A Day In The Life: Fall 2016.

These are my favorite blog posts.  They can be chaotic to track and tedious to put together, as evidenced by my rusty approach on this one, but so so fun to look back on.  And, bonus: Julia, a blogger I follow, does a round up post and links all of them submitted to her in one spot, so I can see what others' days are like, too.  I'll link that when it's up next week!

For this ADITL, I decided to just track the next day as soon as I was reminded about doing it.  There really is no "typical" day, and there are quite a few things about this day that are definitely not so typical, but I wanted to be sure I actually did it.  So, here goes!

Sofia Noethe Photography

Trevor is 34, I'm 29, Myra is 3.5, and Niko is 1.5.  Trevor is in his second year of dental school, I'm a stay at home mom/work at home mom (babysitting), Myra is in her first year of PreK, and Niko is in a toddler ECFE class.

5:38am My Sleep Cycle alarm goes off.  For those who don't know, it's a smart phone app (I use my iPod Touch).  You keep it under your pillow and it tracks your sleep cycles based on movement.  You can choose the window in which it wakes you up, I have mine set for 45 minutes.  So, if I want to be up by 6, it wakes me anytime between 5:15-6am whenever I am in my lightest sleep.  I feel so much more rested waking up at 5:30 in a lighter sleep than at 6am in the middle of a deep sleep.  On this particular morning, I was a little confused.  The Sleep Cycle alarm is under my pillow, but I still got out of bed to shut off my actual alarm clock...but it wasn't actually going yet...so I ended up turning on the sound machine feature...all while my Sleep Cycle alarm was still going off under my pillow.  I forget what time Trevor got up this morning, but he was already downstairs doing his usual morning stuff of eating cereal by the box, drinking coffee, reading emails, and figuring out his day.

I "rested my eyes" (whoops) until 6:20am and did my Miracle Morning (more on that soon, I promise) reading, Tuesdays with Morrie.

6:40am Got out of bed, went downstairs to get my coffee (we don't have enough space between counter and cupboards for our grind and brew coffee maker, so it's downstairs).  I did musical laundry (dryer to basket, washer to dryer, hamper to washer), fed Rowdy.

One of my besties makes these awesome mugs and other cool stuff here!

7am I did my visualization and journaling (part of my Miracle Morning - it's brief, I actually use a school year planner as my journal and write a few sentences for each day).  I have "coffee" written again in my notes here, so I'm guessing that means I microwaved my coffee and gave it another go LOL.  I heard Myra's giraffe so I know she's awake.  She's been having some typical bedtime fears (shadow shapes, noises, darkness) so at almost 4 years old I got her a Fisher Price soothe and glow giraffe toy, similar to a glow worm, and it's been a huge help.  I did a quick interval workout (jumping jacks and burpees), part of a workout program I've been doing.

They totally adore each other!

7:18am Trevor gets in the shower and I hear Niko waking up.  I go get Myra, who is sleeping in a gigantic pack and play in our playroom these days, then Niko.  Both of their cribs are in the "together room," but Niko had some weird night waking stuff for a couple weeks, so we moved Myra to the playroom.  She has since requested to stay there and I really don't care enough to push the issue.  Our play room is separated from the kitchen by a pocket door, so I liked them sharing a room so I could clean the kitchen after they go to bed, but whatever.

7:45am Trevor packing his lunch, I get the kids dressed.

7:55am Trevor leaves, he's sick, and has a practical exam today.  GOOD LUCK!

8:10am Myra requests her "circle rug yoga," Cosmic Kids Yoga, and I get in the shower.

My view as soon as I get out of the shower

Myra doing her yoga video.  We had company last weekend and the spare twin mattress hasn't made its way back downstairs yet...

8:32am I'm ready to go.  I do Myra's hair.  I try to get her to do a pony tail or "curly stuff" (mousse) every day because her curly, fine hair is all over the place otherwise.  I change Niko's diaper, everyone gets shoes on.

8:45am We're leaving to bring Myra to PreK which starts at 9:00.  When we get there, she picks out her laminated name, sticks it to the white board, and practices writing her name.  I pull Niko away from the train table in her classroom, and we head to open gym.  Myra's PreK is affiliated with the ECFE program, so she's familiar with the building.  ECFE has open gym 5 times per week which is awesome.

9:15am Open gym has sensory/sand tables, foam blocks and wrestling mats, trikes and riding toys, balls and basketball hoops, hula hoops, and more.  At the end, we do a short circle time with songs and sometimes every child's dream come true: the PARACHUTE.

10:00am Open gym is over.  I decide to stop at Starbucks because 1) I have just enough left on my gift card for a Pumpkin Spice Latte (decaf grande non-fat pumpkin spice latte with no whip, to be specific) and 2) I can look back at this blog post and pretend that Starbucks was part of my every day life HA!

10:15am So far, I'm still riding the high of PreK starting and having a couple chunks of time each week with only one kid.  I usually cram in a bunch of errands, but try to do some things for just Niko, too.  So, open gym where I only had to focus on him was great.  Next, errands.  We went to Half Price Books to see what they had for early reader chapter books.  I think Myra is ready for a read aloud chapter book.  I ended up getting a few choices for her, a personal growth type book for me (the chapters are divided into each month of the year, so I plan to read the corresponding chapter each month in 2017), and a Good Morning book for both of the kids to read together.  After that, I checked into the Goodwill down the street.  I'm always on the hunt for cheap Gopher gear, or a good deal on gently used clothes for myself.  I found a U of MN sweatshirt of Myra this time.

11:15am Niko and I head back to pick up Myra.  At some point last spring, I realized I was sick of carrying around my kids' stuff.  So, Myra got backpack and started carrying her own stuff.  After Niko had been walking a while, I realized he was big enough to do the same.  It's fantastic.  We were there early enough for me to change his diaper before Myra's class was done at 11:30.  Then I brought them right across the hall to the sibling care room so I could attend a short workshop called "Keep Calm and Parent On."

11:30am After dropping the kids off, I head down the hall to the parent classrooms.  I think seven parents showed up for this one and it was a good topic to discuss.  One of my personal growth books recently was Calmer, Easier, Happier Parenting and the concepts were all simple, but have been fantastic for all of us.  We all shared some good ideas, and the free workshops with childcare are awesome.

12:30pm I go get the kids, and feed them some vegetable pouches and an uncrustable (premade PB&J in the freezer section, perfect for an occasional grab and go lunch) in the car so we could go straight to nap time when we got home.  This is one of those totally not typical, but definitely happens sometimes things about this day.  We can mess with nap times, and occasionally do, but it's almost never worth it and I'm typically the only one dealing with the aftermath, so.... I try to stay on track for everyone's sake.  We won't always be captive to naps, but for now it's worth it.

1:15pm Myra is down for her nap, I sit down for a minute and check texts messages/Instagram/Facebook, drink some water, and eat some roasted chickpeas.

1:40pm I head downstairs for a run.  I intended to run the actual 5K program on our treadmill since I haven't yet.  It has variable/interval elevation to mimic running a course with hills.  I've done some elevation on my treadmill runs, but I don't think I've gotten above 3.5 yet.  Halfway through the 5K program, I was at elevation level 7 with more to go and I decided to quit the program and do elevation manually.  I figured I could either see how far I could get and likely not finish the 5K itself, which was my initial plan...to run 5K, or I could ease up on the elevation but still actually complete 3.1 miles.  I'll eventually work my way up to hardcore hills like that and do the program, but today was not the day.  I watch The Good Wife while I run, so I did a cool down walk while I finished that episode then Yoga With Adriene Runner's Cool Down Sequence for some good stretching.  Laundry switch again.

Halfway, right over the "A," is where I switched back to manual mode

Happy with that! Especially for such an intense start compared to what I'm used to doing.

My yoga pal, Adriene.  Yoga never clicked for me till I found her videos! 

3:00pm I guess Trevor ran an update on our computer and it wasn't showing my login as an option.  I tried to figure that out for a bit then gave up.

3:13pm I went upstairs for some food, decided on an uncrustable for myself, ate it while texting a friend for a bit.

In front of the clean dishes I should put away one of these days

3:26pm Small, noteworthy miracle: I took a second shower for the day.  I don't even shower every day, and I certainly don't remember the last time I took two showers on the same day.  Myra was awake when I got out of the shower.  I let her choose which chapter book she wanted to read, The Chocolate Touch won, and we read the first chapter.  There was a part about the doctor shining a light in the kid's ear and I asked her what that would be.  She replied, "a otoscope!!" and I was so excited she was actually listening and processing the book.

4pm Niko woke up.  For the first time ever, I think, he put two signs together "please, milk" then signed "thank you" right after that.  He's gotten really good at using "thank you" at the right times.

4:15pm We're off to swimming lessons.  Myra's lesson is 4:30-5:05.  I try to keep Niko entertained while she swims, and he does pretty well.

I can not get over this kid's CHEEEEEEEEEEESE face.

5:05pm Swimming lesson done, Myra did great.  She's doing well overall and the latest skill to work on is to have legs straight "like pencils" when she's kicking, as opposed to bending "like riding a bike."  We go to the locker room where she likes to rinse off in the showers, go to the bathroom (an obnoxious ordeal with a wet, sticky swimsuit and self flush toilets).  I totally spaced getting a crock pot meal ready earlier in the day, so I was thrilled to see a brick oven pizza place at the Farmer's Market right in the parking lot of the community center.  We got a butternut squash pizza (my attempt at serving them vegetables).  While we waited for it to cook, we checked out a jelly stand and a roasted peanut/other nuts stand.  The owner was from Argentina and said she loved Myra's name.  I asked if she knew anyone with that name and she said yes, but in Argentina they spell it "Maira" or "Mayra."

"Can I push the button?!?!?!?!"

5:50pm We're home, time for pizza! Myra ate the sausages off it, Niko ate some of his pizza.  I also gave them some toast with our new jelly and a leftover coconut flour pancake to fill them up.

6:25pm I get the kids cleaned up from their pizza/jelly/syrup mess then do my squats (part two of my workout program).

Doing her squats, too

6:35pm While I was getting Niko changed into his pajamas, Myra pooped in the toilet!  This has been a bit of a battle for her as she liked to save that for her bedtime diaper.  In August, I made a poop chart for her.  Each time, she gets a tattoo right away.  After three times, she gets a small prize (cool pencil, one of those sponge animals stuffed into a little capsule, junk).  After nine times, she gets a new movie.  So, she filled in her poop chart and I helped her with her tattoo.

She chooses the best places for her tattoos.  Another recent tattoo went on the palm of her hand.

6:55pm We read the new Busy Town Good Morning! book and a Peek Inside Space book for bedtime.  Our bedtime routine consists of bathroom/diaper/pajamas, brush teeth, read two books plus one extra if bedtime goes smoothly, then in their beds.

7:07 Niko in bed, I start to read chapter two of The Chocolate Touch with Myra.  Niko crying, so after a minute or two I go see what his deal is.  His sleep sack was on the floor, forgot to put it on, so I thought he was angry about that.  I put it on him, say good night, and leave.  More crying, I go back and realize he didn't actually say goodnight to Myra, so she came in to give him a hug and a kiss and I put him back to bed.  Still more crying, so I figure he's just tired, or maybe not tired yet since his nap went kind of late? Not really sure. I finish the chapter with Myra and get her to bed, too.

7:45pm or so Everyone's quiet, I can hear Myra's giraffe going so I know she's not asleep yet, but that's fine.  I intended to do some laundry folding or dishes or something, but the bedtime crying drama totally fries my brain and I just checked out for the day.  I did get the dishes from supper into the kitchen at least.  Then I sat on the couch, looked at my Fantasy Football, checked Twitter, went through what I'd be doing tomorrow morning (my mornings go so much better when I think it through for just a few minutes the night prior).

8:17pm Trevor text me to say he'd be packing up and heading home soon.  He tells me when he'll be on his way so I can get Rowdy downstairs otherwise he BARKS.  My response was "Good. Niko stopped screaming. Lol.  Don't mind the disaster house.  Tuesdays are busy and I guess I go in shutdown mode with screaming at bedtime." Trevor replied, excellent grammar and all, "Won't bother me none."

8:38pm Trevor home.  He brought his stuff downstairs, got the coffee good to go for the next day.  I brought the laundry upstairs, step one!, and I'll fold it tomorrow.  Trevor gets himself ready for bed then goes to bed to watch whatever documentary type show he's watching these days to help shut off his brain so he can sleep.

8:45pm My FitBit buzzes its nightly buzz reminding me to get my butt ready for bed.

October goal/habit tracker.  These have been SO helpful for me.  Blank spaces make me twitchy.

9:15pm or so I get myself ready for bed.  Brush (and floss, mouthwash!), wash face, pajamas.  In bed to read.  Right now I'm reading five books at once, six counting The Chocolate Touch.  It's actually not that hard to keep track of.  My Miracle Morning book, Tuesdays with Morrie, is for the mornings.  I have an audiobook (Son by Lois Lowry) going for drives, lawn mowing, etc.  Who Will Cry When You Die is 100 short bits of insight and wisdom, kind of an in between book if I'm waiting on my next book from the library or something.  In the spirit of understanding and knowledge, and honestly, Halloween, a very short and sweet book on Paganism.  And, finally, my truly "fluffy" fun book, Chocolat.  I don't actually like chocolate much, so two books about chocolate at once makes me chuckle.

10:00pm Sleep Cycle alarm set, Kindle put away, time for sleep!

Like I said, these are kind of a lot of work, but so fun to read when they're done.  Hope you enjoyed our "A Day In The Life" - I'll post the link of the others next week!

A Day In The Life: Fall 2015.

I love these posts.  Looking back I would do more photos.  I make a conscious effort not to be attached to my phone all day, so it's a weird switch when I do these posts.  They are kind of a pain to put together, but it's really fun to look back and read them.  I haven't been totally consistent with them, and I wish I had done it at the really busy times in life.  I didn't because we were so busy, but those would really be the times to remember.  This past spring, for example, with a newborn, toddler, house on the market, preparing to move, husband really busy with school and the Guard, etc.  Anyway... Here is this edition of ADITL.  I keep track of our day for 24 hours, from midnight to midnight.  Click the 24 hours or A Day In The Life tag to read the others.  Click here to see all the others who participated this time.

There really is no such thing as a typical day, so I just picked a day after seeing the reminder post from Julia.  At the end of the day, however, it turned out that this day was incredibly atypical.  Trevor was home most of the day (this never, ever happens), Myra had a totally off night at bedtime, and morning ECFE messed with Niko's nap, so he slept most of the time we were at home, late bedtimes.  It is what it is, but you all should know Trevor had been essentially gone for a week prior to the day I chose.  He was away for a three day drill weekend and had a really busy week with school and was on campus studying before I woke up until 9/10 at night.

I am 28 years old (I recently had to do math to make sure I had my own age right), Trevor is 33.  Myra is 2.75 (will be 3 in January) and Niko is 8 months old today.  Rowdy is 5.5 years old.  Trevor is in his first year of dental school.  I am working part time for a transitional housing non-profit organization.

2:30am Niko waking up to nurse, he's pretty quick (10 minutes at most?) then I go to the bathroom.  It's the worst crawling back into bed then realizing you should have gone to the bathroom first.

6:55am Niko awake.  I realize Trevor is still in bed and panic thinking he overslept.  It turns out he doesn't have to be on campus until this afternoon (see? we seriously hardly spoke the last week it was so busy).  I'm lazy in bed for 15 minutes looking at emails then get the kids up.  They are both usually happy in their cribs and just messing around, singing, doing whatever.  Myra is in this stage of wanting to do things herself, and she can do a lot herself, and I try to let her, but it takes so long and sometimes she gets frustrated.  How can you get one arm out of your pajama shirt, but not the other?

7:45am Both kids are dressed, Niko has nursed and Myra is eating a muffin (or a cupcake, as she calls it, this recipe with minor substitutions).  I sent Trevor this post sometime last week and we briefly discussed it.  It's short but I hadn't even finished reading it when I sent it to him.  The part about this being the particularly chaotic and exhausting part of our lives stuck out so I just sent the link.  I know life will always be exhausting in ways, but with two small kids, one who requires mostly separately cooked meals, dental school, me working part time (even though much of it is from home), plenty of time spent on military duties (both at home and away from home), etc. It's busy.  I digress.

8:00am I get in the shower.  Trevor is entertaining the kiddos.  Check out Niko's jungle gym of laundry (hey, it's clean, folded, and sorted by person!).  Myra's "little plate" with her "cupcake."

I'm out of the shower for all of 10 seconds and Myra bursts into the bathroom with this musical toy.

8:30am I get Myra another muffin.  She left half of it on her "little plate" on the couch when she came into the bathroom and Rowdy got a hold of it.  I start the dishwasher.  We have a portable dishwasher so I can't really use the sink while it's running and I can't just let it run at bedtime (I could, but the faucet drips a little so I'd really rather not).  I try to time it well, but it usually results in dirty dishes backing up more than I'd like.  Better than no dishwasher, I know, don't throw tomatoes at me.  I nurse Niko and change his diaper (in hopes that he will be fine in the sibling care room all through Myra's ECFE class).

8:45am I'm ready to go.  I had yelled to Myra, who was in the living room with Trevor, that we had to leave for school.  I assumed (there's where I went wrong) Trevor would get Myra's shoes on.  Don't get me wrong, I love that Trevor got to spend some time with them this morning, but both of our routines were thrown off which can goof us up.  So, Myra gets socks on with help, can't find the other shoe, have to take the socks off and wear sandals, she wasn't happy about that.  Parents: you know how these things happen.  It wasn't a huge deal, but any little thing like that can slow us up.  So, I get grouchy and we're all hurrying to get out the door.

9:00am-11:00am is Myra's ECFE class.  The set up is different than what I am used to.  Myra seems to love her class (which is awesome, but I do still miss our old teachers and I know she does, too).  The adult part is more chatty/conversation/social hour style than an actual 'class' setting, which is fine, but different.  

Myra has a lot of fun with the other kids, but no photos for them because who knows how their parents would feel about them being in bloggy world.  She did painting, dress up, read books, a hand print class project, played with blocks and toy tools...all in the time I was with her.  Then we do circle time, bathroom and wash hands, then snack.  There are limited options for snack and so far it's been things she can have.  Then the parents separate and go to a different room.  I had to go change Niko's diaper, who was tired but struggling to fall asleep, before joining them.  Our weekly topic was discipline and it was nice to hear what other parents are doing and struggling with.  We had two dads and a grandpa this week and that's a nice perspective.  Half way through, I got called down because Niko was sad.  He was so tired (this class is right during his morning nap time) and just couldn't fall asleep.  Usually he's the super happy baby no matter what, or one time he just passed out, but not today.  I nursed him and he fell asleep, but he just perked right up so I brought him back to the adult classroom with me.  A friend is in our class and she had her baby there, too, so Niko and his baby friend got to stare and swat at each other.

11:00am Class is over, we returned Myra's toy vacuum to the school's toy library and checked out a fine motor lacing toy, a baby toy, and a memory game.  Myra usually insists on "climbing up" into the car seat herself, which is actually helpful, but the dawdling......!!!

11:18am I check my phone, respond to a couple texts (awesome family member might be moving closer to us and another friend whose husband is deploying very soon),  We leave school and head home. Myra is saying "I would like Fritos chips, pweeeaaaase" on repeat.  For a while, everything was "I need ____!!" so we started working on "I would like" and it's adorable and so much easier to hear 100 times a day.

11:25am Home, Myra still would like Fritos chips and she's singing one of the jingles from school "come on over and sit right down..."  Child, why must you always take your shoes off int he car?

So much paper: handouts, flyers, projects.  I take photos of the artwork and do photo books of it all.

11:30am Get us all inside, get Myra set up with her new lacing (big buttons and string) toy.  I check my work emails and quickly reply, put the clean clothes into the appropriate bedrooms (baby steps, people), get lunch ready.  Meanwhile, Rowdy is prancing around whining to go outside to chew on grass and twigs, so I put him downstairs to chill out a bit.  I make coffee (I drink decaf), Niko is whining and needs a nap since he still hasn't really slept all morning.  Myra is trying to share with him (yay) but giving him toys he shouldn't have (boo) while wanting to take his baby toys.  

Noon Myra is eating lunch (peanut butter toast with chocolate chips - FPIES soybean oil trial means lots of options!) The chocolate chips and peanut butter are nothing new, but toast is!  Niko is really not happy now, definitely needs a nap.  Things Myra said during lunch: "Lub dub - is that what Myra's heart says at my clinic? (this hasn't happened for a long time, but she remembers)" - "I got drops in my eye (she had her eyes dilated last week)" - "Daddy, you're in the living room talkin' to me"

How to manage food trials for two kids.  We don't suspect FPIES for Niko, but we are being cautious until he 'passes' all the major FPIES triggers (rice, oats, dairy, soy).

12:07pm Niko is changed (he had pooped), fed, and in his crib.  He falls asleep right away.  I eat lunch with Myra.  Trevor came upstairs to eat and explain the class he has this afternoon.  It's not a 'normal' class, but a team building/working with other medical professionals workshop type class.  After lunch, Myra goes to the bathroom and gets ready for her nap.

12:47pm Myra in bed.  I have more work emails, I read them and reply.  I make a work call and send a follow up email.  I microwave my coffee, Trevor is getting his stuff ready and leaves.  I do some apartment searching for work (my job is helping people with housing -- I won't really get any more specific than that due to confidentiality).  

1:15-2:15pm I tidy up the living room, start laundry, and sit down with my planner to see what's going on next week and meal plan.

Before

After

This will fill quickly, always does.  Pink checkered is when I will be watching a friend's baby, "hello" is a play date with another friend and her kids.

2:15 Meal planning, which involves searching for some new recipes, digging through our recipe box for some favorites, etc.  Here's my meal planning for dummies system.  We for sure have something new and something we love every week.  We often have spaghetti on pasta night, but sometimes lasagna, sometimes a new pasta dish.  Pizza is usually frozen pizza, but last night we did homemade.  It gives me a starting point so there is far less head scratching involved.  I intentionally left the glare on Sunday because it says Mexican and should say Hispanic.  The week I printed this our Hispanic dish was Mexican Vegetarian Casserole, so I typed Mexican and I do know the difference.

3:00pm Myra is awake.  I get her up, get her a snack, and let her color at the table while I do other random stuff in the kitchen/dining room.

3:30pm Trevor is home (again, totally unusual to have him home this much, I swear).  Niko is awake, but playing happily in his crib.  Trevor and I blurt out all the things we've been meaning to talk about with each other for the last week.  We end up having a conversation about the good old 5 year plan and various avenues he/we could take in terms of the military and education benefit options.  We were, of course, talking over Myra the whole time, trying to acknowledge what she wanted to say while helping her learn that sometimes mom and dad need to talk.  At some point during this time, I got Niko up and fed him, and Myra switched to playing with her scarves.

This is a sunset, she says.

We wrapped up family conversation time with some Bilibo bongos.

4:30pm Part of this workshop class Trevor had is learning about stressors and how to deal with them.  He learned he doesn't spend enough time in nature and suggested we all go for a walk since the weather was so awesome.  Speaking of how awesome the weather was, Trevor still bundled up because he is much less of a fan of fall than I.

Sorry I snapped a photo of you making the weirdest face ever.

Rowdy pooped on our walk.  He's only pooped on a walk one, possibly two times ever.  He really prefers to poop at home.  Trevor scooped it up with the instruction manual for Niko's Burley insert thing then hopped through some tall grass to find a garbage can at a park.  Note to self: put plastic bags in Burley.

5:25pm We are home, Trevor got an Army call as we were unloading kids.  Myra wanted to run around the front yard and play with sticks and wood chips.  Once inside, I got right to work on supper.  Friday is brinner day and this week I was going to make a mash up of hash browns, eggs, and sausage.  I had the eggs on the counter and Myra reached up for them, forgetting that not all eggs are hard boiled.

I cleaned up the eggs, but let her wipe up the Lysol as more of a symbolic/on principle measure.  So, we had sausage patties, hash browns, and toast for Myra/English muffins for Trevor and me.  Niko had squash and applesauce.  Supper clean up is my least favorite.  I want to get the kids to bed on time and not super rushed in the process, but I don't want to be stuck cleaning up after supper after they're in bed either.  Myra's room is connected to the kitchen and the door is just a pocket door, so I try not to be too noisy while she is falling asleep.  It doesn't seem to wake her once she's sleeping though.  I know lots of parents consciously choose not to do house work after bedtime, and I wish I could say the same, but with much of it falling on me while Trevor is in school, there just aren't enough hours in the day.  I am by no means a neat freak, but eventually our laundry needs to get done and dishes need to be washed.

6:55pm I do Niko's bedtime and Trevor is reading and playing with Myra.  Bedtimes are pretty simple here.  Niko gets a diaper change, pajamas and sleep sack, nursed, I read him one story (Goodnight, I Love You), and sing him the ABCs.  I put him in the crib and turn on his sound machine and he goes to sleep.

7:09pm Niko is in bed and Trevor is helping Myra get ready for bed.

Myra's routine is pee, diaper ("only for sleeping, because I'm still learning"), pajamas, brush (and sometimes floss) teeth, read two books of her choosing, sing Twinkle Twinkle and the ABCs.  Then she turns on her sound machine and we "jump her in" to her crib which means we count to three, she jumps, and we lift her in.

Trevor loves a good selfie.

7:30pm Myra is in bed, Trevor and I are watching a Bad Lip Reading video of one of the Republican debates.  Usually this part of the evening is quiet, I can get some stuff done (clean, work stuff) and also relax (read, watch a movie even though I'm terrible at doing that, waste time on the internet), but as you're about to see, this was not the case.  Surprise! Welcome to parenthood.

From about 8:15-9:00pm, Myra whined/cried out to the extent that we went into her room five times.  First for water (she got a tiny bit from one of the medicine cups like a shot glass), then because she pooped, then because she wanted her Daniel Tiger book in her bed, then because she wanted her Daniel Tiger book out of her bed (SO THROW IT OUT...), then because she wanted us to do her saline spray/Nose Frida.  These nights make me so nervous during food trials, especially since we are dabbling into the world of soy with soybean oil, but there was no mention of anything hurting which is good.  [In hindsight, she has a cold and the whiny factor is worse for a Myra-cold than it is for a man-cold; I don't say that lightly]

9:15pm She is still whining about her boogers and asking for "Mommy tuck you in again."  When she does this, which really is not often at all anymore, I just can't relax and do other stuff until she quiets down.  It's stressful to hear and I also worry she will wake Niko up.  So, I waste hours deciding if I'm helping or hurting the situation by going in to her.  But there is really, truthfully nothing I can do to help.  She just feels crappy and we've done all we can, she needs to get some sleep.  I promise, if there were something I could do to help her and make it stop, I totally would.  I think after 5 or 6 times we explained to her that we were all done and it was time to sleep, blah blah blah.

9:50pm Myra has been quiet for a little bit now.  I'm hanging up the diapers I washed this afternoon.  I line dry darn near everything here.  We have two drying racks and a full 5-line clothesline in the basement, plus a dehumidifier.  AWESOME. 

10:11pm I'm sitting on the couch...brain fried.  Must go brush teeth.

10:20pm Myra whining again.  

10:28pm Niko making some noise.  It's a miracle he's slept through all this, despite each kid having their own sound machine.  I go brush my teeth to kill time while waiting to see if he's actually waking up.  Trevor is in with Myra.  I go feed Niko after brushing my teeth.

10:45pm In bed, doing a YouTube loving kindness meditation track a friend recommended.  Fingers crossed tonight ends better than it started...