A typical day

Monday, April 20th

8:44 am- I roll over in bed to look at the time and holy shit, it's 8:44. I haven't slept that long in a while, Penny is a late sleeper, but Harry consistently gets up between 7:30 and 8 every morning and climbs into bed with me to wake me up. I wonder where he is and then realize that I woke up to him yelling for me as he is on the computer and can't get to the Curious George game he wants. I wonder how long he's been on the computer and how he got on...

9:20- Penny wakes up. I make them breakfast, and by make them breakfast I mean unwrap a cereal bar for Penny and toast and butter a bagel for Harry. It's Harry's turn to pick a show so they watch his current favorite, Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

Mary Ann is waiting for her moment to knock Penny's chocolate milk over and stain my carpet. She is my sworn enemy.

9:50- Show's over, and I send the kids to go potty, brush their teeth and get dressed. One of the many, many things I love about our new house is that the kids can actually pick out their own clothes, and despite Penny's insistence that she HATES dresses on Easter and therefore refused to wear the dress I had specifically bought for her for Easter wearing purposes, she typically picks a dress. She likes to mess with me like that.

With the amount of toothpaste that gets left in the sink, we go through about a tube a week. It perpetually grosses me out to see it in the sink after every brushing. I need a maid just for the kid's bathroom.

It's a dress! A sleeveless dress! And it's 50 degrees and windy out!

Harry got distracted by puzzles. I packed his puzzles away like an idiot when we were staging the house, so he has been puzzle-crazy since I unpacked them.

I also found this rocket while unpacking, which Harry values highly so Penny must touch at every opportunity just to make him whine and cry. Twins are the best.

10:20- Penny got a basket for her bike from Grandma Marsha the day before, so she wants to put it on her bike. I open the garage door to have some light, and am surprised to see our friends! I couldn't have timed it better if I would have been looking for them.

Housewarming present from Cindy. The best part of getting a new house are the presents.

Taking Anna for a ride in the basket.

Cindy brought her kids bikes. so they rode in the court for a while why we tried not to freeze to death.

12:15- Lunch. Dinosaur chicken nuggets for the kids, calzones for the mom's.

Vivian prefers not to be photographed. 

After lunch- The kids played downstairs while Cindy and I caught up. We don't have a regular playgroup anymore with all the different school schedules everyone's on, and I miss my mommy friend time. There's not much I miss about them being 'little', but that is definitely one thing I do.

These girls.

Something hilarious must have happened, or they were sneaking jelly beans. I'm guessing the latter.

Listening to 'Kids Songs', this HORRIBLE CD that has been in my car for nine months, and which I purposely moved to the boom box in the basement so every time we're in the car and Penny says 'Can we listen to Kids Songs?' I can say 'Oh sweetie, I'm so sad, but the CD is in the basement.' all while I'm screaming with joy on the inside. At what age can kids start listening to Kanye?

Harry teaching Viv everything he knows about Hot Wheels tracks.

2ish- Our friends leave, we have two and a half hours to kill before leaving for dance. Ugh.

I got out the Fashion Plates that P got for Christmas that I immediately packed away thinking it would kill a half hour or so. Little did I know that H would also want to do Fashion Plates. WTF?

I tried to give him a bag of Legos to distract him, but you can see how much he was impressed by them.

Finally a turn!

While the kids fought played nicely, I switched out everything in my canisters to new Tupperware I bought. I love Tupperware. And my old canisters suck.

And I organized my 'baking' cabinet. Really thrilling stuff going on here.

I put hooks on the door for the kids jackets. I know. SUCH AN EXCITING LIFE!

My favorite child read a book quietly in his room for a half hour.

While this one made me play hide and go seek for a half hour.

This is her 'You found me'/'I found you' pose.

Look at my artsy photo brought to you by boredom while hiding in the bathroom.

I made Gumbo to keep warm in the crockpot while we're at dance. Having class at five really makes dinner hard to do. 

We named Jelly Belly's for a while...

FINALLY! Time to leave for dance class. Penny is pretty much obsessed with the library book she's holding 'Eating the Alphabet', so if anyone is looking for a birthday present idea...

4:52 pm- Pull into the Maryland Heights Community Center parking lot and realize we left her dance bag at home. We had two hours of nothing to do and I still forgot that bag. Go home to get bag.

5:12 pm- Pull back into the parking lot and run to the stage for the recital dress rehearsal. Penny has been waiting to dance on the stage again since about week three of practice, which is a complete 180 from the winter recital dress rehearsal where she refused to get on the stage at all and we left early and I had to go home and scream in a pillow to avoid beating her. That was also the night of the Ferguson verdict, so I like to think she was just on edge about that. She's a news junkie.

Penny has really loved dance class this session, and I hope it sticks. Having a kid in dance is the perfect activity for me, as it doesn't involve sitting outdoors sweating or freezing ever. Plus it's just darn adorable.

This is the only picture where most of them are doing the same thing. Progress!

Penny with her dance BFF during the free dance 'Fishy' song. She is way more into Bailey than Bailey is into her. But she hasn't figure it out yet, so it's all good.

Some day they're going to shake this bike rack hard enough for it to fall out of the ground and then we'll run away and pretend like we didn't do it. Babies first act of vandalism.

6:20- Home from dance. Make dinner for the kids, the gumbo is too spicy and the kids are too whiny. Jamie gets home just in time to eat with us, which is a rare treat these days. I find out that he was already up when Harry got up, so he was the one who set him up with the computer and he was only playing for about fifteen minutes before he yelled for help. Phew.

Notice the bottle of hot sauce. This gumbo is so spicy that my nose runs while eating it, yet Jamie puts hot sauce on it. Proof he's an alien?

Harrison takes 3, 862 pictures of the table.

7ish- Kids ride bikes and play with Jamie while I attempt to tackle the various plants growing in the backyard. I really have no idea what is a weed and what is an actual plant. Someone help me, I will pay you in wine.

Have I mentioned I love living on a court? Because I do. I love it so much I want to get it pregnant.

Quick, someone tell me what is a weed and what is a plant! Because I thought they were all weeds, but some of them had extremely deep and strong roots, so does that make them a plant? I hope so because I gave up on trying to get them out of the ground.

The swingset on the one flat patch of ground in our wonky backyard.

This bunny did not move the whole time I was out there. I bet if I go back and look, there will be babies! If the cats haven't killed them all yet. 

7:45- Kid's come inside to watch a show and have some sherbert for snack. It was Penny's turn to pick the show, so they watched Octonauts, which is her current fave. After it's over, they get ready for bed.

We take turns reading books in each room. Tonight was Penny's turn to read books in her room.

Jamie is a master in the art of seduction.

We read three books before bed every night, lately one of the 'books' is ten poems from A Light in the Attic. I'm trying to introduce them to poetry although I still think they're too young to get it. But they laugh anyway.

He is tired of having his picture taken all day.

She's clearly explaining something important to Jamie who is 'laying on the floor for one minute' like he does most nights. I have to say that I was super nervous about splitting the kids up and having them sleep by themselves, but it has literally been a flawless transition. I'm afraid to talk to much about it for fear of jinxing it, but I'm so glad I did it because it is working out just fine. That's what I get for underestimating Penny.

8:30- Kids in bed, Jamie off the floor, time for the highlight of my day- Mad Men and leftover Dairy Queen cake.

Since we cut the cord I have to wait one day to watch it on Amazon Instant Video, but so far it hasn't been too bad. I love Mad Men. So very much. I can't talk about it too much or I'll cry because it's ending.

We had my Grandpa's birthday party on Sunday, so we had two hefty pieces of Dairy Queen cake left. I love Dairy Queen cake. So very much. I can't type anymore because I'm crying because it's gone. 

10ish- Bed to read magazines on the iPad. The iPad is the best magazine reader I've ever owned. And you can get a stupid amount of magazines for free through the County Library. I now read so many magazines that I barely have time to read books.

The end. Of my perfectly ordinary, ordinarily perfect day. =)