Anyway.
This is yesterday, by the way. I'd love to predict what will happen today but as you know, YOU NEVER KNOW.
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A DAY IN THE LIFE
Joy always wakes up first. It's like her signature move. She wakes up and about four seconds later Charlie wakes up since their beds are four feet apart. This morning it was at 6:45 but Charlie knows that the clock has to say 7 before we'll come get them. They've learned to just play and chit chat until 7 and some days Joy still lets out a wail to see if she can break us but this morning she just laughed with her sister. I love this.
At 7 the games begin. Ty comes running out of his room, (he wakes up around 6:30) ready to face the day, Charlie and Joy both want me to carry them down the stairs (we all sleep upstairs,) so I usually do to avoid meltdowns pre-breakfast. I'm starving when I first wake up and so are the kids. I guess this is normal? Anyway, we make our way downstairs and since Sean is home he tends to feeding the beast. The beast is Max, our anxiety-filled, codependent dog. I don't like him but my husband loves him so he's still here and I'm always open to applications from you people to take him off my hands. Moving on...Sean feeds Max and then entertains the kids while I make their breakfast. Ty eats the same thing every morning and has for two years: Nutrigrain wheat waffle and sugar free syrup, water to drink. The girls vary a little bit. Sometimes it's watermelon and string cheese, yogurt or pancakes. Whatever we have basically. Neither of them eats a ton for breakfast. Oh and they both drink milk. Ty gave up milk at age 2 out of the clear blue. Like one night he had it before bed and the next morning looked at me like I was crazy giving it to him. While the kids eat I make my breakfast. Sean doesn't usually eat breakfast but I've been making him since we are eating healthier and it's good for you to eat breakfast.
We eat breakfast very fast and then start the morning with a quick basketball game most mornings. With the exception of Sunday mornings we don't have to rush to get dressed, which is a luxury I know. I'm thankful! When Sean is home he can be home all day so there's usually no rush and when he's gone well...we get ready to head out even slower. When he's here we all get showered/dressed in the same room to cut down on craziness, (Ha!) and then the kids play around the house while Sean and I check e-mails, I look at blogs, etc. We do things like this in increments like most of you, because once there's a child anywhere near you there's not exactly uninterrupted time to do adult things and though you fight it for the first few months after having your first child you do get used to this. I give out snacks around 9:30 and then fix lunch at 11:00. Early, I know. Wait till you see what time we eat dinner.
After lunch Joy goes down for her nap and then around noon Charlie goes down. Since it's summer and Ty doesn't go to school he gets to hang out with us during nap time. Usually if Sean is home one of us will take Ty somewhere while the girls are napping but yesterday we all wanted to stay home so Ty watched The Dog Whisperer with Sean while I did laundry, got dinner together, and mended a dress of Charlie's. That's probably a run-on sentence. Sewing, cooking AND laundry at one time. Whew, I'm fancy. The day before during nap time I took a nap. Ha!
Once the girls wake up things get crazy again until dinner. Usually they play basketball, (the goal was Joy's birthday gift and it still resides in the living room,) and Ty will perform for us. Sometimes he sings, sometimes it's jokes, and it always involves his favorite stuffed Barneys. We line up on the stairs to watch "the show," then the girls usually sing or dance around when he's done. There's always an errand to run so yesterday I took Ty and Joy somewhere, (and I can't remember now where???) while Charlie and Sean went on their weekly date to 7-11 to get slurpees. I started cooking around 4 and we ate dinner at 5. Early, I know. The kids still don't eat what we eat even though we've tried to make them so I made the kids' dinner and we all sat down together to eat. I love it when we can all do this and right now it's totally possible since no one does anything after school hours. I know I will look back at this time and be grateful for it since it won't stay this way. Literally right after dinner the kids all run off to burn up their newly acquired energy. I used to try to wash the dishes right after dinner and we still can manage it if Sean is home. When he's gone I usually tackle dishes after the kids go to bed since Joy always wants me to hold her around mealtimes. I get the before part, (she's hungry, tired, etc.) but even after she eats she wants me to hold her and will hang on my leg for dear life until I pick her up. I've learned to stop fighting it and just hold her most of the time. This continues until bath time, which I make happen very fast if I'm on my own so I can put her down!
Bath time lasts anywhere between two and thirty minutes. I'm serious. If they're having a good time I just leave them in there playing. Joy always wants out first so then we start the PJ process. Since she's the only one in diapers--Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow--I put her diaper on and then let her run around pretending to find everyone's PJ's. She thinks this is the best game ever. She pulls all kinds of stuff out of drawers and says, "Dat one? Dis one?" and then runs laps if she gets it right. She's finally learned where each person's PJ's actually are and gets it right sometimes but mostly she just acts silly and pulls out socks or underwear and acts like she's not sure...This might be my favorite time of day with her. It's like her first joke and she knows I get it. I'll never forget the night she put a pair of Ty's underwear on her head and said her first sentence, "Okay I find it I find PJ's" all while laughing hysterically.
We get the big kids out of the bath and get the milk and cookies out. They eat Nilla wafers at night during their video and I don't remember how this tradition started but it's set in stone now. We watch Team Umizoomi or Barney or Little Einsteins, then we go to the girls' room and say our prayer. Y'all, this is the funniest part of the whole day to me. Charlie always wants to say the prayer but every once in a while Ty does so we take turns. Joy has started acting like she wants to say a prayer, (none of us can understand her,) so we all listen to her if she speaks up. What's so funny about the prayer is the routine before and after it. It's a mixture of what they have heard us say and what they've learned in school so it's like, "Repeat after me...In Jesus' name we pray...And thank You Jesus for playing outside...Thank you for this food...and thank you for Mommy and Daddy and for our cat" It's just hilarious. We don't have a cat. I need to record it. Can you record a prayer with good conscience? I guess so if it's one of your family members? Hmmm
Then they go to bed anywhere between 6:15 and 7:30, depending on the night. I know it's really early but as you can probably tell I'm a stickler for sleep, theirs and mine. We learned a long time ago that they just go downhill if we're out past 6 so we try to be home if possible so they can just go on to bed. Mom says I used to ask her if I could go to bed before my bedtime and she always let me, (what mother in her right mind would turn that beauty down?) so maybe I'm so sleep-dependent that I actually passed it on to the kids? I guess that makes up for the stubby toes, low blood sugar, and other not-so-lovely things I passed on to them. Ahem.
Once they're in bed we try to put things away before falling into heaps. If we're in an especially health-conscious phase we take turns going on walks once the kids are down. On a night like last night, I looked up new recipes while Sean tried to switch airline tickets over so we can go on a trip later in the summer. WE ARE WILD AND CRAZY I TELL YOU.
So that's it. I think that sums up most days of the week. During the day yesterday we had a few injuries, all minor, but that's normal around here. Someone always needs/wants a band-aid and the others want one just so the injured kid isn't out of place. There were a few spankings thrown in too, and a few time-outs and toys taken away. We are a house of sinners, as you can tell. We don't always obey or stay as quiet as we're supposed to be. We don't always say 'please' and 'thank you,' though I'm working on making them say both. We aren't perfect but we are pretty tickled to be right where we are. So that's it, a day in the life.
Gotta run since I just heard this from upstairs, "MOM, Charlie is filling my trash trucks with toothpaste!! Help me!!"
Welcome to my world.
