Not that I'm trying to be narcissistic or anything, but some people wonder what it means to be a stay home mom, especially with younger children and a deployed husband. My sister-in-law published a post like this a while back and it seemed like fun. So here is a play-by-play of my day as a mom.
4:00 am -I hear Boston crying on the baby monitor. Now this is an estimated time because I didn't have my glasses on, but I do know that it wasn't light yet. I wait a second to see if she'll go back to sleep or find her pacifier herself. She doesn't so I rush in the kids room hoping to get there before she wakes up Valin. I put her pacifier back in, and she still cries. So I get her up, make a bottle, change her diaper, wrap her back up, burp her, and put her back to bed. Don't know what time it is, but I hoped that this night mean she'll sleep in a little longer.
7:30 am -She did. I hear them wake up on the monitor. I recognize Valin crying, so I scramble to get dress and say my prayers. I walk in to see Boston smiling and very proud of herself for pulling herself up on the side of her crib. I go to Valin to see what's wrong and find that his diaper spilled over a little bit. I get him out of bed, then Boston, and quickly change Valin diaper and pjs. After that I grab Boston and head to the kitchen to make her a bottle, while Valin is crying to have me hold him too, "Hold you me!" I grab him and walk to the living room and set him on the couch. I make Boston's bottle and set her, while eating it, on the couch as well. I quickly sign into Skype so Patxi knows we're up and can call at anytime. I set Valin on my lap, because he is still crying, and ask what he needs. I guessed that he just needs food and feeling crummy since he's still getting over his cold. I say "we can watch a movie after breakfast" to his request, and that produces more sobbing. Just then Patxi calls us on Skype and I sadly tell him that we better get breakfast first. He said that that was fine because he can go to dinner himself.
8:00 -I take the sobbing Valin into the kitchen to help me make breakfast, which is mostly him just siting on the counter, asking for things he shouldn't have. I get my new favorite cereal (Original Fiber One -15g of fiber and 0g of sugar), Valin gets oatmeal and a breakfast fruit bar, Boston gets her Cheerios, and we all get bananas. I round everyone up, put them in their chairs and ask Valin to give the blessing. He can't because he is still sobbing and insists that he sits on my lap. So I say the prayer and we dig in. Valin doesn't look twice at his fruit bar but slowly comes around to the oatmeal. It's funny, but he really like oatmeal. Anyway, Boston is doing great and only screams when she see the Banana that I haven't given her yet, which I quickly give her. When I finished, I read the last half of 1 Nephi 18 of the Book of Mormon out loud to the kids for our family scripture reading. I finished the chapter and try to explain what we should have learn from the storm and journey to the promised land. Then finally we finish, I wipe down the kids and their chairs and we go back to the living room to talk to daddy and watch a movie.
9:00 -I call Patxi and we talk. From the couch Boston sees Patxi and I could swears says, "Da Da." She is all smiles for that man. We talk about each other's day and both wish he was coming home sooner.
10:00 -We say our good byes and I go to put Boston down for her first nap. Since she didn't eat very much before, I fed her two ounces of formula and put her down. Well, a half hour later, she is still fussing, she I go in to put her pacifier in and burp her again. She had a burp. When are they able to burp by themselves, again? Anyway, I put her down and then go outside to play with Valin
10:30 -Valin and I go outside and water our little garden (one tomato plant, two rows of bean, and few spurts of lettuce and spinach). We then play with two big bouncy balls and large sticks we found in the yard. I take them away after several warnings and then him hitting me in the face. We go inside after he starts to attack the plants our neighbors have planted. "If you can't play outside by the rules, then you can't play outside." It was good timing, since it was time for lunch anyway.
11:00 -Valin helps me, well until he loses interest, reheat leftover enchiladas from last night. I cut strawberries for him and make a spinach salad for myself. We say a blessing on the food just in time for Boston to get up. I was a tittle miffed that she only slept for barely an hour, but got her up and made her lunch too.
12:00 -After force feeding Valin his enchiladas, which he totally loved last night, I clean them up, put Boston in the living and start helping Valin unwind for his nap with a book and then singing a lullaby.
12:30 -I leave Valin sleeping, or somewhere near there, in his room and plop down on the couch. I'm not surprise that I fell sleep quickly since I almost rocked myself to sleep while rocking Valin. Boston is happily playing with the toys she can have free reign with.
1:00 -I wake up to Boston trying to pull herself up on the couch and then I go to make her a bottle so I can put her down for her second nap at 1:30. We lay together while she eats and then play around afterwards while I burp her -not wanting a repeat of this morning.
1:30 -Nap time. By now it's around 79 degrees outside and 75 inside, so I don't know what to do about warping Boston up like I usually do. She's been in her oneies all day. I decide to wrap her up like usually, but place a fan on low facing her crib. I burp her tons, sing, rock her, and leave to let her fall asleep.
2:00- I go back in there to see why Boston is crying at the top of her lungs. I burp her again, since she has her pacifier. Nothing. I check her diaper. Nothing. Since she is starting to get the cold Valin is just getting over, I clear out her nose with a "brain sucker." Nothing. So I just wrap her up, rock, sing, and put her back to bed.
2:30 -Boston is finally quite in her pack-and-play which I place in my room. So I turn on my P90x workout video, "Cardio X." It's a 50 minute combination of Yoga, Kenpo (karate), Plyometrics (jump training), and Core Synergistic. I sweated tons and had a blast.
3:30 I quickly jumped onto the treadmill and ran for 30 minutes. It should have been longer, but I had to still shower and dress for an ariun I needed to run by 5:00. If I went any later, they would have been closed. Since one of my kids is usually napping at that time, I ask my dad yesterday to come over so I could just quickly go.
4:00 Boston gets up. A little sad that the combination time of her two nap today came to a little over 2 and 1/2 hours. I barricade Boston in the living room so I can jump in the shower and get ready.
4:30 My dad gets here and Valin is still sleeping so I quickly go and come back by 5:00
5:00 Valin wakes up, and I play with him a little bit in his room while Boston comes to join us. We play together until I realize the time and move to the kitchen to get dinner going. Since it's around 80 degrees inside, I only wanted to use the microwave and not the oven. So I had a sandwich and yogurt, Valin had hot dogs, Boston had beans and Cheerios, and we all had mixed vegetables. It took some time because I was interrupted a few times with cries from the living room.
5:30 We sit down to eat and it got quite for a few minutes while everyone chews. Valin and Boston showed little interest in their vegetables, but I surprisingly had to help Valin eat bites from his hot dog, the one thing he requested. Boston finished her baby food and screams for a taste of Valin's hot dog. Are they safe to feed a 10 month old? I then totaled my calorie intake for the day in my food journal and did a touch-down dance. 1576. Just under my goal of 1600 a day. Anyway, we finally finished and I sent them to the living room so I could clean up. I really don't want ants this summer.
6:30 I finish just in time to give Boston her night-time bottle and send her to bed. Normally I would put the kids to bed at the same time, but since Boston got up early and Valin late, I was going to put Boston down first in my room and then move her over to the kids room when I went to bed myself. She finished her bottle, I vigorously burped her, sang, rocked, turn the fan on, and put her to bed.
7:00 Boston is still fussy, so I go in to burp her and/or put her pacifier back in. Since I can't find anything wrong with her, I re-wrap her and put her down. She cries when I leave. Valin and I go into the kitchen to do the dishes, which is him mostly playing with the water. He did push the On button on the dishwasher. though.
7:30 I brush Valin's teeth and decided to go ahead and get Boston and put her to sleep with Valin like I do every other night. I burp Boston (yes, she had a burp), change Valin's diaper, say our prayers, and I read them a book; Boston wrapped up in her blanket on half of my lap and Valin with his blanket on the other. After we finish, "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" and "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," I turn the lights off and start to sing my lullaby I sing every night, which is "I am a Child of God" changed into the second-person tense (so it's like, "You are a child of God, and he has sent you here..."). Boston falls asleep and I put her in her crib, and then continue to sing and rock Valin, like I do every night. After a while Boston fusses, so I get her and rock them both again. I then put them both down in bed, with much protest.
8:00 I leave the kid's room and sweep and vacuum the floors.
8:30 Boston is crying at the top of her lungs and I go to see what's wrong. Of course Valin is up and wants me to rock him too. I burp Boston again, wondering what in-the-heck is wrong with her that's stopping her from going to sleep. I guess that since she is so hot, she unwraps herself, but then can't sleep because she is use to being wrapped up. I also miffed to find that Valin is bare-buttomed since he threw his diaper on the floor. After I put a new diaper on him, I place Valin and Boston back in their beds, determined that they fall asleep.
9:00 Start this new blog post and noticed that it soon got quite. *sigh*
10:00 Now here I am still writing this post and realizing that for such an uneventful day, it's a pretty long post. After this I will get ready for bed and hit the sack, ready to do this all over again tomorrow. I hope it was interesting for you to read, if you can get through it of course. There's really nothing special, but now you know what it's like to be a stay-home mom of young kids and a deployed husband.
