Thursday, January 4, 2018

Ordinary, yet extraordinary

For Tim’s and my first anniversary, I made him a scrapbook. In it, I included a page that outlined what a typical day/week looked like for us. It’s already fun to look back at that, because you have a “normal” that obviously changes, but it’s funny to think “when did it change?” Normal then and normal now, are totally different! I.e. then, we went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast a good 3 out of 4 Saturday’s a month lol! Anyway, this post is meant to be similar- a snap shot of sorts, of a fairly typical day at this point in our lives.
Jett woke up at 4:00 this morning to nurse. I will not complain, because he is a great sleeper! Prior to that he slept 8.5 hours, and afterwards he slept 2.5. Go Jett Jett Go! He acted like he wanted to goof up our sleep thing we’ve got going, by waking up several times per hour night, for Mom to re insert the pasi. Sooo, the pasi has to go. Today is day 2, and it has gone fairly smoothly, though naps are tougher than night time.
I woke up to my 6:25 alarm to get the big boys up for school. For Landon, I go in, flip the lights on, fan off, “good morning buddy!” Rub his head and back real quick, “time to get up and get dressed!” I don’t have to re visit him at all. He will dress himself (although sometimes requires a re do in that area lol) and come to the living room ready to rock and roll. For Judah, walk in, leave lights off, gently rub his back or legs, quietly “Good morning Ju. It’s time to wake up buddy.” Judah: “Uugghhh but I don’t like waking up! I’m hungry!” Me: What do you want for breakfast?” J: “I don’t know, maybe some dry cereal and chocolate milk. Can you carry me?” Me: “cover your eyes so I can turn on the light and grab your shoes out of the closet.” This process takes a good 5 minutes. Listen. Slow and steady wins the race in this situation! We came in the living room and he asked if he could snuggle with me “just for a little bit.” And since Jett was still sleeping, I could do just that! I’m so thankful for those times that I can say yes to those requests!
Normally, I would take the boys to school, but Tim had a follow up appointment from the sinus surgery he had a couple of weeks ago, so he took them today. It’s a treat for them when Dad gets to take them. We gave hugs and love, and I wished them a good first day back after the break, (boy did I miss them today after having them home!). By that time Jett was waking up, so I went to get him, nursed him, and we played together, trying out all his new tricks! He likes to blow spit bubbles, and can support his weight on his legs, so that’s a lot of fun! I held the teething ring for him to naw on (he already has two little tooth buds!) because he’s teething like crazy! I think he’s too little for that already, but no one asked me. After 1-2 hours I put him down for a nap, after reading Snuggle Puppy and Barnyard Dance, and swaddling Him. Since we’re Paci-less, I have to sort of juggle him lol to help him go to sleep. I threw some clothes in the dryer and some in the washer, and grabbed a shower.  He woke up after about 40 minutes, which isn’t normal. Teething. I gave him some Tylenol and we nursed again, and then he fell asleep in my arms to finish his nap...which ended up lasting nearly 3 hours. Everything else I planned to get done, didn’t. But I wasn’t budging. Teething is hard work, but it makes for great snuggles. During that time I had a running text convo on the daily family group text lol, and Laney and I covered everything from real life problems to momma hormones to babies and termite contracts.
When my boy finally woke up, he was feeling much better, with his happy, smiling, drool baby self!
I let him play on his playmat- that he LOVES- while I finished those 4 hour old loads of laundry. I got us dressed so we could go get Judah (today is the every other Thursday that Landon goes to his mom’s). I put little guy in his car seat, and headed out. Got two fingers caught in the garage door on the way out. Just another day in the life.
We went to pick up our grocery order at Wal-Mart. Jett hollered while the nice man and I loaded our groceries. Then we went to get Judah. I can always tell when he hasn’t slept at nap time because he’s a cranky grouch  beaming ray of sunshine! I’m usually responsible for “ruining everything” on these days lol and Lord help us if it’s a car line day! I have to give him a while to lose the edge (remember the wake up routine? Lol). When we first left he was NOT helping bring in the “grocies!” But during  the ride, he’d offered to “help bring in some ‘grocies,’ but not a lot, just a little,” and by the time we got home, he’d innovatively decided to use his bike handles as grocery carriers to bring the bags to the house from the car, and helped until the very last bag!
I ran a marathon  put up as many groceries as I could before Jett got hungry (you have to start with the freezer/refrigerator stuff because you’re just not going to get them all put up right away), and while I was feeding him, Judah informed me that I’d forgotten to put up ALL of the groceries. I put Jett down to play and finished the groceries, all the while hoping for a calm moment so that I could get some time with Judah. Jett struggled at his next nap, but finally went to sleep. So, Judah and I played a game  where he high fived my left hand for things he liked and right hand for things he didn’t. It was my sneaky way of getting him to talk about his day. It actually worked! Then we played kitchen (he orders deer ribs for himself and cotton candy for his toy lion), colored in a minion coloring book and did a crossword puzzle.
We came to the kitchen to make dinner: turkey sandwiches for the entree, Doritos for the side.  Granted, most of the time I actually do cook dinner, often in a crock pot.
Tim got home and joined us for dinner.
Afterwards, Landon had a basketball game, Bulls vs Spurs. He played a great game and we won! He made two points, several steals, great defense, several drives, and built some confidence. Love watching that boy play ball! Judah schmoozed Ganny and aunt Velda for some popcorn and Gatorade lol.
 We came home. I got Jett ready for bed, while Dad and Judah watched a bit of Moana. Eventually, I took him to bed, tucked him in, along with all 659 stuffed animals, ate a bowl of cereal, and here I am. Dreading washing my face, but looking forward to my electric blanket that’s been heating up on my bed for 2 hours! Tim is next to me on the couch, snoozing.

Just another day in the life, folks! Ordinary, yet extraordinary. I wouldn’t trade it for ANYthing.  Me and all four of my boys, doing what we do.
I know this may not have been he most entertaining post, but this is one of those “mostly for me” posts.

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