a typical tuesday

Thought I'd do a day in the life type post for today, with pictures from my phone. This is what our Tuesdays are usually like lately.

6:00 Henry woke up and ate a little, then went back to sleep. I just stayed up and got dressed. My best chance to get dressed and ready for the day is before everyone else wakes up.

7:00 I put the coffee pot on, put my oatmeal in the microwave, and went upstairs to wake up Celia. She got dressed, then we woke up Chris and went downstairs. I got Celia's breakfast ready and we all ate. Henry woke up and he was brought downstairs. I fed him, then cleaned up the kitchen while he sat in his chair and Celia watched a show.

8:30 Chris left for work. I took the little ones upstairs so I could give Henry a bath. Then we got ready to go out for the morning. Various battles ensued with the 3-year-old over various ridiculous things. Finally we were in the car and headed to Target for an errand. Usually I try to get out and do something on Tuesday mornings. Sometimes an errand, but now that the weather's getting nicer we'll go to the playground and do other outdoor things.

9:30 Target. I needed another nursing bra, and we needed baby wipes and Scotch tape. The dollar area had a lot of neat things the Easter Bunny could bring Celia, but I couldn't get them while she was with me. I made a mental note to return soon without her. I did let her get a fabric flower and a necklace for dress-up.

10:00 Pita wanted to get a snack at Panera. That's been one of our easy go-to "activities" when the weather isn't great. This morning it had been raining and it was too wet to play outside. She ate, I drank coffee, Henry drank milk. Pita maintained a never-ending sequence of questions about every single person she saw both inside Panera and out the window. If you ever want to hear yourself talked about extensively, just put yourself within eyesight of my 3-year-old.

11:30 Home again. Celia played in the puddles a little. Henry was being quite a sport, considering he'd only had a total of 30 minutes or so of naps.

12:00 The hardest time of the day began. I tried to get Henry to nap in his crib. Didn't work. I made lunch for Celia, and she ate a little. Then I got Henry to sleep on the second try.

1:00 After the usual battle, Celia was in her room for nap time. She was quiet for a while. But of course Henry woke up, still not having had a long enough nap. Then I heard that Celia was not sleeping. After finding her in the bathroom, covered in lotion and having gotten it all over the cabinet and her clothes, changing her dress, getting her back in her room, then hearing her go in the bathroom again to pee, I finally got her to stay in her room. Sometimes she eventually will fall asleep, but not today. At 3:00 she was still going strong, playing and singing songs. At least I got a little break, because I also finally got Henry napping in his stroller. I went through the mail, changed over the laundry, cleaned up a little in the kitchen, pumped, and went through some of the professional development stuff I'm working on.

3:15 I went to get Celia. Had to change her clothes again because she had gotten water all over them and all over her bed. At least she was in a good mood and not cranky yet. We went downstairs and I set her up to play in the living room because Henry was sleeping in the family room. I got the laundry out of the dryer and folded it. Celia played by herself for a little while, which was nice because I was kind of spent. Then she wanted to make a get well card for Chris's back. She wanted me to write "Dear Daddy's back, Get better soon."

4:30 I woke Henry and fed him. We had things to return at the library, so we did that and then went to the playground. It had dried out and gotten sunny and warm outside. The weather was so beautiful and I can't wait for more days like this one. Then we went home and got ready for dinner. Luckily I already made it yesterday, so I just had to heat it up. Celia was pretty cranky after skipping her nap.

6:45 I fed Henry and Chris and Celia finished eating dinner. I tried to get Henry to take a little nap but he didn't go to sleep. Chris took Celia up for her bath, and I decided to start vacuuming while Henry watched but he got too fussy so I took him upstairs and finally got him to sleep. I finished vacuuming, then did Celia's bedtime routine. We woke up Henry so he wouldn't nap too long before bed, and I wondered if we should just make his bedtime earlier so the evening nap would just be his bedtime. That's probably way too much of a change though. As usual, I'm second guessing all the sleep/schedule stuff.

8:00 I put Celia to bed, cleaned up everything from dinner, and finally sat down to rest while Chris played with Henry. I get a little break between putting Celia to bed and putting Henry to bed. At 8:40 I took Henry up, nursed him, and put him to bed a little after 9:00.

We are in a pretty good place now with managing two kids, and Celia is for the most part really great with Henry now. I love watching them interact. She is so sweet with him and talks and sings to him a lot. And he just loves it! Even though Henry isn't on a strict schedule yet, with his naps varying, we do have a schedule that's developing. When we have a difficult day it's because Celia hasn't napped and holy cow it makes me TIRED. Tonight? I'm tired. Time to get ready for bed.