A Day at Home

Thanks, Jessica, for the great idea to record a day in our life for memory's sake!

Thursday, January 29, 2009

6:30am: Max wakes up. I go to his room and encourage him to lay down and go back to sleep. I'm never ready to get up this early, but especially not today after staying up until 1:00 last night working on our taxes. Max obliges, and I go back to bed too.

7:00: Derek gets up and starts getting ready for work.

7:10: Cole comes into my room with a cheery, "Hi, Mom," as he climbs in bed for our morning cuddle.

7:15: Derek and Cole go to get Max, and then Derek gets them each a drink of milk and puts on a TV show; Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is Cole's choice this morning. I go back to sleep.

7:35: Max comes in, hands me my glasses and points to the kitchen. Translation: "It's time to get up, Mommy!" I sleepily sit up and watch, amused, as Max happily goes back and forth from the nightstand to the bathroom taking Derek all the things that go in his pocket.

7:45: I get Max started on breakfast while Cole finishes up his show. Cole joins us, and we all have banana bread and bananas (hmm, that's a lot of banana).

8:10: Derek leaves for work.

8:30: With everyone full and wiped up, we head to Cole's room to play for a few minutes.

8:45: Go to the kitchen to unload the dishwasher and clean up from breakfast. Cole is a big helper and puts the silverware away. Max tries to help and then decides climbing in would be more fun.

8:55: Start a load of laundry.

9:05: Time to get dressed. Cole requests his green "number" shirt, but it's in the washing machine right now. He complains, but accepts that he can wear it when it's dry. Max protests about being changed but then gives in to a smile and a giggle as I tickle him. Finally, it's my turn. The boys chatter together and close themselves into the cabinet under the sink (Max's second favorite bathroom activity; the first is pulling anything and everything out of my drawer), while I change and try to paint some semblance of a human being on my tired face. Not sure I was successful.

9:35: Instead of making our bed, I decide it's been too long since I've washed the sheets and strip them off. I ask Cole to go get his children's Bible and meet me on the couch while Max helps me change out the laundry. He loves to put the wet things into the drier.

9:40: We all sit on the couch to read and talk about a few Bible stories. Max gets bored after a few minutes and gets down to entertain himself while I read with Cole. Max finds and eats some banana bread from breakfast that I forgot to wipe off his high chair. Oh well. It hasn't been there that long, and I'm sure he's put worse things in his mouth.

9:50: Wrap up our Bible time with a little prayer. Cole wants to keep reading, so he chooses to stay on the couch while I get up to make a phone call. Play a little game of peak-a-boo with Max on my way to the phone. It's so cute when he puts his hands in front of his face like that! I call our church's preschool to set up an appointment for a tour next week. We're thinking of starting Cole there soon.

10:05: Cole helps me make Vanishing Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. He does a great job of measuring out the ingredients while I supervise and make several attempts to keep Max occupied with other things, to no avail. Finally, I put him in his high chair close by with a goldfish snack. He's very happy about that.

10:50: First cookie batch goes into the oven.

10:51: Laundry load #1 comes out of the drier with Max's help and goes to the couch. Load #2 goes into the drier, and cookie batch #1 comes out of the oven.

The next hour is a whirlwind of activities, which include:

Baking 3 more batches of cookies
Changing a dirty diaper
Getting the boys some juice
Turning on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood for Cole
Playing shape-sorter with Max
Derek calling
Taking the sheets out of the drier and putting them back on the bed
Eating a tortilla. (Not too thrilling, but I was feeling wilty from hunger and that was first thing I could get my hands on in the busy moment.)

12:00: Lunch! Derek often comes home for lunch, but today he is meeting an old friend, so it's just me and the boys. We have sandwiches, fruit, and of course, cookies!

12:30: Nap time. Cole plays in the living room while I snuggle with Max for a few minutes before tucking him in bed. With Max down, I start to clean up the kitchen from lunch and cookie-making while Cole goes potty. When he's finished, I tuck him in bed, and then finish cleaning.

1:05: With Cole in bed and the kitchen clean, I sit down at the computer to take care of a few things.

Grrrr. The internet isn't working again. I troubleshoot for awhile and get it worked out.

Now to take care of business. I pre-register for my maternity stay at the hospital, and then order a support top for my belly that is reaching ridiculous proportions. I have high hopes that the one I found will comfortably help my torn and stretched-out stomach muscles carry the extra weight and provide relief from the ligament pain I've been having.

Business taken care of, I quickly check e-mail, Facebook and blogs.

2:15: Sit down on the couch (opposite end to the laundry that is still there) and read my Bible.

2:20: Too tired to concentrate on what I'm reading, I give in to a little nap.

2:40: I stir at the sound of Max waking up. Hoping he will go back to sleep, I close my eyes again. Groggily, I realize he's been napping for over 2 hours and isn't likely to go back to sleep, so I get up and get him. We have some good Mommy and Max play-time, during which he lets me know he has a wet diaper. At 16 months, he's been doing that more and more. Hmmm. Maybe he'll potty train sooner than Cole did. Wouldn't that be nice with another diaper-clad boy coming into our family very soon.

3:30: Cole is up. I fix the boys some juice and turn on a show (our normal after-nap routine). Cole chooses Mickey Mouse again. I put away the laundry and throw some ingredients into the breadmaker for homemade bread. It'll have to be "Expressbake" this time because I forgot to get it ready in time for a regular loaf. Max only watches a few minutes of the show before joining me in my chores.

4:00: Get Cole changed out of his nap time pj's and into regular clothes (the a fore mentioned green shirt this time), put our shoes on and head to the library to return some books. We get stopped by a train on the way, which is a very normal occurrence for us. I've never seen (or heard) such an active railway as the one close to our house before.

4:40: Home again. I peel potatoes for dinner, Cole plays with his cars in the living room, and Max gets his usual early evening grumpies.

4:45: Potatoes peeled, I realize I don't have to start cooking them just yet, so we head outside for a few minutes.

5:00: Back inside, we wash hands, and I work on dinner.

5:10: Derek calls to say he'll be a little later getting home tonight. I put dinner on hold again and read a book to the boys.

5:20: The bread is done, and I continue to work on dinner while Max follows me around fussing for me to hold him.

5:30: Derek calls; he's on his way. Yea! I'm hungry and tired, and Max is still fussing to be picked up. He slips and bumps his head (lightly) on the floor. Now he really wants to be held. Picking him up, I comfort him and decide I'm at a good stopping point with dinner. I sit down with him on the couch and turn on Design on a Dime to watch in the background while I catch my breath and wait for Derek to come home.

5:45: Daddy's home! There's rejoicing all around and he is greeted with 3 people who are VERY happy to see him. I finish dinner while Derek changes clothes.

6:00: Dinner time. Ham (taken out of the freezer from Christmas), mashed potatoes, veggies and homemade Bread. And cookies for dessert, of course!

6:30: It's Thursday, so it's family night/date night. We all play together in Cole's room.

7:30: Give Max his antibiotic for an ear infection. He's been on it a week now and doing much better.

7:45: Derek gets Max ready for bed, and I clean up the kitchen.

8:05: The kitchen is clean (again), Max is in bed, and the three of us sit down to play a quick game of Candyland before it's time to pick up toys and get Cole to bed.

9:00: Cole is in bed. Date time! We watch American Idol and then play the game "Pathwords" on Facebook. It might not sound too exciting, but we love to play word games together. And after a busy week, a relaxing night at home is a wonderful thing.

11:30: Check on the boys, get ready for bed, and crawl into our nice, clean sheets. I'm exhausted and my body aches, but over-all, I'm pleased with the day. My one regret: I only had 5 (sleepy) minutes of my own Bible time. Hopefully that will be better tomorrow. Derek and I pray together (our nightly routine), and then sink deeply into blissful sleep.