Day in the Life - Spring 15'

 Yeah, I loosely documented a day in the life in mid-April and just haven't gotten around to getting it written up. But, I did take a lot of pictures!! So, here's what I remember over 3 weeks later :)

April 13, 2015

Charlie: 5
Levi: 3
Nora: 6 months

12:?? - Nora is awake. I rock her for a few minutes and she goes back to sleep.

1:?? - Nora is awake again. Bring her down and feed her. Too lazy to carry her all the way back upstairs so I put her in the rock n' play, which she hasn't slept in for a couple of weeks. But...too lazy.

5:33am - I hear "#!$* #!%)*#" from Erik has he flies out of bed. He overslept big time. His flight leaves at 7:12am and we are a solid hour from the airport. I stumble out of bed to see if he needs help with anything and he says no because he is organized like that and already has everything together and in the car. He pulls out of the garage at 5:38 and that included taking the fastest shower possible. I go back to bed but can't fall back to sleep as I try to figure out how on earth he will ever make it on time. The drive is one thing, but then there is getting from park & ride to the terminal, security, etc etc.

7:00am - I do doze off apparently because the next thing I hear is a crash and notice that Levi running off with lotion from my dresser. He climbed up in some laundry baskets to reach. Charlie has been up watching the Kindle for awhile.

 Maybe if I put my clothes away every once in awhile he wouldn't climb up on my dresser. Nah, he'd still find a way. At least he didn't dump them out first.

 We get breakfast on the table. Frozen "fluffy" pancakes and we make a smoothie. I believe I even went out to the garage to run the blender so that I wouldn't wake Nora up. 

 

 Letter of the week is "u" and we had been looking everywhere for this picture of UNCLE the night before and couldn't find it. Charlie notices it's hanging on the fridge. He puts it in his bag for school. After he eats he gets dressed, brushes teeth and then says hi to Nora since she is now awake. Also get  very sad news from Sarah via text.

 She really likes him.

 Charlie's van arrives at 7:55 and he's off to school. I feed Nora and change her diaper. Levi gets clothes and gets himself dressed. He also asks for a snack for the first time approx 10 minutes after finishing breakfast. He gets denied requested snack for the first time. We start the washer for the diapers and make our way outside for chicken chores.

Teeth inspection

One week into our chicken farming and things are going good. I notice 1 little one does not look very good and I don't think he's going to make it. we take away the feed at night so that they take a break from eating (they will literally eat themselves to death) so they are very excited to see us. Levi likes filling up the feeders & waterers.

Cutest chicken chores assistant.

 Levi wants to pet one so I catch one for him. He's got some neat black spots on him. He will be a good one to use when I weigh them each week to check their rate of gain! Levi really just wants to pet one so that he can use the hand sanitizer.

We come back into the house and I decide to take a quick shower. Nora plays on the floor and Levi wants to play on the Kindle. He hasn't really figured it out so he pretty much just goofs around with it but it keeps him distracted for a few minutes.  Get a text from Erik saying that he somehow made his plane. And Grandpa N calls to see if I still need him to take the boys to ECFE tonight.  As Levi is dragging something around that he shouldn't have I tell him to stop and he responds, "Why did you leave it out then if you don't want me to play with it?" Touche, Levi. (This is the end of any note taking I did so the rest of the day)

We run to the bank & talk to my mom on the phone. Then we go to the chicken store (Runnings) to buy electrolytes & vitamin powder for the water. Levi wants to see the baby chicks. They must be getting ready for babies this afternoon because all of the lights are on but the tanks are empty. When Charlie isn't home, I let Levi ride in Charlie's carseat. It's our dirty little secret.

Get back home and take the diapers out to hang on the line. It's super windy out and this is the first time we've had diapers out since last fall....or probably summer before Levi potty trained. Charlie comes home while we're out there and he joins us out back. We swing for awhile and then go back and check on the chickens. The one that I noticed was not looking good earlier has went on to a better life so I take him out of the pen. I am guessing his issue was  pasty butt which happens sometimes with chicks and you can help them if you catch it in time (it is gross). In the next week we have a couple of more with this issue but they make it.

we go back in the house and they play while i get lunch ready. It looks like Charlie does some wipe clean books and Nora practices sitting up.

Levi helps set the table by taking clean dishes out of the dishwasher. I unload the rest and make lunch. We made a chicken over the weekend which means we'll be eating chicken for most meals for awhile to use it all up. Lunch will be chicken rollups or quesadillas. I do remember that there was a major brawl over something that resulted in Levi licking his tortilla and then Charlie being mad and running off to hide in the closet. Soon Charlie came back dressed in Erik's clothes and he's over it.

We eat lunch. I put some pieces of green beans on Nora's tray and she tries to grab them. I also feed her some pureed mango & banana.

Boys help wash dishes until they have water everywhere and I chase them off.

Freeze some chicken broth we made from the chicken we cooked & also store the mango & banana baby food cubes.

Levi goes grocery shopping and puts baby Alpha in the Ergo

Levi's signal that it is nap time. We go upstairs and read & the boys take a nap.

Nora & I lie down and I feed her. Erik calls and we talk about his stressful morning. He has arrived in Raleigh and they are just heading back from getting his bag from the airport (he made his flight but his bag did not). Nora falls asleep so I get up and do the dishes. Then I sit down for a few minutes and Charlie is up shortly after that. He watches Curious George for awhile and then Levi gets up. They have a snack and we play some more. I start supper earlier than normal since they need to eat before school. Nora is still sleeping! I make something with pasta & chicken, can't remember exactly what. Grandpa shows up at 5:30 and we get them sent off to school. They are doing a 3 week learning session called "dad & me" and since dad isn't home, grandpa is filling in. I find myself in a very unique situation of being down 2 kids after supper. Oh, & Nora is STILL sleeping. She ends up sleeping for over 3.5 hours (and it was definitely a 1 time thing). She wakes up finally and is super happy. She nurses & has some solids as well.

So, what's a mama to do with 2 boys out of the house? I swept and steamed the floors. It really, really, really needed to be done. Then Nora and I went out to feed & water the chickens and took the diapers off of the line. I stuffed the diapers right away, too. Whew, I'm on a roll today! The boys get back home around 7:45 and they want to show grandpa their chickens. Grandpa said they were crazy at school. We lock the chickens up and take the feeders out for the night. Then it's in to the house to get ready for bed. Levi is obviously worn out.

Nora is still in her jammies :)

We ready books and sing. It's later than usual so they go to bed really good. Nora is holding up well since she took such a great nap today.

He loves taking "selfie pictures" and I die a little every time he says the word "selfie."

Nora & I go back downstairs & she gets one more diaper change & then begins her long evening feed. I am sure I watched something on Netflix (I think some house flipping show) and I'm guessing she finally quit eating and passed out for good around 9:30-10pm. And I'm pretty sure that immediately following that I took care of the dog & cat and then went to bed myself.