{Day in the Life} 08/17/15

Posted in A Day in the Life by

4 am: Norah wakes up and wants to nurse, so I turn off the baby monitor and head to her room to feed her. After a burp and a diaper change, I’m back in bed by 4:45 and don’t even hear Kyle get up for work at 5:20. He kisses me goodbye around 5:45 and I fall back to sleep.

7 am: Norah squalks a little bit over the baby monitor, so I decide to get up and see if I can wolf down some cereal before she really starts fussing. I pour myself some coffee and am about to pour some cereal when Isla wakes up, so my attention diverts to her. I get her some cereal, wolf my own down, and by 7:30 Norah is getting pretty upset that I haven’t come to feed her. Isla finished her breakfast as well, so I get her settled with some cartoons and head to Norah’s room to feed her.

8:20 am: Norah finishes eating and has fallen back to sleep, so I finish my coffee and hop into the shower.

9 am: I’m done showering and by 9:30 Isla and I are both dressed and ready for the day. A few minutes later, Norah wakes up, so I get her changed and dressed for the day.

10 am: We head out to the toy store! My aunt had sent both of the girls gift cars for Toys R Us, with instructions to go and let Isla pick something out for herself and her little sister. Isla had a blast pushing the little shopping card up and down all the aisles and picking something out for herself and Norah. I think she only got distracted a handful of times ;) Isla picked out a MagnaDoodle and some pencil crayons for herself, and a tummy time pillow and a new soother leash for Norah.

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11 am: We’re finally done at the toy store, so we head home as Norah’s due to eat any time. I manage to take the above photo and unbox all of the toys before Norah really starts chirping me to eat.

12:30 pm: After a few distractions, Norah is finished nursing and I get lunch heated up for Isla and wonder what I’m going to make myself.

1:30 pm: I finally settle on just some leftover pasta from Saturday and Greek salad dressing for lunch. I toss some fresh tomatoes into my bowl to make it seem healthier. I put together some barbecue sauce on the stove for dinner later since it seems like I have a moment to myself. I plunk myself on the couch to watch some Incredible Dr. Pol and America’s Next Top Model (don’t judge!) while holding Norah and eating at the same time because Motherhood = Multitasking ;)

4:30 pm: It’s time for Norah to eat (again!) so I assume the position on the couch again. She eats and spits up all over me and the couch. Fun!

5:30 pm: I get dinner started. Tonight it’s sausages, pasta and broccoli! Not gourmet, but not out of a box either, with the exception of the pasta sauce. At least it’s all natural? Kyle texts me letting me know he’s on his way home from work, and I text back and forth with him while making dinner and keeping Isla from pestering her sister.

6:15 pm: Kyle’s home from work. Dinner is done right as the barbecue runs out of propane. Whew! I manage to get Norah down for a little nap and I’m able to eat dinner before she wakes up.

7 pm: Norah wakes up from her cat nap and I want to give her a bath, so I take her to her room to get ready. While I’m in there, I hear a crash and shatter in the kitchen, and Isla had somehow (she wouldn’t tell us how) knocked a glass onto the floor. Luckily Kyle had just came back into the house after mowing the front lawn, so he steps in to clean up the glass while I bathe Norah.

7:30 pm: Norah’s all done her bath and in her pajamas and is starting to get hungry, but she seems content enough with her soother and rocking in the glider. Kyle got Isla ready for bed, so soon she comes to say goodnight and Kyle reads her her bedtime story. (The Very Hungry Zombie, haha.) I chat with my mom on the phone for a bit until Norah starts to really get fussy around 8:15, so I feed her and start to get her settled for bed.

9:30 pm: Norah took her sweet time falling asleep, but she’s finally down for the count so I join Kyle in the living room and watch some TV with him for a bit before it’s time to head to bed. I realized I didn’t finished up with this post, so I decide to do it in the morning, if/when I have some free time ;)

10 pm: Bedtime!

How was your Monday?? Mine sounds pretty boring, really, now that I reread this post …

 

Moments of Motherhood: Lifestyle Adjustments

Posted in Armchair Mayor News, Column, Life, Moments of Motherhood, NewsKamloops, Parenting by

20150806_165736After yet another, semi-unintentional, hiatus, I’ve back again with my Moments of Motherhood column! This time, there’s a change to where the “Continue reading” link takes you. The Armchair Mayor News website has now merged with a new news website, NewsKamloops, and when Mel asked if I’d like to keep writing my column for the new space, I couldn’t say no.

In this column, I write about how having kids forces you to make adjustments to your life, and how those changes can sometimes be a little chaotic. Here’s a snippet:

As I sit here and write this I’m enjoying an uninterrupted bowl of cereal, a giant cup of coffee, and a wonderful silence throughout the house. The baby woke up at 6:30 to nurse and is back asleep in her crib, and my toddler is having a rare morning where she sleeps in.

These days, moments to myself like this are few and far between. Most mornings are chaotic from the minute my 3-year-old stumbles out of her room, which is usually before I even have a chance to wake up myself. And as Murphy’s Law will have it, not long after she’s awake, the baby is too and my attention is divided several different ways.

[Continue reading…]

TGIF v.20

Posted in TGIF by

The highs of my week were a fun little outing at the pet store with Isla (and Norah) on Wednesday after a challenging day with her on Tuesday. Mind you, I used the pet store trip as bribery for Isla to get her to leave the dance studio, but she loved it! (We went and registered her for dance class in September and she wanted to go to class instead of leave.) She watched the budgies, pet a bunny, watched the kittens play, took pictures of the mice, looked at the fish, and saw bearded dragons. The pet store is seriously the best (and cheapest) entertainment for little ones! Before we left Isla chose some treats for the dogs and it was overall just a fun little adventure. We were maybe only there for a half-hour, but Norah slept the whole time so we got to just enjoy our time.

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Isla wanted to take pictures of the mice. Not bad for a 3 year old!

The low of my week was finding out that Molly, Kyle’s old dog that his sister had adopted from him, had passed away. She was just shy of 11-years old. From what Kyle’s sister had told him, it sounds like she passed in her sleep. She lived a good life and was an awesome dog, and she will definitely be missed by everyone.

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An internet find I loved was The 10 Commandments of Costco, posted on Scary Mommy. It’s hilarious and oh-so relatable! Our local Costco’s parking lot in a gong show, especially near the entrance to the gas bar. Complete gong show.

The best money I spent was $8 on a baby gate for the top of our stairs. We had one but Campbell decided to bust through it, so it broke. I managed to find a replacement gate on a local mom swap group, so whenever Norah starts crawling (which won’t be for a while) she won’t be able to escape/fall down the stairs. I’m a good parent that way ;)

My favourite Isla and/or Norah moment was Isla finally being brave enough to sit in the hair dresser’s chair all by herself. Up until today, she would cry and ask to sit on my lap to have her hair cut. This morning I gave her a little pep talk and explained that she has to sit by herself because I had to stay with her baby sister. I was skeptical of my chat actually working, but when we got to the salon she ran right over to the chair and climbed into the seat. Woo!

The song that has been stuck in my head is “Want You to Want Me” by Jason Derulo. I blame So You Think You Can Dance and a commercial for a radio station that comes on during the show that plays a snippet of that song.

My favourite meal of the week was not a meal, but the cornmeal jam-buster muffins Isla and I made. I’ve been craving them for a while now but it calls for buttermilk and it only comes in 1L cartons, so it would go to waste. I found a chicken recipe that called for buttermilk as well, so I thought it would be a good excuse to do some baking! (As a bonus, it was a rainy day when I made them, so the house didn’t heat up while the oven was on!)

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My plans for the weekend are potentially switching our TV and Internet provider. Exciting adult things FTW! Other than that, it’s a free-for-all this weekend and we have no particular plans.

Please, tell me something exciting going on in your life!