Day in the Life: Summer 2012

A blogging friend of mine that I have been blessed with knowing, through a mutual friend and a mutual love for writing and family, organizes a round-up series of blog posts from different authors with the same theme: "A Day in the Life."  As I grabbed my camera to capture Tuesday, August 7th, 2012, it occurred to me that the first time I recorded a day like this, Michael and I had one child who was very little.  Some things have changed, some have not.  The theme runs constant: despite the chaos, I love my life.

Tuesday, August 7th, 2012

Circa 4:30 am, Liesel wakes me up with incessant meowing.  Note that she wakes me up, not me and Michael- he sleeps through this obnoxious routine every morning.  I drowsily follow her downstairs to put her in the basement.  I visit the bathroom with indigestion thanks to an otherwise wonderful evening spent a few hours before with my girlfriends.  I lay down on the couch.  I realize that I have to spend more time in the bathroom, and make a foggy note to myself to not include that in this post.  Oops.

6:30 comes early, and I'm grateful to have packed the diaper and daycare bags the night before, as I usually do, to make things a little less crazy in the morning.  I said a little.

I get Charlie's bottle ready, as he is about to wake up, and clean the other bottles for the day.

Next task: trying to wake Michael up.

I wake myself up too.  That smile in the mirror?  Not typical.  Then again, neither is the camera in the bathroom.

The 3-year-old behind this wall wakes up too early

and picks up where I left off waking up Daddy.

Charlie wakes up- this is how he looks when I walk in his room each morning, and it makes me courageous to face the day.

Downstairs, Michael and Oliver are ready to head out.

Charlie is with me today.  Tuesday is my day "off"- the quotes because it typically is, well, full.  Full of errands and appointments in particular.  Today was no different.  Charlie had a doctor's appointment, and I decided to keep Oliver in daycare and spend the rest of the day with Charlie.  I've I've had several "Mommy and Oliver" Tuesdays, but it recently occurred to me that Oliver is not the only one growing up too fast.

Charlie and I head to Children's Hospital for his appointment- a kidney ultrasound.  He was born with extra fluid collecting in his left kidney, and so we're monitoring it every few months to make sure it's going away on its own. 

 I work for Children's Hospital, so on my day off, I couldn't resist a visit to the office, where he was completely ignored by my coworkers.

Leaving the office from the top floor of the parking ramp (which is inevitably where I end up parking every day), I realize that I have my camera with me and can capture the view of Minneapolis instead of whining about my parking spot.

Charlie and I had plans that day to meet my dear friend and nursing colleague from college days, Alison, but we have a couple of hours to kill before beforehand.  This awesome mother was going to bring Charlie to the zoo to gaze at colorful fish.  But then I changed my mind and decided that going to the mall for coffee and clearance- shopping was more fun.  And you know what?  Charlie, it turns out, is seven months old and didn't care!  Tuesdays with Charlie are proving to be pretty fun.

Liquid energy in hand, I feed Charlie his own version of liquid energy and then steered the stroller to Old Navy.  But we never got there, having spotted my good friend Heather in the mall's toddler playground.  (To clarify, it was her youngest daughter who was playing on the slides, not Heather.)  Woo hoo!  Fun, un-hurried conversation with a grown-up!  A super-awesome surprise in the day.

And then we headed to our lunch date with Alison.  Apparently Charlie has a habit of stuffing his hand in his mouth around blond ladies.

We get home and give treats to Liesel, who demands them every time we come home from anywhere- lunch dates, work, watering the plants in the yard, the basement- this is why she is fat.

Charlie and I hang out in the living room while I gather up last Sunday's paper and begin my weekly couponing and grocery-listing. 

And again, because Charlie is a baby and cannot argue my choice of entertainment, we watch a rerun of "Felicity," my current mindless escape.

Charlie takes a nap and I attempt one too.  Mine fails with two phone calls, Michael coming home early, and kitty yelling at me again.  I grumpily huff out the door to pick up Oliver from daycare, leaving Michael to watch Charlie at home.

At daycare pick-up, it's clear that I am not the only one wearing grumpy pants.

He agrees to go with me to one of our favorite places, Target, so we can pick up bananas for tomorrow, strawberries for tonight, and BBQ sauce for the crock pot.  We talk about shadows on our way in.

We're really excited.

Errand 1 complete, we're back in the car - Oliver keeps yelling "no pictures" at me, and I say "okay, no pictures" and click away.

We go through the carwash,

and mail thank-you cards several weeks overdue.

Back home, I get overwhelmed by the mess.  We get to a baseline of picked-up every couple of days, and we're pretty on-top of dishes, but only after it looks like this:

and this.

I begin to enter predictable late-afternoon-too-tired-can't-deal-with-it-mode, which always includes multiple requests from this little man.  See, here's one now!

 Dishes! Put away groceries!  Make dinner!  Make a bottle for Charlie! Oliver needs more milk! I tripped on yet another toy!  I need to pee!  I'm hungry! (Inside-head primal scream!)

 I give Oliver more milk, turn and see this. (More inside-head primal screams).

Then I turn around and see this...

My awesome hubby getting Charlie ready for bed, taking care of the kids, not asking why dinner's not ready. I love my hubby.  I love my family. Aww, see? This is what matters.

But then I try to throw something away and my blood pressure rises again.

Argh!  Whatever.  I start to make dinner, and in my haste and scatteredness, crack an egg on the countertop.

I make a mental note to pencil in time to take care of my family when they contract salmonella, then proceed with dinner.

This is the beginnings of strawberry-Nutella french toast with bacon.  I suggest to Oliver that he work in the kitchen as well.  He obliged....

...until he called out to me, "Mommmmmyyyyy!" Inside my head I primally-scream "WHAAAAT??!!!" but choose instead answer gently, "Yes, honey."  "A bug!" he says.  Sigh.  He's staring at the floor.  I follow his gaze to the colony of ants that has been released from a plastic tea kettle and are scattering in all directions.  "Miiiiiichael!!!!!" I hollered and jump back.

As previously noted, I love my husband.

As the french toast is on the griddle, I set out ingredients for tomorrow night's crock pot recipe, BBQ pork spare ribs with potatoes. 

Due to the ant fumigation, we clearly cannot eat in the dining room, so we improvise- as we do with every minute of our lives with small children- and have a trampoline picnic in the living room.

We take a minute to slow down,

And watch Misty May Traener and Kari Walsch take Gold.

Whereas I feel I am not even on the medal stand.  Both kids finally in bed, I'm a little, well...

Good thing I can now relax.  Oh wait!  Nope, got to power up my work laptop, update patient information, and check e-mail.

But I'm not alone.

One more batch of bottles to wash...

And one more laptop to power-up.  This one for the blog.

And then, taking my cue from technology...I shut down for the night.