Wait, wasn't I supposed to have more free time once I got a kid in school?

For some reason, I was under the impression that I'd have a ton of "free time" once I had at least one kid in Kindergarten.  Esp. if I signed him up for full-time Kindergarten.  I dreamed of afternoons in the park, good books enjoyed with a cup of tea while the little ones took naps, etc.  Hmmm...

Today for example, I got up, got myself and three kids dressed, breakfast in all of them (banana muffins, I'd thoughtfully made yesterday afternoon in my "free time"), put Carter's lunch in his bag (packed the day before, also in my "free time".  Collected all the laundry, threw in the first of many loads, gathered the trash, because it all needed to get out to the curb. Then it started.

I didn't have time for breakfast myself, so I ate the other 1/2 of Henri's Nutrigrain bar.  Then when I put the lunch in Carter's backpack, I realized I'd forgotten to check his folder.  Yep, you guessed it.  Fundraising packets were due back to day and there was homework!  (Wait, this is Kindergarten, right?)  Then we race into the car, I don't have time to walk Carter to his classroom as the school wants me to, so I do regular drop off because I have only 3 minutes after traffic to get from his school to our pediatrician's office. I assume he made it alright because the school has not called looking for him.

Get to the pediatrician's office.  Go to upstairs office where doctor was last time.  I'm now 5 minutes late after struggling to open the double stroller.  Nope, of course, she's downstairs today!  Get in there.  Good news is Valerie's yeast infection is now gone from her bum, but she still has a diaper rash and of course her diaper is sopping wet when the doctor checks it.  And that wierd bump on her head?  Probably part of baby heads being wierd shaped to get out into the world, call if it gets bigger, otherwise we'll just watch it. Awesome.  Dr. tells me I need diaper rash cream with 40% zinc oxide and to let her "air out" periodically for up to an hour at a time.  So we head to the drugstore.

I get kids out of the car, into double stroller, we get the diaper cream, deoderant (which I've been out of for 2 days now), and boogie wipes (because, did I forget to mention?  Henri woke up with a coupy cough and a runny nose.  Then we walk over to the grocery store to get flour (I have 1/2 cup on hand), sugar (I have maybe 1/3 cup) and vanilla (out).  The clerk says, "wow, you must be busy!" then I answer, "yes, especially when the other one isn't at school."  Then she saw what I was buying and said, "hm... you think you have time to bake?"

I run back to the car, we drop off our stuff, stay in stroller and walk the block to the library to pick up my books I've put on hold (my timesaver!  Just go online and they find the books for you!) of course the computers for self-checkout are down, so I wait for the one librarian available behind someone who is checking out 25 books for the senior center and chatting up said librarian.  We walk back to the car, and miracle of miracles make it 4 minutes early to gym class, so I change Henri's diaper.  We do gym class, Henri is his usual super-star self, showing up the 2 & 3 year olds in his class, our last obstacle course is done with me nursing Valerie in the front-pack while leading Henri on monkey bars.

We get home and it's already lunch time!  Henri and I eat, Valerie eats, clean up the kitchen, put all the chairs up and start the robovacuum, put Henri to nap and start to change Valerie when I realize she's happy and full and Henri's taken care of, let's let her air out, shall we?  I put her in the pack n play bassinette serving as the change table and let her "air out" on a pad while I fold the laundry from the dryer from last night, flip the laundry I started this morning from the washer to the dryer and put in the next load, then clean up the playroom so I can vacuum that since Henri's been wearing his boots in and out through the backdoor.

Go to check on Valerie.  Poop is everywhere.  All over the pad, all over the bassinette sheet.  Change bassinette sheet, give Valerie a quick bath in the sink, remake bassinette while she lays naked in the crib on a pad. Take all that down to laundry room.  Check on Valerie.  You guessed it!  Poop everywhere now in the crib! Clean her off, move her back over to bassinette, on a pad and change the crib sheets.  Give up on "air out" time and slather the 40% Zinc Oxide diaper stuff on her.  Nurser her while waiting for bee exterminators as she passes out and update the blog with the robot vacuum swirling in it's crazy path around me.

Oh, yes!  Bees!  So the exterminators came out 2 weeks ago after our best efforts at trying to convince the bees (yellow jackets) they really could not live with us in harmony right next to our front door.  $175 and 10 minutes later, they said if they weren't gone by the next week to call back.  Still here, they were supposed to come while I was out to spray again.  NOW there's another entrance to the bee hive and the original bees are still going in and out, so I'm waiting for them to come back out to show them the other entrance.  They'd be here sometime between 12 and 2.  It's now 1:55.  At 3, I'll wake up kids, put them in double stroller and meet my neighbor to walk over to school to get Carter.  Oh, then rush back home to make clam chowder from scratch, go to curriculm night, come home and do bedtime, which has gotten completely out of control with the stalling, before passing out myself.

Not to mention vacuuming the playroom and folding all the rest of the laundry somewhere in there.

Now where's my tea and good book, I think I have 2 minutes before I have to stand up again!

oh, the Weekend!

So Thursday I tried out another MOPs group.  For those that don't know, Mothers of Preschoolers, or MOPs as it's known is usually run by a church and has childcare, a speaker, a craft and time for mommies to hang out, usually with breakfast.  http://www.mops.org/ for more info.

I've been in MOPs for 3 years now, I was the finance person for 2 years and a table leader for one.  This year however, I'm just a participant and am joining a second group.  Being at home with two kids with one in school is new and since Henri's not old enough to participate in activities by himself, They are using both my hands and they are full!

The MOPs group for 1st & 3rd Thursdays started up last Thursday and I really enjoyed it.  It's of course a little different than my other group, but that's fine!  They took Henri off my hands for a bit and I opted to take Valerie with me as she was due for a feeding, however, they have a nursery open as well for her to hang out at.  We discussed fall routines and ways to make mornings go more easily and made coffee cozies with our names on them as our craft project that will also serve as our name tags. 

Then was a hand therapy appt.  My therapist and I are going to start trying to get me out of therapy for the carpel tunnel.  I'm being diligent about my stretches and exercises, wearing braces at night and drinking more water.  She also gave me some putty to build hand strength.

Friday was spent catching up on housework and things around the house and Paul left for Canada for the weekend to do a curling bonspeil to try out a new team

Saturday, the boys and I started in my craft room during Valerie's nap creating stuff and I finished up a bunch of almost done scrapbook pages.  While we were doing that, my dad called to invite Carter to the Puyallup fair.  Carter tells me grandpa said  to get a stroller ready.  I figured that meant they were taking Henri as well and got the boys all ready to go in jackets and boots (it's been raining here, but was pretty nice Saturday morning.)  My parents showed up surprised to see Henri wanting to go.  I laughed when they said the stroller was for Carter!  We walk to and from school 3/4 of a mile away from our house and he needs the exercise as he's an indoor guy.  They agreed to take Henri when I assured them he'd stay in the stroller. 

Then my friend Shawnte came over and I made some chocolate crinkle cookies for our friend Jane's husband's evening prayer service (Jewish funeral) for Sunday evening.  Shawnte got to meet Valerie. 

My parents returned and I was so happy to hear Henri had stayed in the stroller even dealing well with the fact that he's too short to go on rides while Carter got to go on them.  They just kept saying how good the boys were, which, any mom knows is one of the BEST things you can hear! 

Sunday was BUSY!  We have a new swimming schedule for the new season.  9:00am on Sundays Henri and I go in the pool in Bellevue, 10am is church in Kirkland, 12 noon is a 45 minute advanced swim class for Carter.  I had been in a dither trying to figure out how to do swimming now that we have Valerie.  I was SO SO HAPPY to see my friend Svetlana at swimming at 9am!  Her sons are in the pool Sunday morning and she was happy to keep an eye on Valerie.  Carter was there, and would have been a fine babysitter, but I feel better having Svetlana there as well.  Plus, Carter was happy to see Matthew.  He and Matthew actually share a table desk at school!  Carter wistfully told me on the way home, "I wish we could go to Matthew's house."  I guess they are getting along ok if he's seeing him 6 days a week and still wants to play.

After swimming was over, we got home about 1:15 STARVING (I'd missed breakfast and thrown some grapes and crackers at the kids in the car) my parents had been in Woodinville at the dive store and offered to bring over fried chicken.  Um, YES!!!!

So we chatted with them over lunch, then they took Valerie home since Paul was feeling a little run down from his weekend curling and didn't want to risk Valerie getting some sort of cold from him and I headed up to Arlington for Ken's evening prayer service.

My friend, Jane is my high school Spanish teacher, so I've known her give or take 15 years.  Her husband had a stroke 5 years ago and his health has deteriorated since then.  This last June he had to have a leg amputated due to poor circulation and then was about to have the second one amputated when he died.  Jane called me Friday with the news and told me a prayer service was planned for 4pm Sunday. 

Jane did the service herself and it was incredible.  She and Ken were fairly devout Jews (light Kosher, etc.) and she took readings from several places and there was some Hebrew singing/praying and the men wore yamikas (I'm sure I'm not spelling that correctly).  She did a great job leading and explaining some of it to us non-Jews.  She then gave a eulogy telling us things about her best friend in the world, including some new things many of us didn't know.  Jane is in her 60s and Ken was in his 70s and they were married 39 years.  Then we visited for another few hours and I headed home.  She was hit a bit with the gravity of the situation shortly before I left when looking at some of his sculptures she'd put out and realized that she'd have to do something about all his chisels.  We assured her that she didn't have to do anything right away.

This is the second funeral for a friend's husband I've attended.  I suppose that means I'm a grown up now.  The first was actually Svetlana's husband about 4 years ago.

Now we are back to Monday.  Keeping busy making muffins, getting Carter to school, sort of potty-training Henri and feeding kids and changing diapers.  I'm also starting to work on credits I need to keep my CPA license.

Here's a video for you to enjoy that my dad calls "best free thing at the fair"

Goings on...

Cute pic of Valerie

We made cookies yesterday with our neighbors.  I made the dough ahead of time so that it would be easier to roll out after school, the best part of Carter at school is not sharing the beaters....

Big girl!

Woohoo!  Not only am I up by 7:30 this morning, but I have my 7th blog follower!

Here's a picture of Valerie, she's getting nice and chubby, just the way my friend, Kari likes her babies :)

You can't make this stuff up

This morning I woke up at 9:45.  Seriously, this has not happened in real life in YEARS!  (I maybe slept that late in San Diego when Paul and I went in May, but, that's different).  Carter and Valerie were asleep... none of my alarms went off.  Let me explain...

We don't set our alarm clock except maybe for going to the airport.  We do have, however, several other alarms:

Carter, usually up by 8:30
Henri, usually up by 7:30
Valerie, usually up by 6 or 6:30
Coffee maker, goes off at 7:30
Me, up after 7 hours of sleep, automatically
Me, up when sun come in my room

none of it woke us up.  We raced to get up and the school called looking for Carter just as we went out the door.  I dropped Carter off, dropped a meal off at my friend's house, came home and did some things that needed to get done.  Then  I had a great Olive Garden lunch with my friend from elementary school, then went home to meet my neighbor to walk to pick up Carter.  Then we came home, I checked e-mail and we had some dinner.  Then I did my meal planning and we went grocery shopping.

As we ate, Carter tells me, "mom, a jail is the same as a prison, and a prison in a castle is called a dungeon." 

Then we headed for bathtime so we wouldn't be up late and sleep in again. We put Valerie in the bathtub (little baby one) while Carter was in the tub as well.  She did great!  I took her out to dry her and Carter noted, "Mom, her penis is inside out." Observant one he is!

New 'do

I took advantage of not having all the kids home and a friend watched the youngest so I could get a hair update.  She asked me the last time I'd had my hair done.  I said, "well, remember the last time you watched the kids so I could get my hair cut?"  She says, " you mean, like, 8 months ago?"  I said, "yeah, that was the last time!" I also finally got a little color.  My hair has gotten darker as I've gotten older.  She was telling me, "you may be shocked, it's light!"  I saw it and said, "it's perfect, it's how I looked 5 years ago!"

Cutie!

Today we went to church, paid the church's bills (using their money, not mine!) then went to service. 

The service today was about passing peace to someone who did you wrong.  The pastor asked us to think of someone who had wronged us and when passing peace in the church, think of that person that wronged you and pass peace to them as well.  I thought about a friend I had been holding a grudge against and passed peace.  I figured if Jesus can forgive/pass peace with Judas, then heck, I could forgive a friend.

Then we headed to my friend Bethany's house and I stopped to see her and her daughter and give back some diaper covers I had borrowed while mine were en route to me. 

Then we scrapbooked with Stephanie, I got some pages done from the summer!

On the way home, LeeAnn and her daughter Isabel were home, so we stopped to visit them since we hadn't seen them all summer and they had not met Valerie.  Her husband, Todd is an amazing photographer and I'm hoping he'll share some pictures with me from today!  They marveled at how grown-up Isabel looked holding a baby.

Then we got home and I got a call from Paul checking in, which was nice.  Henri's wired because Brooklyn was over to have a sleep over with him.

that's a Newborn outfit Miss Valerie is filling out!  I may start trying the 0-3 month clothes on her!  (though there's still room in her footie pajamas...)