Day in the Life

I have this strange fascination with reading “Day in the Life” posts, and have been meaning to do one for a while.  Here’s how last Wednesday, July 31st went.Sometime between 6 and 6:30am – Dan leaves for work, unbeknownst to my soporific self.

7:26am – Nat comes in our room and quickly walk out with him so as not to wake kina.  I went to bed late the night before so am still tired.  I lie down and doze for a few minutes on his bed while he plays.  He wakes me and tells me he needs to poop (still needs my help with wiping…DitL posts are all about TMI, right?), so we go to the bathroom.  I get him dressed for the day, etc.

8:05am – We hear kina chatting.  I go in and nurse her while checking my email/blogs on my iPod.

8:14am – I throw a load of towels in the wash (Monday is usually laundry day, but this Monday was crazy so I did it on Tuesday, but still had the towels load left).

8:16am – We’re all in Nat’s room (that’s where the W/D are) and Nat proactively shares his new dollar bin baseball bat & ball with kina.  He also finds his sunglasses for which we’ve been hunting for 3 weeks (I defeated Murphy’s law by almost but NOT buying him new ones at Target the day before because they were sold out).  I think to myself that this MUST be a good day.

8:18am – I change kina’s diaper, spray it off, and get her dressed.

8:25am – I get dressed and make the bed.

8:36am – I make oatmeal for everyone

8:44am – I glance down to Nat, who has pulled off allll of the Post-Its on which I’m recording the minutia of my day.  Serve oatmeal, get kids situated, start eating.  Read scriptures to the kids.

9:02am – Nurse kina and put her down for an early nap since it’s playgroup day.

9:10am – I finish breakfast with Nat.

9:25am – We sing through all the Articles of Faith songs we’ve learned so far this year (up to #7).  I’ve been meaning to take a video of him singing “I Am a Child of God” for…months now, and finally remember to do it.

9:38am – Nat asks to watch a Mickey Mouse youtube video for pooping on the potty (a relic from potty training months ago that we’d ditched, but then somehow reappeared), and I oblige.  I check my email, look at a few blogs, etc.

9:55am – I brush my teeth and time myself because Dan always says I take 10 minutes and I maintain that it’s only 3.  I clock in at 4:07.

10am – Nat asks me to open his room door for him and I tell him to open it himself.  He says he can’t and I roll my eyes, thinking he’s just having a needy moment.  Realize he’s locked the door from the inside.  Explain to him (uh, perhaps I was a little less nice than “explain”) that it’s naughty to lock doors from the inside.  Go get a skewer to try to unlock the door (it’s one of those with a tiny hole in the middle of the handle).  Spend 10 minutes fiddling with it until I decide to forget about it until after playgroup, thinking I can hopefully ask the property manager for help if I need.

10:10am – Do my hair/makeup.

10:25am – Have Nat clean up his toys, straighten up, pack the diaper bag and realize that kina’s diapers are all in Nat’s (locked) room.

10:32am – Obnoxiously try calling Dan at work multiple times in a row in hopes that he has a suggestion.  No answer.  Be annoyed at the fact that he has meetings that are not scheduled around my household emergencies.

10:33am – Jam skewer the door one last time and immediately hear a click.  Get a diaper and take the towels out of the washing machine.

10:35am – Pluck up my courage and do perhaps my least favorite parental task – wake the baby.  Put everyone in the car and drive down to a new-to-us splashpad in the District for playgroup.

10:58am – Drive around looking for parking.  Be surprised at the fact that there is so little in this part of town (I’d specifically driven instead of taken the Metro because I figured there would be tons of parking there).

11:10am – Finally find a spot.  Try calling into the phone line to pay for my spot but my credit card isn’t approved and I’m puzzled.  Wait on the line for an agent and realize right as she answers that we’d just gotten new cards with the same number, but new expiration.  Go through the whole process of seeing up a new card.

11:20am – Finally arrive at playgroup.  Chat with friends, let the kids run around in the little wading pool, let kina sit and splash.  Dan bikes down from work and hangs out for a bit.

12:35pm – Realize I only added an hour of time so my meter expired 15 minutes ago.  Frantically call in and add more time, hoping I haven’t gotten a ticket.  Chat for a bit longer with my added time.

12:45pm – Walk back to the car.  Rejoice because no ticket!  Chat with Dan for a little longer.

1:06pm – Arrive home and walk upstairs.  Get out leftovers and feed the kids/myself.

1:35pm – Talk to my mom on the phone about camping together that weekend while the kids get some rare post-lunch playtime.

2pm – Quickly bathe them and get them dressed.

2:20pm – Read nat & kina a book, sing him a song, and put him down for a nap.

2:25pm – Nurse kina, sing her a song, put her down for a nap.

2:29pm – Finish my lunch from which I got distracted by the call with my mom.

2:36pm – I hear nat giggling and singing so I go in and tell him it’s time to sleep.  Do random stuff online.

3:25pm – Place an online order, email.

4:32pm – Hear kina and go get her and nurse her.

4:47pm – Do some meal planning, retrieve kina from Nat’s door where she has crawled and is waiting rather impatiently.

4:53pm – Nat comes out, we read some books.  Decide to forgo snack time since naps were late today.

5:15pm – Make dinner (brown rice, dal, roasted beets/eggplant/potatoes).

5:30pm – Dan comes home, a bit later than expected.

6pm – Take eggplant over to our friend/neighbor because I’d somehow left them out of the CSA split this week.  Chat for a few minutes.

6:20pm – Eat dinner.

6:35pm – Dan leaves to babysit for some friends of ours.  The rest of us finish dinner.

6:50pm – Read books with the kids.  Bedtime routines – Nat: potty, change into jammies/diaper, book, song, bed.  Kina: change diaper, jammies, book, nurse, song, bed.

8:05pm – See I missed a call from my dad.  Call him back and again discuss camping and our lame-o car.

8:15pm – Work on business stuff for Dan’s company.

10:49pm – Finish up work on D’s company.  Write a blog post and get annoyed at pictures for taking forever to download.  Finish my book and fold towels while waiting for the pictures.  Finally go to bed.

And because I can’t resist pictures: