I just found a draft of a blog post I wrote in September 2013 that I for some reason never published. I had a good time re-reading it (although it made me tired), and I figured I should finally post it for posterity's sake.
Our parents tell us that, although they love spending time with the kids, it's exhausting because they aren't used to quite that much energy and constant child-minding. I guess you have to build up to it, but it's still tiring for us too. With small children, there's just no break. I joke that when I leave work, I'm heading to the second shift. Home is harder work than work, no question. Don't get me wrong--I love it (most parts). But it's just ... a lot.
Then I think about how when Blake and I are our parents' age, will we look back on this time as the best time of our lives, when our children are little? Will I remember the chaos, or just the giggles and snuggles? One of my favorite things about blogging is when I can go back and read things that happened even last year that I would have forgotten had I not written them down. So for that reason, I thought I would document a day in our crazy life.
7:12 am--After pressing the snooze button three times, I finally got up and showered.
7:37 am--I woke up Nate and Georgia. Nate was actually in a good mood this morning, which is very unusual. Unfortunately, Georgia was in a terrible mood. So they basically switched personalities. Bo woke up when he heard us, so I handed him off to Blake, who took him downstairs and started making breakfast for the kids. I had Nate and Georgia visit the bathroom, got them dressed, brushed their hair, and sent them downstairs. Georgia screamed like I was murdering her when I brushed her hair, then she screamed even louder when she thought Nate was going to bump into her as he skidded down the stairs on his butt behind her. I stayed upstairs to finish getting ready for work while the kids ate breakfast. Eggos, strawberries and grapes, and milk for the big kids. A pancake, two handfuls of cheerios, and half a waffle he swiped from Georgia's plate for Bo.
8:10 am--I came downstairs and poured a bowl of cereal, but I had to get up between nearly every bite as kids needed stuff, the baby was crying, I was getting stuff ready for school, etc. The dining room table and kitchen island were covered with junk, so I was trying to clear things off because I knew we would have one of Nate's therapists over that afternoon. Every week, I apologize and make excuses for the mess, but after like three months of seeing like that every week, you run out of excuses and have to just admit "we live like this."
8:23 am--"Nate, the bus will be here any minute!" He was still eating. I brushed his teeth. Then I realized his shirt wasn't tucked in, he wasn't wearing a belt, and he didn't have his shoes on! I ran around frantically looking for two shoes and two braces, yelling, "Where are your shoes!!!! Help me find your shoes! You're going to be late for the bus!" Which didn't help, because Nate just stood there helplessly asking if the bus would leave him and I found his shoes. Then I realized he had tied knots in them! Panic!!
8:35 am--The bus finally got here and Nate happily got on and Georgia and I waved to him from the sidewalk. Then it was time to get Bo dressed. I finished cleaning up a bit and got everything together for Georgia to take to school and Bo to take to Bekah's.
8:53 am--Aack! In my attempt to not get Georgia to school TOO early (they won't get her out of the car rider line until 8:50), I have wasted too much time and will now be late! Panic again! Everyone in the car!
9:02 am--Drop Georgia off at the last possible minute before all the car rider line attendants go inside. Whew! That was a little too close.
9:15 am--Drop Bo off at Bekah's house. He loves his Bekah! He gets so excited when he gets there, and he loves the other kids there. Exhale and drive to work in solitude.
9:40 am--Get to work. We have two of our biggest events coming up in the next two weeks. This Saturday is our motorcycle run, and in two weeks is our Walk. We are working hard on both events. One of the reasons I love my job is that it's a small shop and I get to do lots of different things in a day. For example, today I worked on a press release, wrote some radio promos, designed a meme (so fun), talked to a few sponsors, talked with my boss about a plan for handling cash at this weekend's event, chatted with a couple adults with SB.
2 p.m.--Nate's support broker (deals with our Medicaid waiver) called and said Nate's staff person this summer did not put the right pay rate on her time sheet, so they had to pay her at a much higher rate than we had planned. The support broker acted like this was my fault, that I didn't fill out a new contract for her at the beginning of the summer. Um, that's why I told you, "This is what we want to pay her" and you said, "Ok, that's fine." It's your job to keep up with the endless paperwork for Medicaid. I told her we did that rate for a reason, and if they are just paying her at a much higher rate, our budget will run out by the end of the year! She thinks it will be fine. Grrr! I really hate it when other people's mistakes threaten what we have planned.
3:20 p.m.--Oh, I have plenty of time to get downtown for my big important meeting. WAIT! I forgot, the appointment is actually at 3:30! Panic!!! Pray! Park in the parking garage and start speedwalking while searching my emails on my phone about the room number for the meeting and realize ... Oh, it actually is at 4. I have time to kill now. :)
4 p.m.--Have a meeting about funding and partnership. It was not at all what I expected it to be, and I walked out of their with my head spinning.
5 p.m.--Drive home in rush hour. Call my mom and talk to her on the way home, like I do every day.
5:30 p.m.--Got home to the second shift. Nicole picks up Bo and Georgia every day and meets Nate's bus at our house so they are all home when I get there. On Wednesdays, we always have an appointment with Nate's behavior therapist, and Georgia has dance. I usually do the therapist meeting with Nate, and Blake comes home to take Georgia to dance. Today he forgot, and Georgia was already in her dance costume. I thought she would be super disappointed, but by the time I got there she was fine. She wanted to tell me all about her day at school. Bo was so sleepy and cried and complained about everything. Nate was in the bathroom and then came out naked from the waist down and everyone told him to put some pants on. I was starving because I hadn't really eaten lunch, so I grabbed a banana but Bo decided he wanted it and threw a fit until he got some. I tried to teach him to say banana. Georgia kept telling me stories about her day. Nate needed help getting dressed. And I was desperately trying to talk to the behavior therapist about her visit to Nate's school to observe him last week. The kids decided to go outside, and I started making the quickest dinner I could come up with--scrambled eggs, sausage links, and cinnamon rolls. I did get to talk to the therapist some, and we made a plan for what to suggest to Nate's teacher about a little issue at school. I got dinner on the table and started the kids eating, made Bo a bottle and sat on the couch to feed him as she left.
7 p.m.--Made the kids promise they wouldn't yell for me while I took Bo upstairs to rock him and put him in bed. He fought it for a minute but then settled down and laid his head on my chest. Ahhh. That was the first quiet, restful moment I'd had since getting home. I stayed there a little longer than necessary because it was so nice snuggling with a sleepy baby. I put him in his crib, he laid face down with his butt in the air and went to sleep.
7:20 p.m.--Prepared for Nate's nightly bathroom routine. I went down to get him, but then I saw my neighbor outside and went out to chat because they are moving tomorrow. Nate and Georgia saw some neighbor kids playing outside and Nate took off running with them but Georgia stayed with me because they had their big dog with them. This set our routine back more than I liked, but sometimes I have to remember to stop and talk to neighbors even at the expense of throwing off our routine.
7:45 p.m.--Finally got the kids inside and upstairs. I started Nate's bathroom routine and started going through both of the kids' backpacks for homework, papers to sign, newsletters, etc. I helped him with his homework--reading a book for about 20 minutes, and then coming up with three text-to-self examples. I had to look that up on Wikipedia to know what that even meant.
8:45 p.m.--Blake got home and started to put the kids to bed.
9:30 p.m.--I finished up little loose ends to get us ready for school tomorrow and got ready for bed. I climbed in bed with my laptop. I ordered Nate's school pictures, checked my email accounts, looked at Facebook, checked on my Spina Bifida babycenter group and answered several posts.
11:28 p.m.--Lights out!
12:15 a.m.--Maggie needs to go out.
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