Sep 08
Everyone,
With school now closing in on the end of the second week, we are now getting into a new routine. And it’s not a bad routine either. I see this working out for us very well. (Except for the whole before school bordom.) This is what our day is typically like.
6:45-7:15am–I wake up. Somewhere in that half hour. Then I get myself ready before I get the children up.
7:30am–The boys need to get up. Most of the time Butterfly is up too.
7:45-8:15am–The boys and I have breakfast while Butterfly gets dressed. Today she took her sweet time getting dressed and I had to rush her through it after the boys and I had eaten. That made her cry. Professor was feeling especially needy this morning too and my rushing around with Butterfly did nothing to improve his mood.
8:20-8:45am–Butterfly’s hair and lunch. Typically this doesn’t take 20 minutes but you never know. I also get the boys dressed for the day at this time, and start calling for shoes. Butterfly for lunch has been taking jelly sandwiches (no peanut butter) and apple sauce and water. She told me today that she does not have enough in her lunch and could I please pack something else for her to eat? Like yogurt? In a tube?
8:50-9am–We need to be heading to the car at this time. Because frankly, it takes time to put these children in their seats. Especially now that the boys have decided that they much do everything by themselves. This is a lovely stage.
9:10am–This is the absolute latest we have to leave in order to be on time.
9:15am–Arrive at school. Drop Butterfly off and get the boys back to the car and in their seats.
9:30am–Arrive back at home. We can do errands during this time, but mostly, we’ve just been coming home.
9:30am-10:30am–Play outside. I sit in front of the house with my lapple and let the boys have fun. They carry sticks around. They throw dirt. They draw with chalk. They get bit by mosquitoes (and so do I!) and they just have fun outside.
10:30am–I have had it or they are running into the road so we go inside and they watch a show. I start cleaning up breakfast and getting lunch ready.
11:30am–Lunch time!
12pm–Nap time! They sleep, I work. Win/win.
3pm–Wake up to go get Sister. (Yes, they do sleep for 3 hours every day.) Shoes, and buckles again.
3:25pm–Be there to pick up Sister. Yes, it does take me 20 minutes to get these boys up, shod, and out the door to the school. We only wait for her maybe 2 or 3 minutes till she is released.
3:45pm–Arrive at home. Go through Butterfly’s folder and listen to more stories about school. The kids play together well after school. I think they are missing each other.
4:30pm–Start dinner.
5pm–Juice gets home!
5:30pm–Dinner.
6:30pm–Start taking the boys upstairs to get ready for bed.
7pm–Boy bed time! Time for Butterfly to come up to get ready for bed.
7:30pm–Butterfly bedtime!
7:30pm-10pm–Adult free time. Ahh…my favorite part of the day!
10pm–Bed time for me. If I don’t go to bed by 10, I’m so dead tired the next day and I can’t seem to make it through. So 10 it is!
Now that we have kind of a schedule and I have a feel for what times I need to drop off and pick up Butterfly, I can play with it a little. I think it’s great that the boys sleep so well in the afternoon, but it really puts a crunch in my time out of the house. Oh well.
And let’s mess up the schedule by having a day off tomorrow! Yay!
Safire
Safireall 3 kids, schedules schedules
Jun 27
Everyone,
This week’s question at the Multiples and More blog is all about our daily life.
Describe (in detail!) a full day in the life of YOU!
Here goes:
7:00-7:30 am- The kids wake up and wake me up. I hear them over the monitor or I hear Butterfly getting up to go potty. Juice has been long gone to work as he gets up at 6am and tries to get to work by 7am. All 3 kids are sleeping in the same room right now while Flower is here so she can have a room to herself. If they are crying, I wait for them to calm down a bit before I go get them. For some odd reason if they calm down in their beds they do better than if I rush in there and get them up.
8am- Breakfast! Sometimes the kids play before breakfast but most of the time Professor is begging me to feed him. We have cold cereal in the mornings and yogurt. Sometimes Pirate wants cheese for breakfast so I will give him left over mac and cheese.
8:30am- Play time! If the kids are really cranky I will put on a show for them. I try very hard not to turn on the tv at this time. Lately they’ve been really good playing so I just let them play. This is the time that I turn on my computer and look at my email for the morning for about half an hour. This is also the time I change diapers and get everyone dressed for the day.
9am- Exercise time! Well, I try for it to be my exercise time. I will turn on a show for the kids and pray that they don’t get into any mischief while I’m doing jumping jacks. It works about 80% of the time. I often have Professor in my room with me playing quietly. Pirate, if he’s with me as well, likes to jump when I jump. He thinks it’s funny. And nothing can pull Butterfly away from the tv. That girl has some serious concentration skills. After I exercise some I take a shower as fast as possible. With Flower here, it’s better and the boys don’t get into too much trouble. Flower gets up sometime in this time frame and get herself breakfast and helps with the boys.
10am- Out we go! Well, most of the time it’s closer to 10:30 am but still, we get out. Before the summer started we either went to Lolli’s house for preschool or out for a walk or errands. Now that Flower is here and it’s summer, we are trying to play tourist again. Tomorrow we’re headed downtown to a couple of museums.
12pm- I try to get back to the house by this time but it rarely happens. Once we get home, we have a very rushed lunch. I am tired from wrangling everyone away from the house and they are tired from being out of the house. Lunch is either macaroni and cheese or cheese and crackers and fruit. Honestly I’m just happy when they eat something at this point, especially Professor.
1pm- Nap time. I am pretty stricked about their nap time. Once they’ve had a diaper change, up they go to their beds. They are mostly unhappy about it but they MUST sleep. Once the boys are settled, I get Butterfly started with her show. This is her quiet time. The only way for her to actually BE quiet is to turn on a movie for her. She’s actually very good but our house is small and her voice carries.
This is also the time that I try and get some work done. It’s all computer work. I sit on the couch next to Butterfly (and Flower) and she keeps me company with her show.
4:00-4:30pm- Sometimes the boys wake up earlier, sometimes not. They are CHAMPION sleepers and will often sleep for at least 3 hours. This is the time that Flower becomes my right hand lady. She gets the kids up from their beds so I can either finish working or start on dinner. TV goes off. Let’s get ready to rumble! It’s now that most of the fights happen.
5:15pm- Juice comes home! We’re so glad when Daddy comes home.
5:30pm- Dinner time! Yay for dinner time.
6pm-6:45pm- Family time. Sometimes we go for a walk. Sometimes we just play in the living room. Sometimes we play on the Wii. Either way, we spend this time together.
6:45pm- Bed time for little boys! On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights, they have baths. Or at least we try to give them baths. Pjs and family prayers and hopefully into bed by 7:15pm. Sometimes they sit through a bedtime story, most of the time not. I am in charge of putting the boys to bed and Juice spends some quality time with Butterfly one on one.
7:30pm- Time for Butterfly bed! Juice is in charge of putting her to bed. Most of the time this is when I write in my blog or read blogs. Sometimes I clean the dining room up a little.
8pm- Juice come down from putting Butterfly into bed and goes and does the dishes. He’s so good at doing the dishes. I love letting him do them.
8:30pm- We settle down into our nightly pursuits. With Flower here, it’s been movies every night. We love that. When Flower’s not here, I try to do some work or I do a lot of blog related work. I figure this is my time to be online and do the blog thing. Juice mostly plays on his computer or will join me on the couch and watch a movie of his choice. Friday nights are our date nights and we don’t do anything else but watch movies and spend some time together.
10:30pm-11pm- We start heading upstairs to bed. I take Butterfly to the bathroom (she has peed in her bed for about 2 weeks straight so now I just take her to the bathroom before I go to bed). She sleep walks through it and goes right back to sleep.
I count it a good night if I’m in bed by 11pm. Sometimes I’m up later but I’d really rather not be.
Here’s a few other questions asked on the blog I’d like to answer:
- How much (or how little?) “help” do you have?
Flower is my helper for the summer. I love love love having her here. It’s so awesome to have another set of hands on deck. Plus, we totally play tourist (2 things a week in the area) and have a great time. Come the beginning of August, she has to go back home *sniff* and so I’ll be without my extra set of hands again. But then Butterfly starts school and we’ll have to figure out a whole new schedule.
- What chores do you do on a daily basis?
I try to unload the dishwasher and load it in the mornings when the kids are eating. I do at least 1 load of laundry a day. At least. Then there’s always the toy pick up through out the day.
Of course, all of this is subject to change. A lot of change.
Safire
Safiredaily stuff, questions, schedules daily, questions
Sep 29
Everyone,
I thought I would comment right now on the fact that I put both boys to bed awake tonight and there was no crying. There was some talking to each other, but there was no huge screams. Ahh…I love it when it goes like this. Since I blogged about it, the rest of my week will be awful but I wanted to record this so all week long I can remind myself that it did go well. Once.
They are both sleeping in the same crib right now in their own room. I tried to put them back into their bassinets 2 days ago for something and they are just huge in them! Half a crib seems to be the right size right now. Juice and I are arguing over what we are going to do with the rest of the room when the other crib is needed. Do we take down the computer desk and store it in the attic for awhile? Do we leave it up? Do we move it downstairs and move the computer desk downstairs to the attic? Do we move it into our dining room and move the time out chair another place? (probably the attic). I think either way, something has got to go into the attic. My vote is to leave the desk in there and pray we won’t be in this house when they start crawling out of their cribs. Juice wants to move the rocking chair that we currently have in Butterfly’s room into their room and there is no room for 2 cribs, computer desk and rocking chair. I’m all about leaving the chair in Butterfly’s room but it would be nice to be in their room just for a place to sit down. I wouldn’t mind taking down the desk and putting it in the attic but then what do we do with the computer that’s there? And the printer? It won’t fit downstairs. Something to think about.
Oh, I was talking about sleep. Let’s lay out their schedule, shall we?
7:30-8am: Up for day, dressed, changed and downstairs for play
8am-9:30 or 10am: Play time with Butterfly (mostly rolling on the floor right now, some peekaboo, some patty cake)
10am: Feeding and down for nap no matter what. (Professor is pushing this earlier lately…9:30)
10-12: Nap time. Most of it’s nap, some of it’s nursing, some is both.
12-2: play time or errands for Mommy
2-4 or 5pm: Nap #2. Again, some nursing in the middle. Butterfly “quiet time” of either playing in her room or sleeping
4-5:30pm: Play time with Butterfly and Daddy! Yay Daddy!
5:30-6:30pm: scream through dinner making bolting food a habit for the adults in this house, be bounced at the table, given toys, little sips of water and still scream/rub eyes/look at parents like we must be crazy to keep them awake this long!
6:30pm: Get ready for bed. Pjs, new diapers, bounce on the bed a little (yay Daddy!), nurse and hold hands with Brother
7pm: Down for bed no matter what. Talk, roll, scream, cry, growl, whine, suck thumbs and binkies, etc.
7:15pm: All should be quiet on the front, Butterfly bedtime
10:30-11pm: Professor wakes up for a snack
2am: Professor wakes up for a snack and sometimes I feed Pirate too because I am uncomfortable
5am: Professor wakes up for a snack (do you see a theme?), and Pirate gets one too
7am: More eating and sleeping in bed with Mommy. Daddy gone to work, Butterfly up and dressing herself to play downstairs
7:30-8am: Morning Happy!
It’s not unreasonable. I get things done while they are playing or I can push nap times around if we are going out. I do make sure that they are sleeping in their own beds for that afternoon nap. Mostly because I’ve gotten it to be a habit for Butterfly and she needs it. Or more importantly, I need nap time to have my one break from kids during the day. It keeps me sane.
Of course I have hiccoughs. Of course I don’t always do this schedule. But it’s the one I try to go by in my head.
Safire
SafireButterfly, Juice., naps, P and P, schedules, sleep
