I thought I'd copy a Catholic blogger I read (http://carrotsformichaelmas.com/2013/09/26/a-day-in-the-life-with-three-kids-under-five/) and post about our day, literally. It may be long, depending on what the little man gets up to, and it's only 3:00pm as I begin to write. The day is still young ;).
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
6:30am Paul walks into our bedroom looking for us but can't find us and cries; we're still sleeping in the guest room. Dylan gets up to get the crying baby and chuckles when he tells me Paul was in our room standing next to the bed. All three of us get into bed and snuggle until Dylan's alarm goes off sometime after 7:15 or so. Paul walked to you, you ask? Yes, for two nights now, he's slept on his mattress on the floor next to his crib. It's been hard to get him down at night in a timely manner, so Dylan tried cuddling next to him, and it's worked much better. Consequently, he wakes up and can get to us asap!
7:30am Dylan's readying for work, I change Paul's diaper and dress him, ready myself - whoops, already late, so no time for a shower for Mama - and we head downstairs for breakfast.
7:45am Dylan's breakfasting while P is with me in the kitchen waiting for his oatmeal to cook. Meanwhile, I fix my yogurt and muesli, and get ingredients ready to chop up for today's lunch of butternut squash soup.
8:05am Dylan's out the door, Paul's eating - half-feeding himself, half-watching me eat yogurt and peel a squash at the same time. He finishes and wants to get down (signaled by very precise pointing), and he plays with cars on the living room floor while I continue chopping - it's hard physical labor!
8:30am Paul "maaaa"s until I put the knife down to sit with him for a book. I pull him up to my lap in a chair in the living room, he has a car in hand, and we start reading "Vroom!" from the library. I smell him ... stinking. Shoot. But I just sat down to read with him, so we read a little quickly then hurry upstairs to change his underpants. All clean and dry, he starts playing in his room while I go across the hall to spray his diaper into the toilet. TMI? Ah well. I don't hear him - quiet baby = mischievous baby! Oh, he's snuck behind the rocking chair in his room with a good book - <3. Since he's cozy, I leave him to finish readying myself - teeth, contacts, hair, socks & shoes. Had I finished breakfast? Hm, welp, too late now - teeth are clean!
8:50am Must get soup on stove. Paul gets his trusty wind-up car in hand and stands at the table with me while I finish chopping this darn squash (and potatoes, onions, and garlic before that). I pop the pot on the stove and put it on high to boil fast. Slice some banana for Paul to take with us, get his sandals on, water cup, oh yeah! turn off the stove, and we're out the door.
9:00am Paul sort of runs to the car now and hurries to get in, then we're off to the WIC office where we waited until about 9:30. Paul ate his snack very patiently and just watched people and played with a car to pass the time. We read a Corduroy book, too.
9:45am We're off to "school" - the Early Childhood & Family Education (ECFE) class we do together, called "Tiny Tots", is from 10:15-11:30, but there's a great playground across the street; so we go a little early if we can. We even meet a friend there who finishes her and her daughter's class just before ours begins.
10:15-11:30am Tiny Tots There's free play "discovery time" during which there's an art project - today's was to paint a fireman! - followed by circle time, which has us greet all the kiddos, sing a song, read a book, and then sing another song, before we get snack time. Today's was strawberries & bananas, and Paul is such a good, grown-up boy cleaning up after himself =). Makes me proud to see him drop his trash in the garbage can and place his cup - ever standing up - in the "used" bucket.
11:45am Get home to pre-heat the oven for bread to go with our (hopefully) yummy soup - oh yeah! the soup! Put that back on high and get a nice boil going. Then I remember that I'd forgotten the celery earlier, so I chopped that up and hoped it'd cook in 15-20min. Dylan had prepped the bread dough for me to just put in the oven and time, so that worked out well.
12:05pm Dylan gets home, bread's still baking, soup's still boiling, and Paul's already rubbing his eyes. I purée the soup (love that immersion blender!), and set the table. By the time that's finished, the baguette's done and oh, so yummy warm and crisp, and we do a good number on it while eating our soup. Everything turned out well despite a sort of rushed & chaotic cooking! Dylan and I have a cup of tea, and D tries to hide his choc. chip cookie from Paul since Paul's not finished his soup yet =). He loved the soup, by the way - woo! And bread's a no-brainer with this kiddo.
1:00pm Dylan leaves right on time since there's a trial on this week, and Paul finishes up his last piece of bread while I clear the dishes.
1:15pm Diaper change, short story, and Paul enthusiastically points to his bed. I lay him down, cover him up (his favorite part), pull the shades, and sing a Hail Mary for him as I leave.
1:25pm I finish my now chilly tea from earlier, write an email to Mike & Colleen about our plans to get together in the coming weeks for a pumpkin patch, an apple orchard, and Halloween, chat with Ginny on gchat, read a couple of articles that interested me about the government shutdown, Catholic teachings, and a pro-lifer's response to a pro-choicer's rude email, ya know, the usual ;). Then decide to start writing this! Bam - it's 3:30, and I need to wake Paul, so he'll hopefully go down nicely tonight. Bee always moves a bunch during this time. Whether it's because I'm still or because I'm still, I notice the movements, I'm not sure.
3:30pm Go upstairs to wake Paul gently ... open his door, make some noise in the next room, etc. We do lots of playing and reading in his room and get re-dressed and ready for snack and backyard time.
4:20pm Downstairs finally! Paul pulls up his little stool in the kitchen while I put some ground meat on for tacos and prepare grapes, carrots, and peas for snack. We chat to Nana, too =), since we often talk on her way home or shortly after she gets home from school.
4:50pm Papa's home! Paul's outside when he sees Papa backing into the driveway and gets excited. Then I grab a snack of PB and apple for myself since Paul now has two parents to watch him - yay!
5:05pm Papa's changed clothes, a few flies have been squished (what's with those things right now?), and we're signing on to Skype with Shalome, Fehraz, and Ahlwan. But in the meantime, as they're not on, yet, we're outside having a cuppa while Paul picks the last of the season's dandelions, kicks a ball, throws acorns and otherwise enjoys and "discovers" what's outside before it gets too cold. (It's still lovely - I'm even in a tank and flips flops, but the mornings have been getting cooler for sure!)
5:45pm Taco time! All goes well, and Dylan gets ready for church music practice at 6.
6:05pm Paul finishes dinner, and I tidy up without actually cleaning ... leaving some for after P's down. Get ready for a walk and some playground play!
6:35pm Paul and I arrived at the church playground to hopefully meet Dylan when he's finished. Paul systematically goes up the playground stairs and passed aaaaalll these fun things to get to the one slide he knows. He used to be more adventurous ;)
7:00pm Paul points to the church tower to hear the bell toll 7 o'clock and then a huge V of geese fly by honking - neat! We walk into the main church and hear Dylan practicing with the pianist and Father Jim ... and chat a little.
7:30pm Back home and after cleaning up, NOW we're on for Skype with Shalome and Ahlwan. Precious. He's 5 months now and getting so big - even wearing the cute little blue sweater that Nanna Nelson knitted for Timshel that Paul wore all winter. Paul ate an entire second serving of pumpkin soup and had a glass of milk - hope that helps him sleep well!
8:20pm We sing the "it's bath time" song, and Paul's face scrunches up. Sad. Dylan gets in there with him, which makes it quite a bit better but unsustainable for any period of time. Paul played with the spray bottle tonight in the bath and then tinkled in his potty! We asked him if he'd like to tinkle, so he walked over, sat down, two tiny drops came out, and then he stood up and pointed for me to tip that into the toilet! He smiled proudly and then sat back down on it for two more tiny drops. I did as directed and tipped that into the toilet, too, and he did it a third time. Then had his teeth brushed, hair combed, and one ear cleaned because that's all I could manage through the tears =/. He doesn't like that so much. (And no, I do not put anything in his ear.) Then he tinkled all over the carpet.
8:35pm Paul gets a clean diaper and dressed in his Elmo pjs. Then he picks out "Die kleine Raupe nimmersatt" (The very hungry caterpillar) for storytime, and we read a page of our tiny Catholic board book Bible. When we say Amen at the end of the sign of the cross when we're finished, Paul puts his little hands together. Gah. Then I hold him, offer him water, and he turns out the light. Dylan, in the meantime, pulls the crib mattress out of the crib and places it on the floor. This is the third night for this ... just trying something different since we were getting so many tears being left alone to sleep. With the mattress on the floor, Dylan can lay right next to him to soothe him to sleep, rather than with an arm awkwardly through the crib slats. I lay in front of Dylan for a few minutes and get a mini-massage before heading out.
9:00pm I come down but hear Paul make a little noise just a minute later. Bummer. And now here I am sitting down to write all of this. I'll watch Brian Williams from last night and tonight and will hopefully be joined by Dylan soon.
9:30pm Now I'm starting Brian after responding to a Momtime mom's question about Catholic teaching.
10:30pm After 2 news episodes and some baby Halloween costume searching, it's finally bedtime. I also had a delicious Dylan-baked chocolate chip cookie while watching the news. Yum. Dylan never came down ... must've fallen asleep with Paul, and I meant to plan for my 7th grade catechism class tomorrow night. Man, I'll have to do it during nap time tomorrow.
Thanks for hanging in there and reading about our day! It was typical in many ways but the details vary, of course. Lots of love from the 4 of us ;)
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