Day in the Life - Fall 2012

Still plenty of time to participate in this quarter's Day in the Life round-up post. Just get your post up and the link emailed to me by the end of Wednesday, October 24. More information here.

Tuesday, October 16

12 PM, 2 AM, 3 AM - Wake up to hear Oliver coughing and rustling around in his crib. Poor sick and teething Bubs....cant' believe he's sick again. He gets himself back to sleep within a couple minutes each time and I go back to sleep, too.

4:57 AM - Oliver is up again and crying for me to come get him. DUDE, too early. I wait to see if he will fall back asleep once again.

5:25 AM - He must doze or just lay there quietly for a half hour, but now he's definitely done with being in the crib. I never went back to sleep, instead choosing to catch up on blog reading & social media stuff. I go get Oliver, noticing that I feel really awful. I can't tell if I'm getting sick or if I just feel lousy because I went to bed at 11:30 pm last night and was woken up by Oliver several times.

Here's something weird: When my night sleep gets more and more unpredictable I find myself staying up later and later at night. This makes no logical sense, but it's a reaction to feeling really pressed for "me" time. Regardless, this pseudo me time doesn't help me out much at the crack of dawn when I'm extra exhausted and have a long day ahead of me.

5:30 AM - I nurse Oliver for quite a long time (a sick/teething-related thing...usually it's just a couple minutes) and then get his diaper changed.

5:55 AM - Oliver and I are playing quietly in Bella's room, a favorite spot of his. She isn't in there because she had wandered to our room in the night per usual and is sleeping in our bed. Husband comes into say goodbye as he leaves for work.

6:00 AM - Bella is up - perhaps we weren't playing quietly enough or maybe Husband woke her by accident as he was getting ready. This is really early for her. Ruh roh, today might be a doozy seeing as she is no longer a napper. She joins us for some book reading.

6:15-6:45 AM - I gather the troops and we go downstairs for breakfast. I heat up french toast from the weekend and cut up an apple to pair with peanut butter. Normally we only do syrup on the weekends, but I want to make sure B gets a decent breakfast since it's a pre-school day - she is often too ramped up on those days to eat much. She is thrilled with the break in routine. Oli doesn't get syrup since he is still wee enough not to know the difference. I make coffee for myself and eat a few apple slices.

6:45 - 7 AM - The kids kind of entertain themselves while I try to tackle a few dishes. Bella begs to put on some "nail polish" she finds in a drawer and since it's actually just a tiny bottle of almond oil I got years ago, I let her.

7 AM - Bella reminds me that I forgot vitamins. Righty-o! Each kid gets a multi-vitamin, omega-3 supplements, vitamin D, probiotics and I recently added in these immune-building gummy vitamins for Bella. I've been taking them, too, since I'm all sickly lately and more importantly, gummy vitamins are delicious. I also drink an Emergen-C hoping to keep further sickness at bay. Spoiler alert: doesn't work :(

7:15 AM - Head back upstairs to give the kids a bath and also kill a little time. Bubby is having drama, though I can't remember the cause. Nothing or possibly everything. He calms down once he is in the bath.

You can see his angry gums where his new teeth are coming in.

7:30 AM - Well, ding dong! Who's looking fancy this morning?

7:35 AM - Bella is so sweet to her brother in the bath (well...mostly). She loves cleaning his back with a washcloth and always wants to help shampoo his hair and oh, it makes my heart burst.

8 AM - After the bath Bella declares that she needs privacy while she picks out her outfit for the day. Oliver isn't down with this idea of being kept away from her.

8:15 AM - And the final outfit reveal! Today on Bella's Fashion Blog you will see one of this fall's hottest trends: the purposeful mis-match. Here she has paired a thermal frog print with grey polka-dot leggings and Dora the Explorer socks. She isn't much up for any of my feedback on her outfits so as long as they are weather appropriate, I roll with it, leggings-as-pants and all.

8:20 AM -A little more playing. I maybe let them jump on the bed regularly.

8:30 AM - Still a little more time to waste before preschool so I decide to go to Caribou to get myself a treat. I justify it with complex thinking such as the fact this is my only preschool morning this week (no school on Thursday) and I didn't get enough sleep and, and, and...whatevs. This mocha kick I'm on is weird and a throwback to my early 20s. But I find they are brilliant when you want to have more than the usual espresso shots because the extra sweet mocha syrup balances the bitter espresso.

Here we are waiting for my drink...Bella tells me, somewhat randomly, "That Daddy! He's always making mistakes!" and I crack up.

8:45 AM - We head to preschool and it's a looooong walk down the hall to where the preschool is located within the school. Bella ends up holding a random two-year-old's hand and then her friend Ava from preschool takes Bella's other hand. B is thrilled. It takes an extra day and a half to make our way down the hall but it's pretty darn cute. I chat with the parents of the other girls as we meander. Finally get to her classroom and get her situated and then Oliver and I leave.

9:30 AM - Short drive home, get Bubby down for his nap and ahhhhhhhh! One of my favorite things: to have my quiet house to myself. I work on Oliver's 15-month post while enjoying the living room view and my super strength mocha.

11:10 - I go to wake-up Oliver since we need to go pick up Bella. The time always FLIES on preschool mornings. Oliver is so sleepy from being sick/teething that it takes a bit to rouse him. I take advantage of it by taking pictures of my sleeping Bub.

11:30 AM - Picture of B's classroom that I sneak while the kids were coming in from the playground.

11:50 AM - I give Bella the option of going right home or going to the grocery store. She picks the grocery store. Unfortunately, like usual, she's kind of a hot mess after preschool. I think the 2.5 hours of being so socially observant and "holding it together" means she lets loose when she is back with me. (Tips on handling this welcome!) I should have known better than to try anything other than going directly home. There is lots of whining and she had to use the bathroom at the store and was being sooo oppositional and basically it turned the quick grocery trip into an aggravating experience. I buy just a few things since this is the expensive grocery store and I tell myself not to buy sushi.

Just before we leave I cut back and pick out sushi. Meh. I'm tired. And I want it. And I just don't care about goals right now.

12:30 PM - We arrive home and the drama continues. Oliver joins in.

12:35 PM - EGADS! Enough! I take us outside for a picnic, hoping the change of scenery (not to mention the food) will help. It seems to work. Both kids are desperate to try my sushi (tuna & avocado roll) and to my surprise they both eat a full piece and want more (usually Bella only eats a little bit). I don't want Oliver to have more than a teeny bit of raw fish, but I let Bella have two more pieces.

Lunch makes a gigantic mess. Yogurt everywhere, PBJ sandwiches pulled apart and dumped, cucumbers and apple slices scattered. Oh well. Better outside than inside. And yeah, Bella has a bottle of milk. Because it's not a usual thing, I just didn't really care.

1-1:30 - Lots of playing and running around.

Fall is my favorite, for sure.

1:30 PM - We go back inside for a diaper change and Oliver is getting really crabby once again. His teeth must really be bugging him. His teeth do that thing that I heard about, but never witnessed with Bella, where they keep going back in and then out.  Since there are still 30 minutes before Oliver's next nap, I take us back outside to see the ducks at the lake. I put my pantless boy in the Ergo carrier.

1:40 PM - While we are down there I snap a few pictures and then Bella wants to take some pictures of me. Most are blurry, but this one is actually pretty cool.

Fall colors in the background, my strong arms, those oozy love handles I told you about, chubby baby leg, love.

I take a picture of my lil crab and his yogurt-covered shirt.

The view of the lake right now.

OH MY. Nothing seems to be soothing this guy.

Well, that helps a little.

While I'm dealing with Oliver for a minute, Bella finds a random pink stool that I had left on the patio and uses it to attempt to climb a tree. I discourage that particular idea, but let the kids play with it.

2 PM - Finally time for Bubby's nap (THANK YOU GOD) and we read his latest favorite: Good Night, Gorilla. Bella loved it as a baby, too. Unfortunately, I've never been a big fan of this book. You have to make up your own words and mah brain is way too tired for that.

2:20 PM - Next I get Bella set up with her "stations" for her rest time. I find I have the most success with her doing some independent play if I give a little direction. We set up ~5 piles of things to do: puzzles, book reading, doll playing, magnetic doll dressing and legos. Then I read her a Berenstain Bear book and promise here that she can watch a Netflix show on my iphone once her 30 minutes of rest time are up. I give her a timer set to 30 minutes and she hits start.

2:30 PM - I head to my bed to lay down. I know I should try to get some stuff done, but I'm really feeling exhausted and am pretty sure that I'm getting sick, too. I wish I had a book to read, but I'm fresh out of books so instead I listen to a book on CD that I have: Emily Griffin's Heart of the Matter. It's good, but kind of disturbing.

2:50 PM - After 20 minutes I notice it's unusually quiet in Bella's room. Normally she chatters and sings the entire time she is in there. I go in there to peek and sure enough, she fell asleep. So weird! She has even turned off her lights and the timer and turned on her white noise. This is so unusual for her; she must have really been exhausted from her early morning and going to preschool. Or maybe she's getting sick, too :/ Since she's only had a handful of naps in the past few months and each one meant a LATE night, I decide to let her sleep for 1-1.5 hours and then wake her.

3 PM - I return to my own bed and attempt to sleep since my brood is sleeping. I can't not take advantage of it. I try to push away the guilty thoughts about not getting other things done right now. 

3:30 PM - Oliver wakes up and I nurse him. I wake up Bella and basically just start up Busytown Mysteries on my phone right away to ease the transition. Oliver and I play in his room while she watches it.

4:00 PM - We go to the kitchen and I put some snacks on the floor next to me while I try to prep the sweet potatoes for dinner. I give them mango and some random TJ cinnamon crackers. Snack isn't normally quite this lackadaisical, but I'm just not feeling 100%.

4:30 PM - I get the sweet potato fries baking and set a timer for myself. Instead of my original plan to go to the park, we decide to play in the driveway so I can multi-task cooking and playing with the kids.

The light is fantastic.

4:50 PM - Multi-tasking the fries was a bit of a fail - they are now extra crispy. Sigh. I turn the oven off. 

5 PM - Getting the mail and all-things-postal-related remains a favorite activity. The dress Bella is wearing was mine when I was 5.

5:30 PM - YIPPEEEE! Daddy is home! And on the early side! Husband and the kids do their new and bizarre tradition where the kids sit in the passenger seat for a couple minutes and listen to "hard music," as Bella calls it. Today it's Tool and they love it. Everyone rocks out.

5:45 PM - As we are heading to go inside, Oliver scrambles into the stroller, making his desire clear. It actually seems like a great idea since the weather is so unseasonably nice and we can push dinner back since they had a late snack. Husband quickly runs in to change and then it's off for a quick stroll along the Luce Line. We see a neighbor and chat with her for a bit.

6:30 PM - Time for the kid's dinner (Husband & I decide to eat later). We are having shredded chicken mini-sandwiches (I refuse to say sliders; the chicken is left over from a whole chicken I cooked last week), sweet potato fries (now cold, kids don't care), carrots, and the leftover mango chunks. This is a pretty lame attempt with the face plate for B. Both kids scarf down a lot of food.

6:45 PM - Husband suggests I run to the liquor store since we don't have anything and...I agree. I know! We are terrible today when it comes to self control. I get cider for me and beer for him.

7:00 PM - I return home and we write down our favorite parts of the day.

We get Oli to bed and then I take a little break while Husband spends time with with B.

7:15 PM - I bring my dinner downstairs - buffalo chicken & blue cheese mini-sandwiches (seemed like a good meal for a warm fall day), baked sweet potato fries, extra chicken & blue cheese on a bed of lettuce and a cider. It's too much food so I don't finish it. The beer doesn't make me feel so good either. It's pretty much confirmed that I'm sick, too. Womp, womp.

I eat while watching Nashville. Have you seen it? I keep having to remind myself that it's not Tami Taylor. I watch half of the first episode.

7:45 PM - I go upstairs and have some Bella time while Husband takes a break. Every day I let her choose an activity and I give her 10 minutes of focused attention - this is one of the things I'm trying to do to combat some of the attitude problems we are having lately. She nearly always chooses dancing and her/our latest favorite is "I Will Wait" by Mumford & Sons. We are actually dancing in the dark, but Husband took these pictures with flash. This is one of those activities that I so don't want to do when she requests it, but once we are dancing it's fun in a way that blows my mind. I'm having actual fun with my kid. It's awesome.

8 PM - More hanging out with her pops.

8:10 PM - I bring B downstairs with me and she wants more dancing so I put the random Party Music TV channel on (our other favorite is the Tropical one) and Bella picks out old ballet recital costumes of mine for us to wear. I laugh at how big that leotard is on her.

9 PM - Good gravy, finally it's close to a time when she'll actually fall asleep. We do the routine...

This next picture sums it all up so nicely :)

Her curls are still so heavenly.

I'm handing B her "pinkies" which are her prized possession. The polka-dot one is the girl pinky and the solid pink one is the boy pinky. Obviously. The sleeping with dolly thing is random today.

9:30 PM - ZOMG so tired. We get in bed, eat some preacher cookies - again my appetite is notably diminished indicating that I'm for sure sick and not just over-tired, and we look at stuff on the internet. Twitter & Facebook reminds me that I totally forgot about the debate so I catch up a little on that.

Oof. That's enough of that.

A little more internet time wasting and we are out.

Today's Totals

Showers taken: 0

Minutes exercised: 0

Chores done other than dishes: 0

Naps taken: 1

Fall weather enjoyed: lots
Times I wiped Oliver's nose: 7,000

Bella Outfit Changes: 5

Deep breaths taken during moments of exasperation: 17

Double tantrums: 5

Moments of exhaustion: 299

Moments of joy: 299.5

It all adds up to the usual messy-happy world that is my life right now.