What we call a Day
I like reading this blog where a women invites different people to share what their day is like. I was reading it this morning and paused to think "this is so engaging...yet people are just running through what they do in a day. In detail." This window into their lives is fascinating, though they don't do anything extra ordinary. So I decided I need to write my own "Call it a day" for a great record of what life is like right now.
Perris is out of town, so naturally I have stayed up nice and late the night before; usually about midnight, with last night being no exception. The babies slept pretty well, and I only fed them once in the night--3am. At 6am I hear the flip of the light switch on the landing--the older boys have risen. They have really been great and are well adjusted to not being tended to immediately after they wake up since the babies were born. 5 minutes later and I hear the familiar call of "Mom! Mommmm! Mom, can you wipe my bum!?" coming from the bathroom. (When and how do you ever teach your child to wipe their pooed-on bum and actually get the poop off?)
I groggily exit my room, not willing to be fully awake, and wipe the bum, wash the hands and start back towards my room to catch a few more minutes of slumber. Then I smell the second dirty bum and call him over to relieve him from his own self. Hank asks for dinner and I say "It's too early, I have to feed the babies first", which bless-his-heart suffices as an answer and the two go along playing nicely. I crawl back in bed thinking how yummy my bed and sleep are. The babies last 10 more minutes before needing to eat. Thomas is particularly sleepy and leaves my right breast fuller than comfortable...but he's fully zonked out. No burps for either baby, and I set them back in their crib and quickly pull the sheets up for just a few more minutes. Knock at the door--Wade's asking for "breaf-kast" and I now am willing to comply...I'm not getting any more minutes in that yummy bed.
Oatmeal fils our tummies and I sweep the floor and do breakfast dishes. It's back upstairs to start some form of cleaning up. These days I am constantly surrounding by tasks beckoning me. Everything is neglected, that is, every household chore! I realize Hank is about to poop again and catch him in the act and we head to the toilet. He finishes there and gets a huge cheer and a high five. The boys jump in the tub (literally), and I return to my bedroom for mindless surfing of instagram and my email. Finally they're splashing enough again to call me out of my bed for good! Wade doesn't want to dry himself, Hank is running around in his "ehr-wer" (underwear), and then we mousse their hair. I never knew 4.5 year olds would love their hair so much. I start some laundry and that pile of socks is more like a mountain to climb. 6 pairs of feet has made our sock pile quickly become my least-favorite activity of folding.
I'm still in my jammies, but start a load of laundry further delaying my shower. The babies awake and I change them and they join me in folding more laundry. Hank falls on each baby exactly once, though they were easily and quickly comforted back to ease. The boys want a snack, and surprisingly Wade asks for his oatmeal from breakfast to be warmed up, complying with my earlier request when he didn't finish at breakfast! We'll call that one a WIN.
I come up to feed the babies and hear the boys finishing downstairs. Chairs are squeaking across the floor so I holler down "What are you doing!?" Usually the answer is "nothing" or "finishing our snack." Wade came up and told a form of the truth by saying he found 2 candy cane hershey kisses so he put them back away! I asked if he ate them, and he said no with a huge smile on his face. I asked to smell his breath and he ran away. Dead giveaway, son. Hank comes up and I asked if he ate a candy cane and he, ever his jolly and silly self, says "Yes!" Wade goes to his room until he's ready to confess and we have the continuing discussion of "It's always better to tell the truth" talk.
The washer stops, so thats my queue to go hop in the shower before starting the next load. By the time I'm done drying my hair, the alarm on my phone tells me its lunch time. I have had to do this so I don't continue on through lunch time before I realize Wade misses his window for a nap before preschool. Today: leftover Indian butter chicken and rice. And a Christmas cookie for a great finish ;) Wade easily lays down and I go back downstairs to finish lunch with Hank. It's a quiet, nice one-on-one time for us. He is silly, playing at his high chair pretending one piece of cookie is a Doctor to the other. He seeks confirmation that he can watch Curious George--his daily ritual while Wade naps, and I give the thumbs up. He cozies on down with George and I begin a long list of phone calls--medical bills, credit card bills that I don't understand, etc etc. I actually get 2 done and crossed off my list! During this time I happily receive 2 "bitmoji"s of Perris saying "Thinking of you" with a thought bubble above his head and "Miss you" with his eyes squinting softly and I reply how accurate his eyebrows are in his little bitmoji person. This app has been a wonderful thing for his emotional communication! I always appreciate those little text message gems :) Then it's feeding time and before I know it an hour has passed and we scramble to load up for the 4 minute drive to preschool. Wade tells me the whole ride how much he loves preschool and he wants to wake up from his nap every day and go to preschool. It is magical to see this enthusiasm and enjoyment in his eyes. These are the daily rewards of being a parent.
I heave the 3 sleeping babes back inside when we return, with Hank mumbling something about his sunglasses as I carry him upstairs, and they all go peacefully into slumber. I hurry to paint golden tickets for our Minivan express ride Thursday night--our first time implementing what may become a tradition! A text from Perris in NC: "I have to stay and extra night." That stinks. Maybe I'll not complain about it since I bought myself a $75 dress yesterday--a very uncharacteristic thing of me to do ;)
A lovely friend brings Wade home from preschool. Dinner is miraculously made: Chicken Noodle Soup. I let Wade and Hank watch Wild Kratts while I saunter around the house. After dinner we finish a book we've made for Perris for Christmas. A good 10-15 minutes coaching Wade proves worth it as I turned the book around to read the last page to myself: "God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be" through the beautiful scribble of my 4 year old. Tears spring to my eyes (another reward of the day) and I am touched at the innocence and goodness of these children. Don't worry, then I go on hollering at them because they keep sitting on our toy cart...every 60 seconds.
We FaceTime Perris and say family prayer over this blessed technology and the boys are off to run around, cry every 5 minutes from one hurting the other, and read books. "Where's Waldo" is the current favorite. If given the right moment, they can sit for a good while soaking in all the details.
I linger at the last feeding of the babies for the day as they look up at me with smiley eyes and coo and goo, and I am just in love with these sweet little men!
Somehow, I make it through the day. Actually, I always make it through. And it's only ever by the grace of the Savior who literally ENABLES ME to do that which I cannot do alone. And I could never be a mother without His help!
Perris is out of town, so naturally I have stayed up nice and late the night before; usually about midnight, with last night being no exception. The babies slept pretty well, and I only fed them once in the night--3am. At 6am I hear the flip of the light switch on the landing--the older boys have risen. They have really been great and are well adjusted to not being tended to immediately after they wake up since the babies were born. 5 minutes later and I hear the familiar call of "Mom! Mommmm! Mom, can you wipe my bum!?" coming from the bathroom. (When and how do you ever teach your child to wipe their pooed-on bum and actually get the poop off?)
I groggily exit my room, not willing to be fully awake, and wipe the bum, wash the hands and start back towards my room to catch a few more minutes of slumber. Then I smell the second dirty bum and call him over to relieve him from his own self. Hank asks for dinner and I say "It's too early, I have to feed the babies first", which bless-his-heart suffices as an answer and the two go along playing nicely. I crawl back in bed thinking how yummy my bed and sleep are. The babies last 10 more minutes before needing to eat. Thomas is particularly sleepy and leaves my right breast fuller than comfortable...but he's fully zonked out. No burps for either baby, and I set them back in their crib and quickly pull the sheets up for just a few more minutes. Knock at the door--Wade's asking for "breaf-kast" and I now am willing to comply...I'm not getting any more minutes in that yummy bed.
Oatmeal fils our tummies and I sweep the floor and do breakfast dishes. It's back upstairs to start some form of cleaning up. These days I am constantly surrounding by tasks beckoning me. Everything is neglected, that is, every household chore! I realize Hank is about to poop again and catch him in the act and we head to the toilet. He finishes there and gets a huge cheer and a high five. The boys jump in the tub (literally), and I return to my bedroom for mindless surfing of instagram and my email. Finally they're splashing enough again to call me out of my bed for good! Wade doesn't want to dry himself, Hank is running around in his "ehr-wer" (underwear), and then we mousse their hair. I never knew 4.5 year olds would love their hair so much. I start some laundry and that pile of socks is more like a mountain to climb. 6 pairs of feet has made our sock pile quickly become my least-favorite activity of folding.
I'm still in my jammies, but start a load of laundry further delaying my shower. The babies awake and I change them and they join me in folding more laundry. Hank falls on each baby exactly once, though they were easily and quickly comforted back to ease. The boys want a snack, and surprisingly Wade asks for his oatmeal from breakfast to be warmed up, complying with my earlier request when he didn't finish at breakfast! We'll call that one a WIN.
I come up to feed the babies and hear the boys finishing downstairs. Chairs are squeaking across the floor so I holler down "What are you doing!?" Usually the answer is "nothing" or "finishing our snack." Wade came up and told a form of the truth by saying he found 2 candy cane hershey kisses so he put them back away! I asked if he ate them, and he said no with a huge smile on his face. I asked to smell his breath and he ran away. Dead giveaway, son. Hank comes up and I asked if he ate a candy cane and he, ever his jolly and silly self, says "Yes!" Wade goes to his room until he's ready to confess and we have the continuing discussion of "It's always better to tell the truth" talk.
The washer stops, so thats my queue to go hop in the shower before starting the next load. By the time I'm done drying my hair, the alarm on my phone tells me its lunch time. I have had to do this so I don't continue on through lunch time before I realize Wade misses his window for a nap before preschool. Today: leftover Indian butter chicken and rice. And a Christmas cookie for a great finish ;) Wade easily lays down and I go back downstairs to finish lunch with Hank. It's a quiet, nice one-on-one time for us. He is silly, playing at his high chair pretending one piece of cookie is a Doctor to the other. He seeks confirmation that he can watch Curious George--his daily ritual while Wade naps, and I give the thumbs up. He cozies on down with George and I begin a long list of phone calls--medical bills, credit card bills that I don't understand, etc etc. I actually get 2 done and crossed off my list! During this time I happily receive 2 "bitmoji"s of Perris saying "Thinking of you" with a thought bubble above his head and "Miss you" with his eyes squinting softly and I reply how accurate his eyebrows are in his little bitmoji person. This app has been a wonderful thing for his emotional communication! I always appreciate those little text message gems :) Then it's feeding time and before I know it an hour has passed and we scramble to load up for the 4 minute drive to preschool. Wade tells me the whole ride how much he loves preschool and he wants to wake up from his nap every day and go to preschool. It is magical to see this enthusiasm and enjoyment in his eyes. These are the daily rewards of being a parent.
I heave the 3 sleeping babes back inside when we return, with Hank mumbling something about his sunglasses as I carry him upstairs, and they all go peacefully into slumber. I hurry to paint golden tickets for our Minivan express ride Thursday night--our first time implementing what may become a tradition! A text from Perris in NC: "I have to stay and extra night." That stinks. Maybe I'll not complain about it since I bought myself a $75 dress yesterday--a very uncharacteristic thing of me to do ;)
A lovely friend brings Wade home from preschool. Dinner is miraculously made: Chicken Noodle Soup. I let Wade and Hank watch Wild Kratts while I saunter around the house. After dinner we finish a book we've made for Perris for Christmas. A good 10-15 minutes coaching Wade proves worth it as I turned the book around to read the last page to myself: "God gave us families to help us become what He wants us to be" through the beautiful scribble of my 4 year old. Tears spring to my eyes (another reward of the day) and I am touched at the innocence and goodness of these children. Don't worry, then I go on hollering at them because they keep sitting on our toy cart...every 60 seconds.
We FaceTime Perris and say family prayer over this blessed technology and the boys are off to run around, cry every 5 minutes from one hurting the other, and read books. "Where's Waldo" is the current favorite. If given the right moment, they can sit for a good while soaking in all the details.
I linger at the last feeding of the babies for the day as they look up at me with smiley eyes and coo and goo, and I am just in love with these sweet little men!
Somehow, I make it through the day. Actually, I always make it through. And it's only ever by the grace of the Savior who literally ENABLES ME to do that which I cannot do alone. And I could never be a mother without His help!
This is beautiful.
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