Eight days a week- 9 November 12

One of the blogs I read just did a "typical day" post and I realized I haven't done one since Piper was born. Shame on me! I wish I had documented more of the chaotic days back when Piper was younger. So, I said "I'll do it tomorrow!" Friday wasn't exactly typical because Chuck was actually home a good bit, so just balance that out with Thursday when he left at 7 and got home at midnight! And yes, I realize this is insanely long. You can just look at the pictures if you want :)

3 am- Piper wakes up. She does not sound happy. I convince Chuck to get up and give her some ibuprofen and to try to get her to settle even though he's only been home a few hours. I am not a nice person at 3 am.

5:30 am- Awake again. This time I go in and nurse her, despite the fact she's supposed to be night weaned. When I come into the room, Jade sits up and says "good morning, mama!" I make sure she knows that she's supposed to stay in bed until her nightlight goes off (it's on a timer that goes off at 6:30). She lays down but continues to talk to me. Piper nurses for-ev-er. I finally pull her off at 5:50, sing to her a bit and lay her down. She fusses but then quiets down.

6 am- I talk to Chuck for a bit, listen to my kids "talking" to each other and realize that if I don't get up now, I won't get any time to myself because apparently neither one of them is going back to sleep. I pull myself out of bed around 6:10, make my coffee and sit down to read my Bible. Sometimes I do this while the girls are eating breakfast because I just can't make it out of bed.

6:22- Piper is now crying. Sigh. I thought I had until 6:30. I ask Chuck if he'll go sit in the room with them until 6:30 so that I can finish my "quiet" time. He agrees even though he doesn't have to be at work until noon today since he didn't land until super late yesterday. He's a good guy :)

6:30- Everyone comes out. I take Piper and tell Jade it's time to sit on the potty. Chuck offers to hold Piper while I go with Jade, so I hand her off and she screams like we've killed her. So Chuck and I switch. I nurse Piper while Chuck helps Jade go potty and get dressed. After this, Chuck goes back to bed and I fix breakfast for myself and the girls. When I sit down at the table, I check facebook on my phone and find out my mom has been in the ER most of the night and is going to have gallbladder surgery today. I call my dad and he says they didn't want to call me because it was late. Some stellar communication skills we have.

Piper practicing her wave while I'm turning on Mickey for Jade.

7:00- Everyone is done eating. Jade gets to watch an episode of Mickey after breakfast, so I get that going and Piper and I go to get dressed. Piper "brushes" her teeth while I get ready for the day. I realize I can't remember the last time I washed my hair but decide I really don't care and pull it back into a ponytail. Then I get Piper dressed. When Mickey is over, I strap Piper to my back and Jade goes to the potty, brushes her teeth and we fix her hair. After this ordeal is over (today it took her about 20 minutes to do those things- she just kept stalling), we get the dogs on their leashes and head out for a walk.

Getting Piper dressed can be challenging.

All ready for our walk!

"Mama, I'm a baby!"

Riding her trike, flanked by two dogs.

8:40- Back from our walk. I nurse Piper and lay her down, tell Chuck she's in bed, sit Jade on the potty and she and I leave for a book club that some of the moms at my MOPS table just started. Today is our first week and I'm excited! Normally I'll be bringing both kids, but I'm taking advantage of Chuck being home half the day! Going places with one kid is super easy now, which I find hilarious because when I only had one kid I thought it was hard (and it was)! It's all perspective.

9-11- We chit chat for a while, and then talk about the book. We were supposed to read two chapters, but the host and I are the only ones that actually did. I wind up having to leave early because I need to get home so that Chuck can leave. I'm looking forward to our next meeting and hoping everyone will come prepared!

11:30- Home! I nurse Piper while Chuck plays with Jade for a few minutes, then he leaves for work and I fix lunch for myself and the girls. Jade gets a sunbutter and jelly sandwich, some cheese and some applesauce. Piper gets graham crackers with sunbutter, cheese and some of the carrots off my plate. Jade only eats 1/4 of her sandwich, which has me wondering if she's sick because she normally devours it. I have some leftovers. I am definitely not one of those moms that "forgets" to eat. If I "forget" to eat, I start to shake and then pass out. I eat a lot. Like 3 big meals and multiple snacks a day. And this is not just because I'm breastfeeding, I've always been like this :) Please don't ask me why I don't weigh 500 pounds, I do not know.

12-12:30- Playtime! We head to the playroom and play for a bit before naptime. Jade keeps putting a bucket on her head and finds it hilarious. She then finds a pumpkin headband and keeps saying "Piper pumpkin Piper pumpkin" over and over again and then dissolving into giggles. She's cracking me up. I also get a text letting me know that mom has gone back for her surgery.

12:30- Piper crawls over to me and lays her head down on my lap which means it's NAP TIME! Not gonna lie, I definitely look forward to this time. We all crawl (don't ask) to the bathroom for Jade to potty and then head to their room for naptime. I turn on the white noise machine then hand Jade her pull up and change Piper's diaper. She screams like I am trying to kill her and flails around like a fish out of water. Then I sit in the chair and nurse her while Jade changes into her pull up and gets her pants back on. She then gets into bed and reads to herself while I'm singing to Piper. When Piper's done nursing, I sing for a second and then lay her down and go over to Jade's bed. Then I sing to Jade and say a prayer and leave the room. Sometimes we read a book before naptime, but not every day. I leave their room at about 12:40 and pray they both go to sleep then sit down at the computer to work on this post.

Dark picture, but you can make out how many books Jade thinks it's necessary to have in bed.

1:00- I've gotten lunch cleaned up, made up the bed and folded a load of clothes. I peek in the girls' room and see a sleeping Jade and hear nothing from Piper (can't see her from the door when she's laying down). I decide to make my third cup of coffee of the day (trying to cut back to two cups and failing) and watch a little TV since my house is actually clean and I'm caught up on laundry. I stir in my cream and sugar and Piper starts crying. Weird. I wait a second. Crying escalates. I assume she's pooped. Sigh, set coffee down.

Go to her room and pick her up. I don't smell poop. She is soaked. Weird. There's no way her diaper has leaked at this point and she is SOAKED. And then I realize that although I don't smell poop, I do smell something... tea tree oil. From my wipe solution that I use on the cloth wipes. Apparently she could reach the wipes container, which was full of water. Awesome. She's soaked. Her blanket is soaked. Her blanky is soaked. Her stuffed animal is soaked. Her sheets are soaked. And I have to fix all of this while being quiet so as not to wake Jade. This is when I would like them to have separate rooms, but I refuse to give up my guest room and I like my small house! I leave the room, get her changed, hand her the remote (her second favorite off-limits item after my phone) and go back to her room to change everything. Thankfully Jade is passed out and I'm able to get everything taken care of without waking her up. Then I go get Piper, get her settled back down and lay her down. She fusses for a minute and then she's quiet. Sigh. That was easy :) It's now 1:30, and I sit on the couch again.

2:00- Realize I should do something productive, and clean the girls bathroom. Switch Piper's sheets from the washer to the dryer (so much for being caught up on laundry!) and straighten up around the house.

2:30- Piper's awake. She obviously didn't sleep long enough, and is acting pretty grumpy, but we play for a while until Jade comes out of the room around 3:15. Jade instantly asks to use her new finger paints. I lose my mind and say yes and then realize there's no way Jade will paint by herself or Piper will play by herself.  So that means they both need to paint. Um... Piper painting? This will be a first. It's too windy out to do it outside, so I push the kitchen table over, vacuum up the dog hair, tape butcher paper to the floor, change my clothes, change their clothes and sit them on the paper. Turns out, Jade wants a napkin every two seconds because she doesn't want her hands to be dirty and Piper thinks the paint tastes *really* good and she wants to crawl over the house with it all over her hands. 15 minutes of setup and 7 minutes of painting... then bath time!

Painting!

3:45- I get a text from Chuck telling me that he's on the way home. Now, before y'all think I'm spoiled, this is not normal but I'm certainly not complaining! The girls are in the tub having fun playing, so I sit on the floor on the bathroom and relax for a few. I have paint all over me but figure I'll take a shower when Chuck gets home. Get them both out of the tub and get them dressed. Jade then asks to watch Mickey, so she watches TV and I throw some more, paint-covered laundry in while Piper entertains herself. And then I find her standing in Jade's rocking chair pulling markers off the edge of Chuck's keyboard. Awesome. And it's 4:30 and Chuck is home! I ask him to change the sheets on Jade's bed and jump in the shower. My dad texts to let me know mom is back in her room and doing fine.

"Would you like some markers?"

5:00- Piper is a flipping grumpy, tired disaster. I start cooking dinner. If Chuck wasn't home, I would strap Piper to my back and that normally keeps her happy. Tonight, they play in the play room while I cook. I heard her fussing some, but not too much. I talk to my mom while I'm cooking dinner- she sounds fine, just really tired.

6:00- Dinner is ready. The recipe said it would take 25 minutes and it took me 50. But it was good! And Jade ate! Hallelujah! She has eaten dinner two nights in a row- that's a new record! While we were eating I decide that Jade and I need a movie night since there's no way Piper will make it until 7 and that means we can get it started a little earlier than normal and not have to keep Jade up quite as late. I ask her what she wants to watch and she says Cinderella. I am not surprised. I tell Chuck that Piper can reach the wipes container from her crib and to make sure we keep things out of reach and he said "yeah, I noticed that a few weeks ago and started putting things farther away from her." Well, thanks Chuck, for sharing that information.

6:30- All done eating, I ask Chuck to clean the girls up (they get messy when they eat!) and get them in their jammies while I frantically try to clean the kitchen. Normally bathtime is after dinner, but we took care of that earlier today:) I knew I wouldn't want to do dishes after watching a movie, and I managed to get them done before we started! Jade comes out and starts running in circles around the family room saying "we're gonna watch Cinderella!" I think she's excited :) So I finish the dishes, nurse Piper, read her a story, sing to her and put her in bed. I walk out of her room around 6:45, hear a couple peeps and then all is quiet. You would think she would be adjusted to the time change by now but apparently not.

Chuck finally makes an appearance in the pictures making some popcorn.

Waiting patiently for the movie to start.

Cheese!

We pop some popcorn and the three of us snuggle on the couch and watch Cinderella. Chuck and I both start to fall asleep. It's not even 8:00. When the movie ends, Jade picks Chuck to put her in bed, so he says a prayer with her and leaves the room. We usually read a story before bedtime, but she was already up late and was obviously tired so it got skipped tonight.

At this point, I planned to do a couple things around the house but literally feel so tired I can't seem to move so I don't do anything. Thrilling, I know :) Considering how much Piper's been awake lately and how I turn into a grumpy, horrible person when I don't get enough sleep, I consider going to bed early part of the way I take care of my family. I work on this post a bit and then decide I'll add the pictures tomorrow. I'm in bed by 10 and then up to do it all over again!