I feel like I've been at a loss for things to blog about. For the sake of a new entry, I'll type out a "typical day" for my sake so in a year, I can look back and read what I did a year ago. This is something I think I'll never forget, but I know I will. So boring as it is, sometimes the mundane is interesting enough.
I can't remember what last year was like that much unless I stop and think REALLY hard. :) Violet had started kindergarten, Calvin had started Tues/Thurs preschool with Miss Jesse at OHCP, Vanessa was just over a year old, and I found out I was pregnant with baby #4. This year, Violet is in 1st grade with Miss Schoonhoven, Calvin is in M, W, F preschool with Miss Knapp (the best preschool teacher ever!), Vanessa is about 2 1/2 and potty trained (for the most part!), and Eli is almost 5 months old.
My alarm is set for 7:15 am. I roll out of bed and (by this time Dave has gotten up, usually, and has showered) help get Violet off to school. Calvin is already awake by this time, either he's snuggled up in bed with me, or he's in the bathroom with Dave. He is such an early riser, wakes up easily, and is generally very cheerful and happy to be awake (dragging his blue blanket everywhere he goes). I think he takes after...nobody. Dave and I are so groggy in the mornings (why do you think we're complete coffee addicts???). Dave usually gets Violet up, helps her dress for school, and brings her downstairs. I have Violet's breakfast ready (usually cold cereal or oatmeal, sometimes reheated pancakes or eggs on toast), and then Dave eats. I pack up Violet's lunch (she likes PB&J most of the time, along with a combination of some of these things: yogurt, cheese sticks, carrot sticks and ranch dip, cheesy chip, applesauce, 1/2 of a banana, or other fresh fruit cut up and her Hello Kitty straw sippy of milk or water), she gets her shoes on and gets in the car. Sometimes Calvin gets fed, sometimes not. He usually eats cereal if he has time. They can be so goofy and silly in the mornings, it is hard to keep them "on track" doing things with out being distracted or playing around, there isn't much time in the AMs to do this...) Calvin has wanted to ride with Dave and Violet to take her to school in the mornings more this year - almost every day he rides along with her. Last year not so much. Dave enjoys parking the car and walking in with her, dropping her off at her locker, etc. Calvin likes seeing everything too. The 3 of then have a habit of taking turns praying after they go around "the curve", which is the roundabout on the drive to WCS. I like when they all take off in the morning after the breakfast rush so I can eat breakfast alone, make coffee and go take a shower in silence. Vanessa and Eli are usually still asleep at this time, so I take time for devotions too. Occasionally Eli will be crying but I'll leave him or get him, depending on how hard he's crying. If its a quiet whimper, I leave him, if he's loudly crying, I'll get him.
By the time I get with my bathroom routine by 8:15, Vanessa is calling from her crib, "Mommmeeee.....mommmeeeee......" I go in, get her out of bed, take her to the bathroom and change her out of her nighttime diaper to undies for the day. She sometimes pees, but 9 out of 10 times, she goes poop right away in the morning. Calvin and Dave get home from taking Violet to school, Calvin finds me in either the bathroom or helping Vanessa get out of bed. He begs me to play Angry Birds on my Kindle Fire. I ask him to finish his "8 things"...which is a list of things they need to do in their bedroom on a daily basis.
1. Get dressed
2. Put pajamas away
3. Turn off butterfly lamp.
4. Make beds
5. Open shades
6. Close closet
7. Turn off light
8. Turn off fan
He enthusiastically RUNS to his room to accomplish everything. He can't read all that proficiently so he has memorized all of the tasks. He rushes downstairs and announces that they're all done, and I let him play (if he's eaten breakfast, if not, he eats first) for 20 or 30 minutes. I set a timer for when he is to stop, and he finishes playing whatever level he's in at that moment and then stops. He LOVES Angry Birds. He thinks about the game all day, and constantly talks about the birds and what birds are his favorite, and what each bird does. The dragon level on angry birds seasons seems to be his favorite right now. When he's done playing his "however many minutes"...he's done for the day. He seems to know that is his "allotment" and never asks again for the rest of the day.
(This "typical day" I'm writing is either a Tues or a Thurs morning, because he has preschool M, W and F from 9:00-11:30 am. Every other Thursday we go to BBC because mommy has Bible Study from 9-11, then we eat lunch with our friends at the church building.)
Once Vanessa and Eli are awake, my attention is mostly on those two. Eli wakes up and I change his diaper immediately and sit down on the couch to nurse him. He gets his fill and is completely satisfied for a couple hours. He is SO smiley. He is so happy. I can tickle him gently and he breaks into a big smile, chuckles, giggles and laughs quickly. He's starting to be occupied for longer periods of time by himself on the floor, only able to use his arms to rotate himself in a circle on the floor. I surround him with baby toys and that usually lasts him 20-30 minutes. He gets frustrated if left alone for too long...but Calvin is always willing and ready to lay down on the floor right next to him and roll around with him or give him toys that aren't in his reach. Eli likes CARDBOARD, plastic keys, any baby toy, just basically anything he can shove in his mouth and knaw on for awhile. He's getting quite heavy...close to 20 lbs. Calvin used to pick him up with ease, but now he picks him up for a few seconds, and says "UGH! You're HEAVY!" and lays him back down. Eli rolls easily both directions, and usually completely fills his diaper with in 10-15 minutes after his first feeding. He also spits up a lot. If bent in half (sitting position on my lap) after a feeding a a burp, a big splat of spit up will end up wherever he is...on my shoulder, lap, or the carpet. Vanessa loves to announce that Eli spit up.
Vanessa has usually eaten by now. She likes cold cereal, oatmeal (MUST have raisins), or a bagel with cream cheese. She's a light eater, grazing throughout the day, not eating a huge quantity of food in one meal. It always seems like an hour after breakfast, she's running to the kitchen digging for a fork saying "eat! eat!". She gets yogurt, fruit, cheese, grapes, raisins, or a piece of toast with peanut butter for a snack. If she is hungry she will usually grab the jar of peanut butter and bring it to me.
Calvin and Vanessa are developing quite a relationship. Since both kids have grown up quite a bit, they are starting to play a lot more together. I think they are the two kids that seem to know exactly how to tick each other off the best. Vanessa is constantly getting into whatever Calvin is doing. And he knows exactly what to take from her to make her scream. They sometimes get lost in some toys together in the basement (if Calvin is cheerful enough and plays nicely with her). They enjoy playing in the tub together. Vanessa seems to be enjoying a brave streak in the water lately. I think this stemmed from one morning she woke up and needed a bath because of a leaky pee accident, and got the privilege of taking a bath ALONE. Which rarely happens for her. I put a couple inches of water in the tub that time and she got on her tummy and thoroughly enjoyed the water. Normally she whines her way through a bath, because Violet and Calvin are too splashy/crazy for her.
Soo...the morning rolls on. Calvin reads books, plays with toys, sometimes watches a Netflix video, flicks rubber bands across the house, blows up balloons, plays songs on the clavinova, colors, draws, works his way through puzzles, etc. If I print a picture for him, he chooses rockets, crabs, and race cars. Vanessa just wants Dora. Vanessa likes to watch Dora the Explorer sometimes, she likes to color too, and will draw circles all over paper, and sometimes a "sun", which is a circle with pointy things coming out from it. She needs to be supervised (or at least I need to know what she is doing at all times) all the time. She goes upstairs to get her toothbrush and puts toothpaste on it and brushes her teeth, plays with Violet's doll house, changes her underwear all the time, goes potty on her own and doesn't wipe or clean up all that well so I do it for her, changes her pants/clothes (loves wearing "coats" which are zip up sweatshirts and her sweatshirt with a pocket in the front). Most days around the house she is wearing a shirt and only underwear. She still insists on taking off her pants/undies every time she goes potty and can't put them back on the right way, so sometimes I just see her in a shirt and nothing else parts of the day, then I have to find her undies (wherever she dropped them in the house) and help her put them back on.
Eli always goes down for a morning nap about an hour and a half or two hours after waking up. This is becoming predictable and I love it. He doesn't need to nurse before this nap, because his first feeding on both sides really fills him up. He loves his paci and his muslin swaddling blankets to snuggle with. I put him in the pack n play crib in the dark guest room with a fan, and he snuggles right into his blankets and goes right to sleep. He usually sleeps an hour and a half, sometimes 2 hours. He sleeps from approx 10 am to 11:30 or noon.
This is a usual schedule if I make no extra outings. Typically there will be a trip to the bank, the library, grocery store, or any other errands I need to run sometime in the morning. I like to save the bigger run-around errands for when I am down to 2 kids on the mornings Calvin is in school.
Vanessa and Calvin eat lunch and play more. Blocks in the basement, trains, tinker toys, stacking blocks, etc...Vanessa takes a nap around 2 pm, which works out perfectly if Dave is home (working in the basement), so she sleeps while I go pick up Violet from school at 3 pm. Calvin always comes with me to get her. He requests songs when we are driving, either 10,000 Reasons (he says "Bless the Lord"), Technologic by Daft Punk, or The Color Song by Petra. When I pick up Violet from school, if we have time, I let the kids play at the playground at her school for about 20-30 minutes. Violet and her friends like to play tag or hide and seek. Calvin blends in with the friends sometimes, other times he goes off and does his own thing.
On the drive home, the kids are either fighting horribly, or getting along so well they are in regular fits of uncontrollable laughter. I don't know how to predict which way it will end up. I find if I play music they both enjoy, they will stay happy. If fighting, its probably because Calvin is really tired and should have taken a nap (1 out of 5 days he will fall asleep in the Van while driving to go pick up Violet), and Violet knows every little button to push on Calvin to make him mad.
Violet and Calvin usually play when she gets home from school. Her 1st grade homework consists of practicing her 10 spelling words for the week, Bible verse, and a sheet of writing and/or 20 minutes of independent reading. She started piano too, so that takes either Dave or I to work with her for 20 minutes. They still love to color, work on puzzle buzz, activity books. Vanessa wakes up by 4 pm. She plays around, colors some. Eli naps again. I work on making dinner.
Dave tries to come up at a regular time every day by 5:45. We eat dinner, I usually commit to cleaning up the main floor (dishes, wiping down table, dishwasher, sweeping, caring for Eli), while Dave heads upstairs to get the kids to bed. We try start the bedtime routine by 7:00 pm, it takes about an hour, so they are sleeping by 8:00-8:15. If they need baths, sometimes we cut play time short after dinner and head straight for the tub. Dave is GREAT with the kids and is an amazing helper when he can. He brushes their teeth, directs them to put pajamas on/go to the bathroom...gets Vanessa to bed, and starts Violet and Calvin's Bible story time and book time. They are currently reading through the Bible and the kids LOVE it!!
I join them all when the kitchen is cleaned up, and pray with the kids and say goodnight. All is usually well by 8:30...and then Eli needs tending to. :) He tends to nap later and goes to bed by 9:00 or 9:30.
Dave and I sometimes sit down for a minute....I am usually flipping laundry. My mental list of "to dos" start flying ... because I finally have peace and quiet. To sit down and relax...and enjoy hanging out with my husband...or do I scurry around and GET STUFF DONE?!??! That's always the question of the night. I feel so "tangled" with kids all day that I feel like I can't accomplish anything "big" other than the necessary bare minimum sometimes. Laundry is a bear. I fold 5 huge loads every couple days and it takes another couple days for the clean clothes to end up back in the closets. I have finances to catch up on. Organizing. Reading my Bible. Menu planning. List making. Grocery shopping. Husband-bonding. TALK to husband! What's on the schedule for tomorrow? House-cleaning. Floor-sweeping. Shopping for-anything-else-the-kids-need (clothes!). Preschool snacks to plan and purchase. Calendar to manage. Check schedule. When are library books due? Meeting to attend. When is that school program again and when do they have to be there? Wash diapers. Chat with friends? Siblings? Does the house have enough toilet paper? Check supply of milk. Go.type a blog entry. Respond to a few texts or emails. Pack diaper bag so it is ready next time I go out. Want to start exercising regularly....how to make that happen. I love sweatpants. And my hair is always up. So if you witness me in jeans and my hair isn't in a ponytail, I dressed up for ya. :). The list goes on and on. My mind spins....I get overwhelmed. Can't really even comprehend Christmas shopping. I think I'm going to boycott gift-giving this year. Give of my attention/time/energy...not material things.
Ok..its super late. I need to go to bed! And start this all over again. My quiver is full. I'm happy!!! And I'm so BUSY!! and some days are hard! I love my family so much!!!
