Day in the Life

I heart Navigating the Mothership - and so should you if you like sincere, amusing and detailed accounts of life as a mother of two. Periodically this fabulous blogger does a Day in the Life project. This time, I decided to participate. Here is... Saturday, April 29, 2012, chez nous:

7:15 - 7:45 am - The Family Bed wakes up, chats, and jumps around a bit. 

D and A wake up simultaneously. I take 30 seconds to think about how my body is feeling and to set an intention for the day as per an inspiring article that I read in a yoga magazine yesterday. Report: body's feeling fine and my mantras are "be present with my family" and "go with the flow." Those are often synonymous, non? D tells me that she had a dream about Puss and Donkey and that she wants to wear her leotard and do lots of exercise today.

Chocolate chip pancakes are a regular Saturday morning occurrence.

7:45-9:45 am - These first couple hours are filled with the usual medley of morning activities. D gets to watch an episode of Max and Ruby while LePapa makes pancakes and I get some laundry going. Baby A plays with pieces of a pancake. D and I run around playing one of our patented family games called "Bum bum chicka bum bum." It is significantly less educational than Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. (The preceding was an inside joke directed at readers familiar with the aforementioned children's book.)

This happened while my husband and I finished up our pancakes. Any leisurely eating is such a treat.

10:00 - We decide to walk over to the library. It takes forever to get out the door. At one point, LePapa and A-in-the-baby-sling wait outside while I scramble around and D says, "Why is it taking so looonng? Why do you always have to get one more thing?" It doesn't help that it's super cold outside so we have to get out coats, hats, etc. If only we were jetting off to sunny California sometime soon.

D looking at a book. A was napping in the sling at this point.

Emergency snack by the vending machines.

As we are getting ready to leave the library, D randomly says, "Look at this little trail. This could set me up for life." She was pointing to a crack in the floor and quoting a line from a book, obviously with a lack of comprehension. D has a mini-nap in her stroller on the walk home.

1:00-ish - Lunch. Adults have leftover soup and edamame. D has grilled cheese and corn on the cob.

During lunch, A lets us put the corn cob up to his mouth and he sortof smacks his lips afterward. We have an amusing conversation about jokes. I tell a lame child-friendly joke about a zebra wearing lipstick. D tells a homemade joke that goes a little something like this: "Who makes funny jokes?... Toilet poop!" After lunch we look at books and eat cupcakes.

Practicing his standing skills in a most adorable manner.

Posing during a game of Hi Ho Cherry-O

In the mid-afternoon, LePapa has a short nap and then I have a short nap. I try to bring A with me but he doesn't fall asleep. I try again after my nap and he finally falls asleep nursing for this, his second nap, at 3:40.

Look at those chubby cheeks! Can't tell he doesn't eat any solids, eh?

3:45-5:45 pm - I go out by myself. I walk over to a nearby clothing store and buy 2 new t-shirts and a new skirt to wear during our up-coming trip to California (!!) and because I have almost no summer clothes. And it will be summer someday, right? Then I go to the grocery store. I plan to take a picture of the contents of my cart while I wait at the check-out but for the first time ever, there is no line up. While loading my groceries onto the conveyer belt, I spill an entire box of cherry tomatoes all over the floor.

A late supper. D: salmon, baguette with cream cheese, peas, hummus and rice crackers. Adults: salmon, spinach salad, baguette and brie, a shared beer. 

 

 

7:30 pm - While LePapa supervises D and A in the bath, I tidy up a bit. Feeling particularly motivated, I haul out the vacuum cleaner to vacuum the carpet. The noise freaks A out and he's crying in the bath so I go fetch him.

LePapa plays with the camera during bathtime.

8:30 pm - I lie down with the kids until they fall asleep. D falls asleep before A which is very rare these days.

Mayan chocolate ice cream and water while I write down some notes for this post. LePapa does some editing work on the computer.

Ah, the glorious time between their bedtime and ours! I finish my share of the cleaning, read blogs on-line for a while, plan out this blog post, start a novel I got from the library, and then watch/skim a movie until bedtime at midnight. (Shoulda gone to bed earlier cuz the babes awoke at 6:30am the following morning!)

Bonne nuit Tigresse!

This was a good day although LePapa and I both agreed that it felt long. I think I did quite well with my zen intentions. I feel compelled to explain the ways in which this day was not typical but this post is already so long. And so many things aren't even recorded, like: how many times did I nurse A? When did we do the dishes? Who did we connect with on the phone or over email? What books did we read at bedtime? Ah, the minutiae of life. 

Cuties

How cute is this: when D is sitting and playing with whatever (Playmobils, her little Smurf figurines, my old Jem collection, her Shrek toys) she sometimes narrates what she's doing in song. She gets totally absorbed and starts to sing her plot, as in, "and now I'll visit the priii-nnncce, but first I gotta put on my beautiful drreeeessss...".

And how about this: A and I play this game where I stick both of my arms straight up into the air and then let them fall down into my lap with a loud exhalation. And he has started to imitate me by putting his arms up in the air and making a similar noise! He doesn't do it every time but when he does, it's clearly in response to me. I notice him doing another familiar hand gesture too, accompanied by a silly noise that I make when tickling him.

As for D's meaningful gestures, she really likes to sign "I love you" to us in sign language, ever since we learned how to do it from a book. When we're not looking at her, she thinks it's funny to call us and then play a little trick like this:
D "Mama?"
me "Yes?"
D "Mama?"
me "Yes?"
D "Mama?!"
me "What?" (finally looking over at her to see that she's signing Iloveyou) "Oooooh, me too!"
D (laughing) "What did you think when I was calling you?"
me (recounting what just happened)

Back to A: he is loving the bath these days! One time recently I walked into the bathroom with A in my arms and when he saw the water and bath toys in the bath he literally lunged toward it and made super excited grunting noises.

And finally: when D wants to describe something that is big, powerful or extreme, she opens her arms as wide as she can and then brings her hands together behind her back. So for instance, this evening she put her hands behind her back in order to show me just how difficult it was for her to fall asleep.

Firsts

Baby A is actually getting his first tooth! It's the bottom left middle one. The ridges of the top of the tooth are already sticking up through the gums. I'm not sure to what extent this teething has been bothering him. He has been slightly more irritable than usual but he has a runny nose again so that could be a source of discomfort.

And his other first: he went on the swings for the first time on Sunday (and again on Monday and again today)! The return of the swings is a sure sign of spring in our city. His smiles and laughter showed that he liked it! He also likes to sit at the bottom of the slide and watch the children running around.

Finally, I think he's starting to make an animal noise. It's not any particular animal noise but rather a generalized grunt. But he seems to do it when we look at animal picture books so I suspect that he's beginning to imitate us.

The Future

One night after her bath D and I were chatting in the bathroom. D informed me that in a long, long, long time when she's all grown up, it will be time for her to move to a different house and find true love. She will have two children: a girl named Elizabeth and a boy named Carstick.

Body (&) Language

Baby A is expressing himself more and more. Here are some recent examples:

• If he's in our arms and we walk away from something that he wanted to see or touch, he'll let out a little wail of protest. 
• When we go to pick him up, he's starting to raise his arms and lean towards us.
• He will sometimes get upset if he sees me leave the room.
• He is starting to direct our hands toward something that he wants us to pick up or show him. 
• I know I mentioned this before but it's worth repeating: he has really discovered his voice. For a while he was really into "daa" sounds but now he has a huge repertoire, including his enthusiastic staccato "heuh!" when he likes what he sees and his meltdown-weepy-tired "ma na ma na na" lamentations. Sometimes in the morning I see him wake up and he makes his little conversational noises (and smiles) before he even opens his eyes.
• He is not very mobile but when he's sitting on the floor playing with something, he does have a wide reach and will stretch as far as possible to try to grab something attractive. He doesn't really get frustrated with stuff that's too far, though.
• He definitely responds to certain words: Tigresse (our cat), sister, Papa, milk, and doggie. 
• His current favourite books are: Baby's First 1-2-3 Book, Touch and Feel Wild Animals, Discovery Farm, Where's My Bear?, and Baby Animals.
• When he's in our arms and he sees something that interests him (like say, cutlery, for instance) he'll sortof fling himself toward it. And if I'm holding him on my hip and he wants down, he'll pull his legs together to slide down. 
• And finally: when I pick him for the first time in the morning or when he stirs in the nighttime (and on other occasions throughout the day as well) he leans onto my shoulder as if he's giving me a little cuddle. And then after a few seconds he straightens up to look around or to push away and down, looking for some mama milk.

This all sounds a little banal written out in a point-form list but trust me, it's stunning to witness!