Day in the Life - Winter 2012

Friday, February 17, 2012

3-something - I hear Oliver wake up and start fussing and I roll off my air mattress on the upper stair landing (don't you worry, I'll be sure to explain this situation later in the day...) and I go downstairs to the master bedroom to nurse him.

3-something-plus-20-minutes - I put Oliver back in his crib and take one of my anti-yeast supplements (Candex) and chug 20 oz of water and go back to my air mattress.

6:30-ish - Baby alarm clock goes off and the day starts. This past night of sleep was actually excellent compared to the previous week as each kid only woke once. Now if I had been smart enough to go to bed earlier than 11 pm the previous evening, perhaps I would feel more refreshed. I nurse Oli once more.

7 AM - Husband gets Bella. She is not in a good mood and is still sick with her flu-cold thing. But no more fever - whew!

7:10 AM - I wrestle my baby alligator into a diaper and clothes in the upstairs hallway and he escapes up the stairs multiple times. He just picked up that trick in the past week and it is proving to be quite the challenge in our stair-heavy townhome.

7:30 AM - Begin getting breakfast organized for the kids and myself. The cats MEOW at me in a harassing manner.

7:45 AM -  More anti-yeast supplements plus placenta pills for good measure since the weaning thing has me feeling off. There are so, so many supplements lately. We eat. I have plain oatmeal prepared with water with frozen blueberries and black coffee. I don't know what I'm doing with my diet and the yeast/thrush stuff right now, but this particular breakfast is somewhat anti-candida friendly. Bella has some of Husband's kashi w/soy milk and a banana. Oliver has canned prunes with oatmeal.

8:15 AM - Assorted sick-toddler drama. Put on some toddler music on my phone to try to snap her out of it. Notice how random my Pandora stations are.

8:30 AM - I can pretend spring is right around the corner. This winter (non-winter kind of winter) has been awesome.

8:40 AM - Husband takes off for work. He only worked two days this week due to the plague. Many of his co-workers and their families had the same plague. Germ spreaders...

9 AM - Bella perks up a bit after eating and drinking.

Oliver does his super-explorer baby thing.

TRAIN! Very exciting event that happens 30 times a day.

9:30 AM - MORE COFFEE.

9:15 AM - Oliver goes down for his first nap. Back in the olden-I-only-have-one-kid days, this meant I took a nap, too. These days I use this time to catch up on chores or email/blog stuff or shower while B watches a TV show on Netflix. Today I shower but since I get nervous about giving Bella free range in our house - there is too much she could get into - I get her set up with Dora on the iPad. She likes to chillax in Oliver's tub. She also fancies up with some hair accessories and a new shirt.

9:25 AM - This is pretty much it for any beauty routine these days.

I had to get rid of all my make-up because make-up can harbor thrush. A moment of silence for that. My skin is super dry so I don't ever wash my face, I just put oil on it. I also prefer oil to lotion. [Whisper-voice: Weird ass hippies.]

9:30 AM - Get dressed just for you guys. I even wore a bra today. (Thrush treatment means airing out them boobies round the clock.)

My jeans are from 2006 and Bella is concerned about the holes and rips in them.

9:40 AM I make the bed (*cough* cheap air mattress) in my guest-room-slash-office.

I can't put my finger on it, but I feel like the feng shui is off in here just a little bit. Maybe a plant would do the trick? HA. Ha. ha. The real deal: I have been sleeping here for over a month because I just do not sleep well in the same room as Oliver. And we can't move Oliver in with Bella because he still wakes up 1-3 times a night and she is a light sleeper. And our house only has two rooms with doors (not counting the bathrooms - and one of the bathrooms is in the unheated basement) so...yeah. I sleep on an air mattress that is shoved under a desk and surrounded by file cabinets. We need to move soon? Maybe?

10:30 AM - Oli is up. Cute little pumpkin.

We hang out in Bella's room for a bit. Bella still feeling funky and acting funkier. It's funky town.

10:40 AM - Go downstairs to give Oliver a bottle of formula

and give Bella a snack (blueberries, turkey breast, few cheerios). Bella is normal again.

Wait no. Going crazy.

She says she misses Daddy. I text him so he is well aware of how fun Bella is being. He suggests face-time. I love B's expression here.

11 AM - Take advantage of a moment where they are playing together and put away dishes.

If I ever meet the person who designed this kitchen - specifically the dishwasher placement, I'm going to pinch them. One of those painful little pinches.

11:30 AM - We need to drop off some baby food jars that I have saved at my neighbor's request. We bundle up - but not too much -WOOHOO! - and leave the jars on her stoop. Then we take a quick walk. Bella does some crunch, crunch, crunch-ing in the snow, a la The Snowy Day.

12 PM - Lunch. Get all confused about what I should be eating vs. what I want to be eating. Decide to heat up Bella's leftover Chipotle burrito bowl that was in the freezer (brown rice, both beans, mild salsa, a little cheese & sour cream). I put it over lettuce  with some guacamole. B has the same plus some chocolate milk that I bought in a desperate fit to get her to drink something last week.

B asks to see the carton and studies it.

Then she asks the age-old question, "Mama - where does chocolate milk come from?" I love it! Such a classic question. I tell her they come from brown cows to see her reaction. Then I tell her the truth, but she doesn't quite buy that.

12:30 PM - A little more playing and some potty time for B and then we get her ready for her nap. She insists on wearing fleece pjs and I'm picking my battles on this day so I let her. While changing her she does her "cuckoo naked dance", a game we came up with to ease the dressing & undressing battles.

Oli is ready for his nap, too. I love double nap days when it all works out.

1 PM - Both kids napping - CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES COME ON! Go downstairs quickly and take more supplements. I take them 8 times a day for thrush stuff.

This isn't even all of them.

1:15 PM - I go back upstairs to my creepy pseudo-bedroom and lay down and watch a little Grey's Anatomy before my Internet connection quits working. I decide to take an actual nap.

2:15 PM - Oliver wakes me up. I nurse him and after taking a picture I realize this might be the last one I take of us nursing. Get teary, debate not weaning fully for the twentieth time that day.

2:30 PM - While I'm nursing Oliver, Stevie-the-blind-and-cleft-palated cat climbs up on the changing table. A daily event. Post nursing, Oliver looks out the window hoping to see a train and then fights me when I try to change him.

3 PM - Bella is up. She is in a mood once again. Will this sickness & associated crabbiness ever end? I get her to snap out of it a bit after she has a snack. We do some painting and Oliver crawls around and does his baby thing.

4:15 PM - We all play together until it's time for Oliver's nap.

4:30 PM - B gets cranky again when I won't let her watch a Dora episode. She reluctantly agrees to some reading, but returns to a happy state pretty quickly when I start reading one the many Berenstein Bear books that I gave her from my old collection.

This was my favorite BB book as a kid and OF COURSE it's the one about organizing a messy room. Funny how we really are ourselves from an early age.

4:45 PM - Bella and I are talking about moving to a new house and she tells me that Daddy will have a bicycle and she will have a tricycle and I will have a big tricycle. Ha.

5:00 PM - Daddy's home! Very glad for this. Bella requests a family hug, one of her favorite things. We go and get Oliver up.

5:30 PM -I run out and get some wine and food from  Brasa (local/organic restaurant) for dinner. I'm too tired to cook and still rebounding from that insanely strict diet for the past few weeks. I get their slow-roasted pork, crispy yuca, creamed spinach with jalepeno and corn muffins. It's always fun to run errands that don't include anything to do with carseats.

6:00 PM - I see my 8th grade crush walk in front of me at stop light and then he gives a cop the stink-eye for blocking the crosswalk with his car. I love random moments in life.

6:15 PM - We eat.

6:45 PM - Oliver's bedtime. Daddy gets to wrestle him this time. Bella does her treadmill tricks. I stand and do nothing.

7:00 PM - Bella's bedtime is next. Husband finishes up the cuddling and singing and whatnots while I  slip into something more comfortable as an attempt to lure my mate. (False.)

7:15 PM - I go around and vinegar some of the toys that Oliver did a lot of playing with.

 It's another one of those things with the thrush treatment that I don't know if I should keep it up or be done with it. F***ing thrush. It's enough of a pain to clean up toys and bottles at the end of the day, but then to have to sterilize everything, too? ARG. I also do some straightening up and get the laundry started. I think for the bazillionth time that I cannot wait to move - a place for toys will be awesome.

7:30 PM - Aforementioned mate returns downstairs and gets a beer and then looks at bills or money stuff or houses or something online. I'm drinking wine and start computering and being lazy on the couch. The time after the kids are in bed is like Christmas everyday.

8 PM - I need to switch the laundry, but I'm soooo tired. Laundry: so haaaaaard after 7 pm. Put an excellent offer up on FB but there are no takers. Ponder what the non-kid people think about my status updates and if they feel concern for me. HA.

Finally, Husband agrees to do it if I come with him and watch him. He's pervy like that.

8:30 PM - We eat cake that Husband took home from work. And girl scout cookies. While drinking wine. Anti-candida what? I watch an episode of Grey's Anatomy on my computer and Husband watches something on his computer. I didn't ask what but it likely involved insects or maybe war or possibly a seminar on the latest and greatest medical device.

10:00 PM - Bedtime. I kiss Husband goodnight and we retire to our separate rooms. Very old-fashioned of us. But he keeps denying my overtures to get him to have air-mattress relations. PARTY POOPER.

THE END