But I just eat more noodles to try to get my low blood sugar crabbiness to go away and jiggle Ollie to soothe him.

11:46 - Multi-tasking.

Meanwhile, Bella has a good time with her daddy.

12:37 - Husband and Bella return and he gets her lunch. I'm nursing Oliver in an attempt to get him back to sleep.

1:00 PM - We exchange kids and I get Bella ready for her nap while Husband gets Oliver down for a nap. Bella hasn't wet her diaper at naps or night for a couple weeks and it seems wasteful to use a diaper at those times so I put a cloth diaper insert and a cover on her. She feels really fancy in this get-up and does some hip wiggling in the mirror in her room.

1:25 PM - Two books and three songs and one nap. And seven stuffed animals and three blankets and one pillow. Bella also insists that the books go into the bed with her. I oblige because if I don't, she will get up and load her bed with EVERYTHING in the room.

1:45 PM - I take a nap, too. Ahhhhh.

2:15 PM - Husband very quietly brings a laundry basket into the bedroom where I'm sleeping. And that's all it takes to wake me up. My mama instinct has me sleeping so lightly. Grrrr. (Mad at my light sleeping, not Husband.) I get up and do some chores and take a shower.

3:20 PM - Bella is really crabby after her nap - it's her teeth again. We give her a snack and let her watch her second Dora of the day in an attempt to distract her.

3:45 PM - Playtime on the landing. Bella does one particular puzzle over and over lately. She weirdly struggles a bit with puzzles, but sometimes I think she's just imitating me because I often pretend not to know where a piece will go. (Or maybe I'm not pretending. Maybe I have puzzle struggles!) Then we Skype with Nana and Papa.

4:15 PM - I make the Pioneer Woman Chili recipe (Frito Chili Pie) that caught my eye earlier in the week. Normally I'm not a Frito fan, but they look intriguing in this recipe. B is the sous-chef.

4:30 PM - We decide to go to the park and it takes 20 years to get organized and out the door.

4:55 PM - We made it outside! I love this candid I took.

On the walk home from the park, I told Bella we were going to eat chili with cheese for dinner. Her reaction? "Chili with cheese? Oh boy!" Who taught her "oh boy"? Dora?

5:45 PM - Chili with cheese? OH BOY! I have also been wanting Oktoberfest beer, which is weird for me. What's with wanting weird foods that I don't normally like? Could I be...? (NOOO. I'm maybe more scared now than ever before about accidentally getting pregnant.)

6:00 PM - Bella and the toddler next door shout cute things at each other.

6:25 PM - I get Oliver set up in his Bumbo (with special sticker book head propper) and give Bella a bath, while Husband cleans up the kitchen a bit.

6:50 PM - I start Bella's bedtime routine while Husband gives Oliver a bath.

7:05 PM - We switch kids again. Biggie Smalls after his bath. Cute little chunk.

7:10 PM -  Do a mini bedtime routine including nursing and rocking Oliver in an attempt to get him to sleep.

7:30 PM - He doesn't seem tired quite yet (BAH) so we bring him back downstairs with us.

7:35 PM - We stick Oliver in the swing and he's out in a couple minutes. (B was meh about the swing, so this makes the investment feel oh-so-worth-it.) Husband and I indulge in our latest Netflix addiction - Greek - and eat preacher cookies. We have to watch Greek on my MacBook that has terrible speakers so we hold it (in all it's 500 degree glory) on our laps while huddled together because the white noise of the swing hisses behind us. If it all sounds very romantic to cuddle on the couch all hot-like, I can assure you it's not.

9:00 PM - Husband begs me to watch one more episode and says he will do some favor the next day if I do (can't remember what it was - sleep in? dishes? something) so I try my hardest but I fall asleep on the couch in 5 minutes.

9:45 PM - I take out my dried-on contacts, brush my teeth, and crash into bed. I'm having my nightly hot flash. ¡Ay, caramba!

11:00 PM - Time to nurse Biggie Smalls again. I be so tired.

THE END