Our Life Now

This post is so that I can remember what our life is like here in Seaside. Soon we will move and I don't want to forget the way things were here.

Daily Routine: I try to get up before the kids, I really do. I have good intentions. But usually I hit the snooze button one too many times and don't get up until Violet starts crying or one of the other girls barges in the room. Most of the time Jim gets up first and get the girls their breakfast while I either snooze a few more minutes or nurse Violet. We eat breakfast and watch a kid show or two. Max and Ruby, Bubble Guppies, and Dinosaur Train are some faves. After I clean up the kitchen a bit we march upstairs to get play clothes on. Sometimes this is difficult because the girls are too giggly or hide under the bed, but eventually I get them dressed and get their hair sort of done. Then we go downstairs to play. Reese usually starts asking for a snack about this point. Mind you, it's only 8:30 or 9, but this kid wants to eat all the time. I try to get some chores done while the girls play.
Around 10-10:30am our neighbors, the O'Keefe's will come outside to play. Sometimes Jill will bring Emily and Adam over to invite us out if we aren't already. Getting outside in the morning is more difficult now with three kiddos. Sammie is great, she can get on her own shoes and jacket and she's out the door. With Reese, it's like pulling teeth to get her shoes on to go outside. When I finally do get her ready, and out the door, and across the street, she usually starts throwing a fit because she wants to go back home and get her "nite-nite" (blanket). Of course I don't like bringing it outside because it gets filthy but sometimes I give in just to keep her quiet. Now that Violet is here, I have to decide if I'm going to bring her out with me. Sometimes she's asleep so I leave her be, and other times I strap her on in the Ergo and head out. Jill and I visit in her front yard while the kids run around on bikes and scooters or go exploring in the "forest" behind the house. They all love to jump on another neighbor's trampoline so sometimes we do that. "Mommy! Can we go jump!" is what I hear about 20 times a day from Sammie.
After getting our energy out outside, we come home for lunch and naps. Lately Reese practically puts herself down for a nap so that is great. Then I'll try to do something with Sammie that we can't do with Reese around. Lately we've been doing lots of watercolor painting. After a bit of that, I send Sammie upstairs for a rest time and if I'm lucky, Violet will be napping at this point too. Then I clean up lunch and try to do something just for me. I'll sit and read a book, do some stuff online, watch a show that I DVR-ed. This is what happens on a good day. On an off day, Violet will be fussy so I'll spend my afternoon bouncing her, Sammie will be whiny and ask when she can come down from her rest almost every 3 minutes, and Reese will wake up after only an hour. On these days the afternoons seem extremely long! I need my girls to have a good nap/rest time so that I can rest too!
After naps, I get the girls a snack and sometimes we will watch a show and cuddle on the couch. Then again, as soon as our friends, Nathan, Sean and Emily are outside, I try to be outside too! Sammie gives me constant updates about her friends' outside. She lets me know if their garage door is open, if the car is there or not, and which of her friends is outside at any given moment. She stalks them from our living room window and from my bathroom window upstairs. She loves to yell out my bathroom window at her friends. And they hollar back from their upstairs balcony. It's pretty entertaining. The conversations will go like this Sam: "Emily! We're going to MOPs!" Emily: "What?!" Sam: "We're going to MOPs!" Emily: "We're going to Bible Study!" Sam: "I got a new dress!" Emily; "What?!" So anyway, we try to play outside as much as we can in the afternoon. Sometimes we'll walk to a park or take a little bike ride (before Violet came along). We try to stay out until Jim comes home or it's time to go in and fix dinner.
When Jim comes home we'll eat dinner as a family. I have this idea in my head that we should be able to sit down and have a nice dinner together, but ususally I'm up and down getting more napkins, pouring drinks, cleaning up spilled drinks, etc., and telling the girls not to blow bubbles in their milk or touch each other's food. Yes, this is a rule in our house, you can't touch one another's food or plate. This is not so much of a problem now because we aren't using the bench at the table. When the girls sit on the bench together they bump into one another and irritate each other. Now that they are in their own chairs again and we started strapping Reese into her booster seat, things have gotten much better!
Bed time is one of the hardest parts of the day. The girls aren't bad, they're just silly and giggly and I'm tired. I really just want to put them to bed so I can go and sit on the couch with Jim and veg.

I just reread this old draft and I'm going to post it :) 11/18/11