Day in the Life - Winter 15'

Alternate Title: Debbie Downer Day in the Life

Whew! When I started planning for this round of Day in the Life, I picked a day at random. And I have to say, it turned out to be one of the more challenging days I have had in awhile. There were no major catastrophes, just little things here and there all day long that left me completely over it by the end of the day.  Levi was very much having a day of exhibiting just how "2" he is. There aren't many pictures because I spent all of my time and energy trying to prevent the next meltdown :) Reading back through it, it doesn't seem that bad and it could be way worse, but at the time it was definitely a rough day!

Thursday, January 29
Charlie will be 5 end of February
Levi will be 3 end of February
Nora is 3.5 months old
Erik is working from home
I am on leave from my job at ECFE/preschool until fall


4:50am - Levi is awake and yelling. Erik goes to help him and in the morning neither of us can remember what his issue was. I wake up and of course can't fall back to sleep. Ughhhhh, read for a bit and then just as I'm drifting off Nora wakes up. I pull her out of the rock & play next to our bed and feed her. She passes back out so I put her back and run to the bathroom. She's fussing by the time I get back so I pull her out again and feed more.  I think I fall asleep first so she snoozes next to me. Around 6:30 I hear Erik's phone beep with some sort of alert. I wake up and think I should really get up and get a start on everyone so that the morning goes smoothly. But I am tired from the earlier wake up. I am convinced this decision was a turning point in my day.

7:00 - Both boys are awake and crying because they have BOTH had accidents. Yay. This is very rare for Charlie but last night we ended up eating supper 2 hours later than normal which meant a later bedtime and I caught Charlie CHUGGING water before he went upstairs so I really shouldn't be surprised. Levi has peed through his pull-up. He was doing so good with staying dry all night or at least waking up and going during the night but lately he has been sleeping too hard I guess. While Erik is up stripping the sheets and getting them cleaned up and dressed I decide to take a shower. Oh wait, decide to get breakfast ready for them so they have time to eat. Open the freezer drawer and no waffles. Ugh. They come down and of course they want waffles. Levi sees a box of muffin mix and wants muffins.  Tantrum #1.  So I start making waffles thinking we might have time for Charlie to eat one. Get them started on some Greek yogurt. Erik takes over waffle making so I can take a shower. We realize there is no way waffles will be done before the van gets here for Charlie so we make him a ham & cheese roll up. While Erik is making that I help him wash up from the yogurt & brush his teeth. Then he eats until the van gets here (7:50)and then I help him quickly get his coat, hat, boots, etc on.  His van driver is supposed to come at like 7:58 and he's always early. I don't want him to have to sit and wait but really, he's quite early.

8:00 - It's been a hectic morning already but at least Nora waited until just after Charlie left to wake up! I bring her out to the kitchen and put her in her bouncy chair by Levi who is still eating. Erik has went upstairs to work by now so I continue making waffles (we always make double batches). I have a waffle. 

Then it's a mad rush to get Nora fed & changed so we can get ready for ECFE. Levi makes it very evident that he does not want to go to school today. I convince him that we can go buy dog treats if we go to school and if he lets me go to 'mom talk time' without throwing a fit. As we're getting ready to go he declares he does not need a hat and I check the temperature and decide he's probably okay with just a hood.  As soon as we take off he flips out about needing a hat and cries most of the way to town. I try to talk to him about how I let him make a decision and that there are consequences and he can't change his mind after we left but I think all he got out of it was blah, blah, blah.

We get to ECFE and he has fun. We don't even get over to the toy areas because there's play dough, moon sand and too many other things to do. They have the puffy glue/shaving cream stuff out and I practically beg Levi to make a snowman because I love that stuff. Levi runs off and keeps coming back with yellow mittens to stick on his creation and finally I realize that he's taking them off of a mitten chart for another activity. Whoops.  After play time they say we're going to the motor room for circle time where they pull out the parachute. The parachute is Levi's jam and is something that we did every week last year. The new teacher doesn't use the parachute as much so Levi is very excited.  Typically after circle time we do snack and separate but since somebody's child has a problem separating (ahem...) they decide to let them play in the motor room first and then let the parents sneak out. I remind Levi of our treats for Daisy deal if he stays but he's not having it. I leave and they basically block the door while he flips out. He did settle down eventually when they told him x many more minutes until they'd go back to the classroom. The parent topic today is BALANCE. How fitting and I guess it's a common issue :) Nora is fussy and I try to feed her but she's not interested so I end up just bouncing her until she falls asleep.  As soon as the kids come back to the classroom Levi bursts thru the door to the parent room. He's so torn because they are having goldfish & raisins for a snack which he really wants, but that would mean leaving me. We compromise and I stand in the doorway while he has a snack. He starts by just standing by the table, to kneeling one leg on the chair to finally sitting down and eating.  ECFE is over at 10:30 and so we wait around so Charlie doesn't have to ride home in the van. 

We spy on Charlie having a snack in the classroom next door. We get busted and Levi is distracting Charlie & his little buddy so we stop snooping.  We  visit with my boss & my substitute while Levi begs both of them to give him treats from their desk.  I text Erik to see if he wants to come in and have lunch.  Charlie gets dismissed at 11 and we ask his teacher if he can bring in a book for her to read to their class some day. 

Levi gets to pick where we go for lunch and he picks pizza. As we're pulling out of the school, Charlie sees the teacher piling into vehicles. When we pull into the pizza place he sees them all pull into the Subway next door and says he wants to go there. I tell him it's Levi's turn to pick so of course he says, "Levi, don't you want to go to subway and get chips?!" Well, duh. So we go to Subway and as soon as we get inside Levi changes his mind but I remind him that he has already made a decision. Charlie is not interested in subway for the healthy sandwich options....he just wants chips. I get so annoyed when we eat there because I can quite easily make a turkey and cheese sandwich at home. Anyways, we get our lunch and Levi then insists on sitting next to the school staff. Yes, he has just spent the last 2 hours avoiding Miss Becky like the plague and now he pretty much wants to sit on her lap. Charlie is too cool to sit with them so him, Erik and Nora sit at a booth and Levi & I sit with the staff.  It's fun to catch up with them all since i have been on leave since Nora was born.  I tell Charlie's teacher that Levi will be in school next year and she starts talking to him about preschool and he just looks totally star struck.

When we're done eating we head out to the parking lot and the great debate on who's going to ride home with who starts. Levi is going with me. Nope, change that, he's going with dad and the other 2 are going with me. Halfway across the parking lot he changes his mind again and bolts away from Erik back to me. I buckle him in my car and surprise! now he wants to go with Erik but i'm done playing that game. He cries the entire way home about it and Charlie lectures him the whole way.

We get home around noon and Charlie wants to write a letter to his teacher with the name of the book he wants to bring in next week. Levi also does some drawing and I take a couple of minutes to write out a couple of cards to some friends that have been on my mind lately (new years goal to be a better friend!).  Nora finally wakes up so I feed her and the boys play tractors. Levi remembers how badly he needed muffins this morning so I tell him we can make muffins after nap.  

We head upstairs to make both of the beds (I hate putting sheets on the top bunk).  Charlie picks out the Children's Bible to read before nap and I read him a ton of stories out of there while we wait for Levi to go to the bathroom and do whatever else it is that he is running around doing. Eventually Levi picks out 3 books and settles down to read. We sing and (I think?) they fall alseep relatively quickly. I am sure I ended up going up at least once to cover Levi up with his blanket and/or tell them to be quiet. The whole bed making/reading experience takes an hour.

I settle in with Nora to take a break and watch some Rachael Ray and our TV antenna isn't working again. No big deal, I'll watch something on Netflix. Oh, guess what, it's not working either!! The only channel coming in is fox9 so I guess I will watch some TMZ Live instead. Around 2:45 I put Nora in the swing and start unloading the dishwasher and doing the dishes. Yes, the breakfast dishes are still on the table.  Charlie comes down and gets the Kindle since he took a nap. Erik leaves around 3:30 for a dentist appointment.  After the dishes are done, counters wiped down and the floor is swept I decide to spend a few minutes cleaning up the entry way because it's driving me nuts and I know it will only take a few minutes. We have a curtain up to keep the cold air out of the main part of the house so it is an easy room to neglect in the winter. I pick up all of the winter gear, load the recycling into the car, sweep out there and in just 15 minutes it looks so much better. I also get some hamburger out of the freezer for supper and a big ham that we can eat this weekend. Levi comes down for his nap and is ready to make apple muffins immediately. He washes up and I realize we have no apples. Of course! We do have blueberries and he is fine with the substitution. We have fun making the muffins even though he spills flour all over and sneezes in the batter.

 Then he asks to paint so we get out lots of paper and paint and both boys actually spend a decent amount of time painting. After painting we play Simon Says for a long time while I fold a basket of clothes. Nora is taking quite the afternoon snooze. 

Erik comes home and says he should run his hours down to the guy he helped in the fields (last fall). I tell him to take Levi with so they take off.  I chop up some peppers & onions to mix with the hamburger since Nora is still sleeping. Eventually I wake her up and feed her and then I start making spaghetti. 

While I'm working on supper Charlie looks at birthday cakes on my phone via pinterest. I ask him to go down and get a jar of spaghetti sauce and a jar of beans from the basement. He's learned how to identify the lids that say sauce so he gets it right. When I send Levi down, he almost always comes back with salsa. I should color code the canning stash or something to help him out :) Charlie opens the jars and then I get dishes down for him so that he can set the table. 

Erik & Levi get home as we're just finishing with supper prep so we all sit down to eat. Charlie complains that the sauce burns his lips but other than that I think they ate pretty well. After supper they get washed up and get to work on their "chores". Charlie has to mix feed and Levi feeds his heifers, dry cows and his dry horse (lol) with the skidloader. Then they start moving all of their blocks, cars, tractors, etc into the bedroom where they are building a dump. Then it all comes back out and dumped back into the basket they go in (aka the crusher). Thanks to Mighty Machines for providing ideas for creative play.  Around 7pm they get their stuff cleaned up and get ready for bed. We play some more Simon Says and we let them watch funny "shake it off" a couple of times that was also featured in our fall day in the life.

I step over this 100s of times a day

Erik takes them upstairs to read and I am sulking about how the TV hasn't been working which means I will not be able to watch the finale of Parenthood. BOOOOOOOO!! I change Nora and she is super happy, smiling, laughing and blowing bubbles. I take her upstairs so that the boys can hear her giggles since it's a pretty new thing. They got done reading & singing and again I think they go to sleep pretty quickly. They do argue over leaving the hall light on or off which they do every night.

 Much to my surprise, I turn on the TV and it's working!!! Yay!!! Nora is a marathon eater in the evenings and likes to nurse on and off from about 6-7pm until she goes to bed around 10pm. Tonight she surprises me and is out cold by 9 and actually stays asleep when I put her in the rock n' play. There have only been a handful of times since she was born where I haven't went to bed immediately after putting her down. I kind of feel like a fish out of water. I can lay on the couch??? We watch Parenthood. I remember it premiering when Charlie was just born and I have been hooked ever since (and when I rewatched it all on Netflix over the summer, I totally got hooked on the name Nora!). I am sad it's over, even though it can be pretty predictable (I totally called Amber naming the baby Zeke & the reason behind Julia & Joel's visit to the social worker). Leading up the the finale I was really hoping it wouldn't end in Zeke dying and everyone being sad at a funeral because i just didn't think they needed to end it that way.  I will say is that I did really like the way they ended it and I'm happy I got to watch it!  So, that's my review on Parenthood...

As soon as Parenthood is over Erik and I head to bed. We both read for awhile and before we have a chance to fall asleep, Levi is up crying at 10:30. I'm not sure what was wrong but Erik & I both go up several times. Finally my 2nd or 3rd time up there I cover him up with another blanket (this is at 11:30) and that seems to do the trick. It's so hard to know what's wrong when they're not even really awake.  Maybe Nora will sleep all night? She is not consistent at night at all and the times of wake ups vary quite a bit.  I have no idea if/when she woke up during the night.