One Day

7:00 AM – My alarm goes off and I hastily turn it off so that Amelia doesn’t wake up. I tell Mark that it’s time to get up. I get out of bed and stumble to the kitchen, where I make a cup of coffee. I head to the living room and turn on my computer to check my email and read a few blogs.

7:12 AM – I go back to the bedroom and tell Mark (again) that it is time to get up. I tell him that I am going into the living room to drink my coffee and then I pull the covers off of him and leave the room.

7:23 AM – I go back to the bedroom and tell Mark that it is REALLY time to get up. He has bundled himself back into the covers. I pull them off of him again and he murmurs ” . . . but I like sleeping . . . “; I grab his phone from the bedside table and put it on his chest – the shock of the cold phone on his warm skin finally wakes him up.

7:28 AM – Shelby comes out into the living room and jumps up on the couch next to me. Mark gets out of bed and starts getting ready.

***We started this routine a few weeks ago and while it seems like a lot of work on my part to get Mark up and out of bed, it is wonderful and it works for us. Since I am able to wake up and get out of bed with the first sound of the alarm (while Mark hits snooze 43 times), I am able to have my coffee and ‘wake up’ a bit before Amelia starts her day while Mark gets to enjoy a few extra minutes of sleep. If we didn’t do this Amelia would be awake the second time Mark hit snooze and I would get up and be GO GO GO until her after-lunch nap – exhausting. We are all happier this way!***

7:52 AM – I start hearing sounds from Amelia’s room. I walk in, saying “good morning, sweet girl!” while she stands in the corner of her crib and throws her paci/blankie/stuffed bears on the ground. I toss them all back in and she throws them out again, giggling the whole time. We do this a few more times, then I get her out of bed, change her diaper, and we head out to the living room.

8:00 AM – Amelia has a cup of milk and the TV is turned to PBS – time for Curious George!

8:10 AM – After cuddling with Amelia for a bit, I hop into the shower while Amelia ‘helps’ Mark finish getting ready for work.

8:19 AM – Mark leaves for work. Amelia walks to the door and makes sure he takes his keys, security badge and sunglasses. We wave goodbye to Daddy as he walks out to his car.

8:23 AM – Amelia and I take Shelby outside.

8:33 AM – Amelia eats breakfast (banana and strawberry mini-muffin) while I finish getting ready. I try to get my breakfast now too – just a banana today.

8:38 AM – Amelia is done with breakfast, so I clean her up and get her out of her high chair.

8:44 AM – I get dressed while Amelia digs through my drawers and tosses clothes on the ground. We go into her room and I get her dressed for the day.

8:57 AM – Amelia helps me feed Shelby, and then we head out to the car. We’re going to the park!

9:48 AM – We stop by the grocery store on the way home. Amelia munches on some cheerios while I shop – she’s talking/yelling very loudly, so I try to hurry. She throws a handful of cheerios on the floor in the snack aisle. She then throws a fit when I won’t let her eat mandarin oranges in the store – we head to the checkout and get to the car. I give her her water bottle, paci, music box, book AND Mortimer the Moose for the car ride home. Before we are even out of the parking spot, she throws it all onto the seat next to her and starts crying. I tell her that since she chose to throw all of her things away, she was just going to have to do without them until we got home. She keeps crying.

11:02 AM – We get home. I bring Amelia inside and unload the car. Amelia is all smiles again and helps me unpack the groceries.

11:24 AM – I make Amelia some lunch – mandarin oranges, peanut butter sandwich, cheese and carrots. She licks the peanut butter off of the bread, eats the oranges and some of the cheese and ignores the carrots. I get her out of her high chair.

11:38 AM – Amelia has a runny nose, so I get out her humidifier. I set it up in her bedroom and turn it on so it can run during her nap. I change her diaper and ask her if she wants to go to sleep. She says that she does, and points at Violet, so I put her in her crib and give her her paci and blankie. She starts screaming as soon as I leave the room, but gets quiet a few minutes later.

11:54 AM – I make myself a sandwich and start reading my book.

12:11 PM – Shelby starts barking at the UPS man who is delivering a replacement part for our vacuum. I pray that Amelia stays asleep – thankfully, she doesn’t wake up!

12:53 PM - Amelia wakes up and starts making noise. I stay quiet and hope that she goes back to sleep, even though I know she won’t.

1:05 PM – I get Amelia out of her crib. We cuddle and she points at the humidifier, wondering what it is. I take her over to it and explain what it is for – she then helps me turn it off. We go out into the living room and read a few books together.

1:27 PM – I put away two loads of laundry while Amelia reads on the bed.

1:52 PM – Time for a banana/mango/OJ smoothie! Amelia drinks hers while she plays and I drink mine while I clean up the kitchen, which is still dirty from last night. Yuck. I start the dishwasher.

2:13 PM – Amelia comes to the kitchen to give me a sheet of double-sided tape (used to stick foam corners to the furniture) – apparently while I was cleaning the kitchen she was baby-proofing! I go back to her room and find another sheet of double-sided tape in one of her dresser drawers along with three foam corners on the floor of her room. I still don’t know how (or where) she found all of that!

2:22 PM – Mark calls and tells me that he found a way for us to save $80/month on our cell phone bill! Hooray!

2:34 PM – Amelia and I get back in the car. We have to go pick up a couple prescriptions and something I forgot to grab on our earlier grocery trip.

3:03 PM – We get back home and Amelia eats some cheddar bunnies for a snack. Curious George is on TV (the same episode as this morning) but she really isn’t paying attention to it. She keeps grabbing a handful of bunnies from her bowl on the coffee table and wandering into the kitchen, where she looks in the bag of dog food, then in the pantry and then at the dishwasher – I’m not sure what she’s looking for!

3:31 PM – I ask Amelia if she wants to take a little rest in her crib. She says yes, so I put her to bed. I don’t think she’ll sleep, but I really hope she rests for a bit so that she is happy and alert when Mark gets home. Sometimes when she gets whiny in the afternoons a little “quiet time” in her crib will turn her mood around. While she’s in bed, I make myself a cup of coffee and read my book.

4:07 PM – I get Amelia out of her crib. She has been playing with her bears and blankie – I can tell she hasn’t slept, but I think the little rest did her some good. I head into the kitchen to start supper while Amelia plays in the living room.

4:32 PM – Potatoes and carrots are peeled and ready to be cooked, broccoli is ready to be roasted. Meatballs and gravy are on the stove. I condense all of Amelia’s toys into a few empty baskets and diaper boxes, and she immediately starts emptying them.

4:48 PM – Amelia brings me a stuffed penguin and a tiny book with a penguin on the cover and asks me to turn on Ba Bu (Pingu). I tell her that we’re not going to watch Pingu today and she gets a little bit worked up. I distract her by asking for help cleaning up her toys (again). She LOVES helping, and anytime I ask her to help me with something she gets the biggest smile on her face!

4:53 PM – We head down the driveway to get the mail. Our electric bill comes and it shows that we have a past due amount, even though we pay our bill on time, in full every month. Uh-oh!

5:19 PM – I get off the phone with a very friendly lady from the power board. She said that since we are on a rolling budget program (we pay approximately the same amount each month so as not to have any surprise $400 bills) the “past due” amount just shows a debit on our account. They said that it is definitely not past due, they just don’t have any other place on the bill to put that number. She said that it would even itself out eventually, and that we should just ignore it. Whew!

5:23 PM – Daddy is home!!! Amelia gives him a big hug and asks for his sunglasses.

5:33 PM – Supper time with applesauce for dessert. Yum!

5:58 PM – Amelia gets a bath and I clean up after supper. She helps Mark put the replacement part on the vacuum and then plays with Daddy while I vacuum the floor.

6:28 PM – I ask Amelia if she wants to brush her teeth and go to bed. She says yes and heads into the hallway. I go into the bathroom to get her toothbrush ready and then come looking for her. She is in mommy and daddy’s room, pointing at OUR bed with a mischievous grin on her face. I tell her she is a silly girl and that she has to sleep in HER bed. I brush her teeth while Mark helps keep her still – she has recently started throwing a fit when we brush her teeth.

6:33 PM – Story time on our bed, and then she goes down for the night in her crib.

6:52 PM – I do a little work on the computer before going to take a bubble bath and read my book. After getting out of the tub, I spend the rest of the evening reading, blogging and spending time with Mark.

Between 10:30 & 11:00 PM – Bed!