Friday, February 12, 2010
5:35 am I give up falling back to sleep and get out of bed to get a few things done before the kids wake up. I wash my face, go to the bathroom, and head downstairs to empty the dishwasher. Then I sit down at my desk, plan our meals for the next eight days, and make a grocery shopping list. Next I write and post an entry on my blog, feed the dogs, pay a few bills, update Microsoft Money, and start a load of laundry. All of this takes about an hour.
6:30 am I hear Ethan in the monitor: bright, chipper and happy to be awake. I know that he is probably poking his sleeping brother because I hear Caleb moan, "MOMMY! COME GET HIM!" I hurry and retrieve Ethan, closing the door so Caleb can wake up at his own pace (which is very important for a peaceful morning). Ethan has his morning cup of milk while I hold him with his "blankie."
6:45 am Caleb comes down, and I ask the boys if they would like oatmeal or cereal for breakfast. They disagree. I help them discuss it, but they still disagree, so I decide on cereal since they had oatmeal yesterday. Both boys drink their milk and ignore their cereal.
7:00 am Boys go down to play room while I clean up their untouched breakfasts. I join them a few minutes later and we built a Lego castle together, do a puzzle, and play pretend with the plastic zoo animals.
8:15 am The three of us pile in the car with our prepacked gym bag to go to the Hoover Rec for Mommy's morning workout.
8:30 am I do cardio and lift weights while the boys play in the childcare play room.
9:30 am I pick them up after an hour and take them to the pool, where a friend and her daughter join us for a swim play date. Both boys have a great time swimming, though Caleb gets pretty upset when I take his swim vest off and encourage him to practice swimming without it. At one point, he climbs out of the pool and jumps in without his swim vest! I immediately pull him out of the water, but he is indignant and appalled that I didn't catch him before his head went under. I didn't even know that he was going to jump, so I thought I'd done pretty well pulling him out so fast. He generally has a hard time recovering from scares and/or percieved injustices, so he was pretty whiny until we got out ten minutes later.
10:15 am We get out of the pool and I let the boys stand under a warm shower for a while until they are no longer chilled. I get them dressed and take them back to the play room so I can take a shower and get ready for the day.
11:15 am We leave the Hoover Rec and see that the predicted snow is really coming down. I decide to skip the Walmart run I had planned and head straight home to feed the boys and check the weather.
11:30 am We eat a lunch of chicken nuggets, ketchup and applesauce, which the boys wolf down because they refused breakfast and did not get a morning snack.
12:00 pm We all go back downstairs to play in play room. The boys pretend to be kings defending their castles with their foam swords and hats (which are crowns). Caleb takes the lead today, and Ethan does everything he says (though often it happens the other way around).
12:30 pm We go upstairs to living room to play with the Thomas the train set. Caleb and Ethan play very happily without any conflict for more than 20 minutes. I tape them with the video camera for a while.
1:00 pm The boys watch an episode of Dora the Explorer together, while I load the dishwasher and clean up lunch. (Really, just Caleb watches it while Ethan continues playing with the train set.)
1:30 pm We go for a group potty break on our way to the boys' room to wind down for naps. Each boy picks one book to read, and we read for together for about 15 minutes. I lay down in bed with the boys until they fall asleep.
2:00 pm A friend calls on her way home from work, and we chat about our days and our plans for the snowy weekend.
2:15 pm I sit down at my desk and spend 30 minutes starting this blog entry.
2:45 pm I do one day of my Esther homework for the Beth Moore study we are doing at work. Then I move the load of laundry from this morning over to the dryer.
3:15 pm Since I'm all caught up on my housework, I head upstairs to lay down until the boys get up.
3:45 pm I wake up after a perfect 30-minute nap and am amazed that the boys are still both asleep. Ethan makes some noise, but it gets quiet again so I assume he has drifted back to sleep. (I mentally vow to take them swimming more often if I get a double 2.5 hour nap out of it.) I get the load of laundry out of the dryer and fold it. Then I straighten up the play room and call Marcus (but don't get ahold of him). VERY surprised that the boys are still asleep, I go upstairs and start making some preparations for dinner (marinating chicken breasts and washing veggies).
4:30 pm I hear both boys talking (whining) in the monitor, so I stop dicing potatoes and go upstairs to get them. I take them both potty, and then bring them downstairs for a snack of Chex Mix while I finish with the potatoes. Daddy calls to tell us that he'll be home around 5:15, thanks to the snowy day (which is 2-3 hours earlier than he usually comes home).
5:00 pm Snack time is done, so we spend fifteen minutes bundling up in coats, hats and gloves, so we can go outside and play in the snow as soon as Daddy gets here.
5:15 pm Daddy walks in just as I am putting the last glove on. He puts his coat on, too, and we all head outside to play in the 2 inches of snow that has accumulated.
5:40 pm Daddy goes inside to study for an hour before dinner.
5:50 pm The boys and I come inside and unlayer. Shoes and gloves go in the garage to dry off, coats get hung up, and both boys whine a lot about their numb hands. Ethan lets me warm his up, but Caleb just shrieks that they hurt too much and won't let me touch them.
6:10 pm I spend a few minutes putting final touches on dinner preparations while Ethan whines, HOLD ME, MOMMY! HOLD ME, MOMMY and Caleb continues crying upstairs in his room about his numb hands.
6:30 pm I send Ethan upstairs to tell Daddy and Caleb that dinner is ready. All three boys come down in about five minutes, and we sit down at the table and eat dinner, which is baked chicken, roasted potatoes & steamed carrots. I realize with frustration that the potatoes actually need about 10 more minutes, so I scoop them all back into the dish and put them back in the oven, and we all eat baked chicken and steamed carrots. Ethan eats very well, even downing most of his carrots. Caleb eats a few bites of chicken and starts asking to be excused. I make him stay at the table until everyone is done eating, asusual.
7:00 pm I clear the table and do the dishes while the boys play with their train set. Much like chaos and discontent is the norm for the hour before dinner, the hour after dinner is usually marked with cheerfulness and good attitudes: tonight is no exception for the boys and they play happily while I tidy up the kitchen.
7:30 pm We all go down to the play room. Daddy calls a friend and talks on the phone for a little while, and then heads back upstairs to study for the rest of the evening. The boys and I play with the Duplo Lego blocks one more time, and then clean up the play room together. Caleb is (uncharacteristically) cooperative about the clean-up process, and Ethan cleans with the energetic gusto that he approaches all of life with.
8:15 pm The boys follow me upstairs and start their evening race to get their pajamas on first. Caleb strips quickly and puts his Pull-up and PJ pants on by himself while I'm still helping Ethan out of his clothes. Caleb chants happily "I'm gonna be the winner! I'm gonna be the winner!" Ethan doesn't care about winning tonight, and keeps running away from me while I try to get his pajamas his on. Caleb gets to brush his teeth first since he was the winner, which Ethan protests loudly. After both boys have clean teeth, clean hands, and have pottied, we head back to their room for books, songs, prayers and tucking in. Bedtime goes very smoothly from here, and I kiss them goodnight right at 9:00 pm.
9:00 pm I walk downstairs and breath a prayer of thanks that the day is over and the boys are chatting peacefully in their bed. Then I sit down at the computer with a bowl of ice cream and finish this blog entry :)
1 comment:
I enjoyed reading about your day last year and enjoyed it again this year. You manage to accomplish a lot in one day.
Post a Comment