Girlymama

Have you ever had one of those days where, at the end of the day, you think, “Huh. So that’s how its supposed to go.” You know, one where you actually follow the schedule, get your to-do list somewhat done and even find time to do some extras – like play with your kids and meet Husband for a picnic lunch.  Things just really fell into place yesterday. And today. Its almost ten, and the kids are happy and occupied, the house is clean, dishes are done, we’re all dressed. (This is highly abnormal. Normally, when my kids have to get dressed they say, “Where are we going?”) Before 10am.

And, I hate, hate, HATE to admit this, being my organizing, prefectionist self, but it was all because of Husband. He’s started a new “family schedule” (at my suggestion) for organizing our family time better. This schedule very thoughtfully included me getting up early. As in 6:00. In the morning.  Those of you who know me well are snickering, guffawing and possibly even blowing coffee out your noses. I do not function well before 7. Never have, never will.

But we did the new family schedule yesterday for the first time. And it worked. (Although I did cheat and fall asleep for about 20 minutes around 2pm. Because I had been up since 6. O’clock. AM, people! Seriously!) And its still working. It is so annoying that this “successful” schedule has me getting up so early. Why have none of my schedules (involving me up at 7) have never worked? Does the smooth running of my family really depend on me hauling my butt out of bed at the proper time? Grrrr… Sometimes it really stinks to be a responsible adult.

update: wednesday: its still working. kids are happy. house in order. mama & daddy still pooped.

recently joined this group.

oh, yes. methinks this is an appropiate title for my life of late.

thanks, jo-lynne!!
 

Hey – they mess up the car, they need to help me clean it!! Not to imply that they were actually helping…. but they sure had fun.

It is almost never a good sign when you head up the stairs to check on your kids and you see this:
 

They had destroyed Big Sister’s room. Every book. Every toy. Every thing. On the floor. Sigh.

Then, the next day, I’m upstairs sending some e-mails, girls are both having naptime, when I’m interrupted:

Big Sister: Mama! Everything is okay, Mama.
Me: What?
BS: Everything is okay, Mama. I’m okay.
Me: (slowly) You’re… okay….
BS: Yup. ‘Night!

I think that sounds a tad suspicious, don’t you?

Okay. This is what we decided to try. At night, she has to stay in her bed (unless she is going to the bathroom). She is allowed to have three books and three toys/animals in her bed with her, which she has to pick before bed and she can’t change. She is not allowed in our room at night. And she has to stay in her room in the morning until we come get her up. She also is to have “nap time” from 1-3. She will be woken up/let out of her room at 3, whether she has slept or not.

Last night, she did GREAT! She went to bed around 8:45 and was asleep within 20 minutes. She liked the “three” deal, since three is her favorite number. And she slept ALL NIGHT until 7:30. And she woke up dry. (So either she held it all night or she didn’t wake us up when she went.) We could not remember the last time she slept that long.

She usually does this to us when we do something new. She does amazing the first night or two (so we get all smug) and then we have the breakdown. We’ll see how this goes!!  We are actually trying to structure all of our time more, especially in the evenings. So hopefully this week will work out well for all of us.

Big Sister is driving us crazy. Literally. Soon Husband and I will no longer be able to communicate using complete sentences, due to excessive sleep deprivation. Here’s the deal:

Big Sister and Little Sister are put to bed sometime around 8pm. (sometimes 8:30, sometimes 7:45) Little Sister lays right down and falls asleep. We don’t hear a peep from her until around 7:30am. Big Sister has to get up at least 27 more times to use the bathroom, check on what I’m doing, get new books, put every toy she owns in her bed, decide she has too many toys in her bed so she needs to sleep on the floor, etc. She generally falls asleep between 9:30 and 10pm.  She often wanders into our room and climbs into our bed at least once during the night. (We usually carry her back to her own bed, but sometimes we’re so darn tired that we don’t notice.) And every stinking morning around 6-freaking-30 she climbs into our bed again. Only with dinosaurs, books and her spazzy body that she is compelled to move every 15 seconds. We are so tired.
So what should we do? Lock her in her room? But what if she has to pee? What about a babygate on ourdoor, so she can’t bother us? Do we not allowed to let her to play before bed? Should I drop her nap (please, no!) ARUGH. I’m so lost. We’re going to decide something today and implement it tonight.

So Big Sis was very mad that I let Little Sister pick out the video to watch.  So what does she do?

Leave the room? Sulk? Throw a massive fit?  No. She sat on the couch with her arms crossed and HER EYES CLOSED for the ENTIRE half-hour video.

Um, could we turn down the drama level just a tad, please? Really! 

Check out Little Sis — she’s just too cute.

Last night, my wonderful husband took me out on a “surprise” date. This is extremely rare with us. Having two kids and no money, dates are not something we indulge in very often. Most often, our ‘dates’ involve ordering take-out after the girlies are in bed and watching our most recent Netflix rental.  So, after being at home alone with sick kiddies, I was absolutely thrilled to be going out!

Husband took me to Maggiano’s Little Italy, where I have never been but have been dying to try. Yum-o. Luckily it was really good, since the portions were so huge that we will be eating the leftovers until mid-October. (Then he told me we were going to see Pirates of the Caribbean. I was so excited. (love Johnny Depp. Orlando’s okay too) So we got there for the 7:45 show………. and it wasn’t there. They had changed the times from when he checked the day before. *sob!*)

Anyway, not seeing the movie aside, it was such a lovely evening. It was so wonderful to spend time together as non-parents. When the kids are around, it’s so hard to focus and have a complete conversation, nevermind do something spontaneously romantic. We able to just sit and talk and laugh and flirt and have a great time. Its comforting to know that we can still have a great date. We’re not just parents. We’re a couple. We’re best friends. We’re lovers. We’re partners. We still have that *spark* after 8 years together. I love that.

I feel extremely blessed.

I bought this bra recently to wear under a bridesmaid dress. It includes a flatsy-patsy’s best friend, Gel Inserts! Naturally, since this bra makes me look like I actually have something that might resemble boobs, I am wearing it all the time and contemplating the purchase of another.

Little Sister’s new favorite activity is pushing on my boob (well the bra, my actual boob is quite far from reach) and watching it poof out again. Then she laughs and says “Silly Mommy!” So now I have a new way to entertain bored kids. Maybe next, if I get really desperate, I could take out the gel inserts and invent a game with them.

Okay. This eewwwwww is so much eewwwww-ier than any other entry I’ve ever entitled “ewwwww”.

I just caught Little Sister in the bathroom, holding a Dixie cup, drinking water out of the toilet. 

I’m so grossed out that I don’t even have a clever comment for that one. At least it was clean. Oh goodness. Its just so so gross.