A Snapshot of my Day

6:15 AM Get up to do morning prayers and have coffee.

6:20 AM James wakes up. Nurse him back to sleep.

6:30 AM Clare wakes up. Crawls in to my bed and starts crying that she wants chocolate milk. I tell her that if she's quiet for a few minutes while I nurse James I will make it for her. Anything to keep her quiet while I tried to get James back to sleep...

6:40 AM Make said chocolate milk for Clare and send her back to her bed with it.

6:45 AM Finally get up to get my coffee started. Enjoy a little peace and quiet while I do my meditation. :)

7:10 AM Clare apparently did NOT go back to sleep at 6:40. She wanders out to the living room and asks (ever so sweetly), "Mommy, can I come out and snuggle with you?" How could I resist? We sit on the couch and read together while I finish my coffee.

7:30 AM Decide to get ready for the day. Clare and Mommy dressed. Throw a load of laundry in.

8:00 AM James up for the day. He doesn't usually sleep this late...he slept for 13 hours last night!

Watch "Wee Sing - Adventures in Sillyville" while I unload the dishwasher and get breakfast in Mommy & Clare and nurse James. Make beds and tidy rooms.

9:00 AM Turn on Mass on EWTN. Try to convince Clare that she doesn't need to yell at the top of her lungs while she rides her bike around the house. Mommy's trying to listen to the homily...somewhat unsuccessfully.

Transfer laundry. Put breakfast dishes in. Put another load in the washer.

9:30 AM James getting fussy. This is his normal AM nap time, but I'm thinking he might be off a bit because he woke up so late. Nurse him in the Ergo anyway. Heck, he might go down.

10:00 AM He's REALLY cranky and definitely falling asleep on me as we walk around the house. Awesome! A morning nap might happen, after all. Take him to my room to put him down. It's going great until Clare comes in to "help" me put him down. Snuggling was OK for a little bit, but then she started to squirm around. Since he's falling asleep I'm trying desperately to whisper, "Clare, it's time to be quiet and still. When James falls asleep we can go out and make some cookies for Daddy." Apparently this just makes her angry, so she yells for no particular reason. James is awake now. Nurse him another minute, and his eyes start to droop again. Yay! Then Clare puts her feet in James's back and pushes. Ok. Enough. Detach from baby and drag toddler to her room for a time out while I try to get James calmed down and back to sleep.

Clare screaming and throwing herself at the door. James is now fully awake and more than likely not going to go back to sleep. Agh.

10:40 AM All's quiet in Clare's room. She apologizes. All three of us go out to make cookies.

Transfer laundry. Start making cookies. Everyone's having fun.

Put a sheet of cookies in and decide that 10 minutes is plenty of time for me to hang up my wet laundry and vacuum the bedrooms. Clare's playing games with James. Both kids laughing like crazy. I love it.

Finish vacuuming, put another sheet of cookies in. Clare and James still playing on the floor. James starts screaming an "in pain" scream. I ask Clare what happened. She accidentally kicked James while they were playing (I believe her that it was an accident). We're practicing apologizing promptly when someone gets hurt, even if it was an accident. She's not taking to it very well. She apologizes to me. She apologizes to Daddy. She apologizes to Grandma. She will NOT use James's name in the apology. Back to her room for a time out. (More experienced mommys out there: am I right in assuming that this is defiance and I ought to make her apologize to James?)

5 minutes later: it's quiet in her room, so I go in to check to see if she's ready to apologize to James. She's in there playing games. I tell her that time out is not a time to play and that now she has to do her time out where I can watch her. (Flashback to my childhood) She gets to stand in the corner of the living room until she's ready to apologize to James. This works! It only took 2 minutes.

Cookies are done and now it's time for lunch.

By now James is getting cranky again because now it's time to nurse and he's missed his AM nap.

Another thing we're working on with Clare is sitting nicely in her chair while we eat. She has good days and bad days. Today was not a great day. She had to forfeit the cookie she was looking forward to.

Time to try to go #2 before nap time. (I have to do this because she will go ON PURPOSE as an excuse to get out of bed). She will not stay on the toilet, so now I have to just shut the bathroom door and leave her there until she's done.

It's 12:30 PM. Is it nap time yet?