Thursday, December 17, 2009

Good Morning Sunshine!

Moving from one child to two hasn’t really been that much of a change for me.

Except for the mornings I work.

Prior to Kasia’s arrival, James and I had the morning routine down to a science. Despite my 25 minute commute to work, I could get us up about an hour before I had to clock in. Enter Kasia. I now have to be up at least two and a half hours before I need to arrive at my desk. Ouch. What could we be doing for two and a half hours, you ask? Here’s how a typical morning goes.

• Wake up to Kasia cooing and wiggling around.
• Savor the moment for a just a little bit.
• Feel good about the morning because I carefully prepared the night before. Lunches are packed. Clothes are set out. Shoes, coats, mittens, hats and bags are sitting by the door, ready to go. I am super mom!
• Get up.
• Change Kasia’s diaper and change her into clothes for the day.
• Sing Itsy Bitsy to her a few times so I get to see her sweet baby smiles.
• Put Kasia in her bouncy seat because she doesn’t seem hungry yet.
• Turn on the shower.
• Walk into my bedroom to get my clothes for the day.
• Hear James get out of bed.
• Turn off the shower.
• Go turn on PBS kids for James (thank you, Sid the Science kid, we love you in this house).
• Ask James if he wants breakfast.
• Confirm that James does NOT want breakfast now.
• Comfort Kasia who is starting to cry because she is starting to get hungry.
• Debate feeding Kasia before getting in shower. Decide on a quick shower.
• Turn on the shower.
• Watch as James comes in the bathroom to tell me that he is now ready for his breakfast.
• Tell him he’ll have to wait.
• Endure 4 year old whining because he is sooooooo hungry.
• Watch James grudgingly return to the living room.
• Take a quick shower while sporadically peeking out the door to see if Kasia’s whimpers have emerged into a fully blown cry.
• Get dressed.
• Pick up Kasia to feed her and realize she has pooped through her outfit (seriously, the girl poops through at least one outfit a day. Up the back of the diaper. Suggestions?? Anyone??).
• Change Kasia while she cries because now she’s really hungry.
• Nurse Kasia while James continually asks for breakfast which I have forgotten to get him prior to sitting down to nurse Kasia and which I cannot get now that I’ve starting nursing without the risk of spraying milk everywhere if Kasia de-latches (My apologies to any men who are reading this, although I’m guessing there are very few men who would even begin to read this much less make it this far into it).
• Finish nursing Kasia.
• Get James his breakfast. Explain (again) that cookies are not breakfast food. Endure 4 year old whining that cookies are not breakfast food. Feel guilty because I don’t have the time to sit and talk with him while he eats and fully explain what healthy foods are and why cookies do not meet those criteria.
• Go to the bathroom to put on make-up and dry my hair.
• Put Kasia on the floor next to the bathroom, forgetting that she now rolls over from her back onto her tummy but doesn’t actually like tummy time for more than a minute and can’t yet flip herself from her tummy to her back. Try to put on make-up while flipping her from her tummy to her back repeatedly. Give up and go get the bouncy seat from the living room.
• While in the living room, see James jumping on the couch. Ask him to stop.
• Ask James if he wants more breakfast.
• Confirm that he does NOT want more breakfast.
• Ask James to get dressed in the clothes we picked out last night.
• Return to bathroom to put Kasia in bouncy seat.
• Turn around to see James asking for more breakfast.
• Tell James he probably doesn’t need more breakfast, seeing as how he had just said he was full.
• Give into James’ tearful pleading for more breakfast because I am worried that he will be hungry at school and go get him more breakfast. Explain (again) that cookies are not breakfast food. Refuse to give into the 4 year old tears on this one.
• Return to bathroom, where Kasia is starting to fuss.
• Return to living room to get nuk for Kasia.
• Notice that James is feeding his cheerios to the cat. Ask him to stop.
• Return to bathroom and give Kasia nuk. Feel guilty that Kasia is fussing and and I am giving her a nuk rather than picking her up because I need to dry my hair.
• Dry my hair.
• Pick up Kasia and snuggle her for a bit while walking to the living room to check on James’ progress with breakfast. Try not to notice that there are more cheerios on the floor than in his mouth.
• Ask James to get dressed in the clothes I have put out. Endure 4 year old protests that I have picked out the wrong clothes, despite the fact that the clothes were okayed by the 4 year old the night before.
• Return with James to bedroom to pick out a new shirt.
• Put Kasia down on the floor.
• Realize she has spit up on my shoulder.
• Debate whether it is faster to put on a new shirt or to try to wipe away the spit up and dry the spot with a hair dryer. Decide to change my shirt.
• Ask James to pick out a new shirt and put it on.
• Pick up Kasia and go to my bedroom to change my shirt.
• Return to James’ bedroom find a shirtless James playing with his football figurines. Suppress the urge to yell as James turns to me and says in his little 4 year old voice, “hey mama, wanna see my football game?” Take a breath, realize that one minute isn’t going to make a difference to the world but will make all the difference to James, and sit down to watch him.
• Tell James that we really need to get dressed and go to 4K/daycare. Endure his sadness at not having more time to play. Feel guilty for being a working mom.
• Help James finish getting dressed.
• Put Kasia in her carseat.
• Play the “I’m going to get my shoes and coat on before you!” game with James.
• Let James win even though I’m really really fast at putting on my shoes and coat.
• Ask James to stay by the door with Kasia while I go get Kasia’s milk out of the fridge.
• Return to the door to find James gone.
• Sigh.
• Find James.
• Exit the house to find frost on my car because we haven’t yet gotten all the boxes out of the garage and into the house so that we can get the cars into the garage.
• Put the children in the car.
• Scrape the windows on the car.
• Start to back out of the driveway.
• Try to shut the garage door.
• Remember that we can’t get the garage door to shut with our garage door openers and so I have to go into the house to shut it. Make a mental note to figure out why the garage door won’t shut with the door opener.
• Go in the house, shut the garage door, exit out the front door.
• Drive to James’ 4K/daycare center.
• Get my snuggles from my little boy in the car because I know he will refuse to give them to me once anyone can see us.
• Lug Kasia and her infant seat into the 4K/daycare center with James and I.
• Help James hang up his coat, check him in, take him to his classroom, and talk briefly to his teacher, all while trying to keep Kasia out the reach of curious, germy 4 year old hands.
• Give James a High-5 to say goodbye (remember, no hugs or kisses) and leave him in his classroom. Pray that he knows just how much I love him as he navigates his little four year old world on his own all day long.
• Return to car.
• Sing “Itsy Bitsy” to Kasia as I put her in the car so I can see her baby smiles one last time before work because I know she will fall asleep on the ride to her daycare .
• Drive to Kasia’s daycare.
• Hand my sweet, sleeping little girl over to her daycare provider.
• Kiss her cheeks; take in her baby smell one last time before I leave. Feel the familiar tugs at my heart as I whisper goodbye.
• Drive to work to “begin my day.”

1 comment:

  1. Laughing SO hard right now! Especially at the spit up on the shoulder - I'm sure I would have wiped it, but smelled it the whole rest of the day! Ah, all in the name of loving our children :). Good luck with the poop thing - she sounds like a master squirter, hehe!

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