Thursday, August 11, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
A day in the life...
So lately, it's busy around here. I know I've been saying this forever, but I just can't seem to find time to keep up with my blog. So how better to determine when I should make time for it than to account for the time I do have.
Well, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, my days go like this....wake up and shower before 6:00AM. Get ready for the day...makeup, shower, dress. Get the girls up around 7:00. Make breakfast and prod them along by singing various songs on demand or telling various stories with or without variations. Clean up breakfast and pack Alia's snack. She's in school from 8:30-11:45 for the next few weeks. Throw in a load of laundry. Round up the girls and lead them to their room to get them ready. Brush teeth. Wash face. Brush hair. Lotion up their little bodies. Get both girls dressed. At this point I allow them to read, work puzzles, do whatever they'd like while I gather my purse, keys, sunglasses, Alia's backpack, Amelie's travel needs (diapers, snacks, milk) and load the car. Put the laundry in the dryer. I then return and attempt to gather up the girls again and move them to the car. Buckle them in. Determine the popular song of the day...Pop Goes the Weasel or the one about the tired horse.
Once we're in the car, we head to the Montessori and drop off Alia. Although drop-off is not quite the reality. Currently it involves 20 hugs, 20 kisses, cuddles, 20 bonus hugs, crying, more hugs, bargaining, promises, and finally Miss Cindy offers the prize...she leads Alia to the corner where she can view me pulling away with Amelie. We stop outside the window, make funny faces, and leave the premises an emotional wreck. (By the way...the moment I'm out of sight, Alia's fine and already painting and making bead bracelets). By now it's 8:45 or so.
From here Amelie and I attend to what needs to be attended to. Grocery, a trip to Target, back home for chores, etc. My nanny arrives at 11, so I've got Amelie all morning. Around 11:30 I start thinking about picking up Alia. I make lunch while nanny plays with Amelie, or I play with Amelie and she makes lunch. I go and pick up Alia at 11:40. I'm back at 12:00 or a little after. Once again I work on rounding up the girls with nanny's help, seat them and offer them lunch. They eat. We sing songs. Then Alia bargains that she wants to play awhile before nap, which is at 1:00. Around 12:40 I put Amelie down for her nap. I leave for exercise at 12:45. Nanny puts Alia down around 1:00.
I've been working out with a trainer since January on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1:30. It takes me a little over 20 minutes to drive there which is nice because it's the only time of the week that I'm alone with my thoughts. I can listen to podcasts, call friends, or just space out and drive....for 20 minutes. I start the workout by running a mile or so, or if my knees feel wonky, I'll walk at 15% incline at 3.2 for about 20 minutes or however long I have until the trainer shows. He systematically kicks my ass for about an hour, and then I go home. I arrive at 3:15. The girls are waking up. They are hungry. Nanny has packed my swim bag. We have Mommy and Me swim lessons every day at 4:00PM. I change to my bathing suit and grab whatever girl is joining me, and head out. Sometimes I'll drop nanny off at the park with whichever girl isn't partaking in the day's swim lesson. Go to swim. Finish swim. Pick up nanny at park. Go home. Start dinner while nanny plays outside with girls, or sometimes we reverse this role. At 5:30 or so it's dinner time. After dinner we move to bath. Every other day we wash Alia's long lustrous hair before moving to bath. Around 6:15 we finish with bath and it's cozy time! That's when the girls line up on the couch and get to watch one, perhaps two episodes of Dora the Explorer. And then, around 7:00PM we make the pilgrimage to the girls' room. We brush teeth. We read stories. Alia goes potty for the last time. Amelie gets her last fresh diaper. And we toss them in the bed and sing the last song of the day...Amelie likes to hear her ABCs and Alia prefers 5 Green and Speckled Frogs.
Tuesday, Thursday are very similar, however, there is no meeting with the trainer, so I typically use the time between 1 and 3:00 to either 1) nap or 2) attend to whatever little projects pop up, such as reorganizing the play room, boxing up old clothes the girls have outgrown, pre-making snacks for weekday snack, attempting to organize my iPhoto events, or call me crazy, going to pick up miscellaneous items without 2 girls in tow. We still have swim at 4:00PM. We still have the same morning and nighttime routine...it's just that I'm not spending nap time at the gym.
And every day of the week? After the girls are in bed? I make dinner for Ajay and myself. We spend the remaining hour or so of our day eating, cleaning up, catching the latest show that Tivo caught for us, and call it a night at 9:00PM. From that point, I may be awakened throughout the night by Amelie's cries perhaps 1, perhaps 3 times, or perhaps rarely not at all. But on the not-at-all nights, I awaken myself, in fear of being awakened, and wait for the crying. Which, if it isn't happening, really sucks because I'll lie there awake all night waiting to be awakened.
Saturday and Sundays are family days when Ajay isn't working. We try to do something together as a family in the morning, like going to the park, the beach, the carousel, and as of recent, the movies (Winnie the Pooh is the first movie that both girls have gone to and we've seen it twice in one week!). We have lunch together, and then during nap time, Ajay and I usually take advantage of the silence and grab some rest ourselves. After nap, we swim in our pool, play in the playhouse, or go to a park or a local outing. Then again, it's time for dinner, bath, and the bedtime routine.
So, where might I find time to write? Well, I could get up earlier. But typically I'm bargaining for the love of whatever God might be out there for more time in bed when my alarm rings, so the idea of facing the day earlier is well, just sad. There's Tuesday and Thursday nap time...which is when I'm writing this...but typically I schedule myself to the hill with my doctor, dentist, haircuts, errands, etc. on those days. So where does that leave me? In my mind, the weekends are kind of off limits because I really like for us to spend what time we have together as a family as a family and second, I typically put Ajay's have-tos ahead of my want-tos. If he needs to call his patients for work on something for his job, I'll cover the girls so he can do what he needs.
So I suppose I'm going to have to keep eking out little bits of time here and there and record what I can. In the meantime, trust that my girls are growing, healthy, adorable, challenging, smart, funny and beautiful. Totally worth falling behind in the blog I've dedicated to them!
Well, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, my days go like this....wake up and shower before 6:00AM. Get ready for the day...makeup, shower, dress. Get the girls up around 7:00. Make breakfast and prod them along by singing various songs on demand or telling various stories with or without variations. Clean up breakfast and pack Alia's snack. She's in school from 8:30-11:45 for the next few weeks. Throw in a load of laundry. Round up the girls and lead them to their room to get them ready. Brush teeth. Wash face. Brush hair. Lotion up their little bodies. Get both girls dressed. At this point I allow them to read, work puzzles, do whatever they'd like while I gather my purse, keys, sunglasses, Alia's backpack, Amelie's travel needs (diapers, snacks, milk) and load the car. Put the laundry in the dryer. I then return and attempt to gather up the girls again and move them to the car. Buckle them in. Determine the popular song of the day...Pop Goes the Weasel or the one about the tired horse.
Once we're in the car, we head to the Montessori and drop off Alia. Although drop-off is not quite the reality. Currently it involves 20 hugs, 20 kisses, cuddles, 20 bonus hugs, crying, more hugs, bargaining, promises, and finally Miss Cindy offers the prize...she leads Alia to the corner where she can view me pulling away with Amelie. We stop outside the window, make funny faces, and leave the premises an emotional wreck. (By the way...the moment I'm out of sight, Alia's fine and already painting and making bead bracelets). By now it's 8:45 or so.
From here Amelie and I attend to what needs to be attended to. Grocery, a trip to Target, back home for chores, etc. My nanny arrives at 11, so I've got Amelie all morning. Around 11:30 I start thinking about picking up Alia. I make lunch while nanny plays with Amelie, or I play with Amelie and she makes lunch. I go and pick up Alia at 11:40. I'm back at 12:00 or a little after. Once again I work on rounding up the girls with nanny's help, seat them and offer them lunch. They eat. We sing songs. Then Alia bargains that she wants to play awhile before nap, which is at 1:00. Around 12:40 I put Amelie down for her nap. I leave for exercise at 12:45. Nanny puts Alia down around 1:00.
I've been working out with a trainer since January on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1:30. It takes me a little over 20 minutes to drive there which is nice because it's the only time of the week that I'm alone with my thoughts. I can listen to podcasts, call friends, or just space out and drive....for 20 minutes. I start the workout by running a mile or so, or if my knees feel wonky, I'll walk at 15% incline at 3.2 for about 20 minutes or however long I have until the trainer shows. He systematically kicks my ass for about an hour, and then I go home. I arrive at 3:15. The girls are waking up. They are hungry. Nanny has packed my swim bag. We have Mommy and Me swim lessons every day at 4:00PM. I change to my bathing suit and grab whatever girl is joining me, and head out. Sometimes I'll drop nanny off at the park with whichever girl isn't partaking in the day's swim lesson. Go to swim. Finish swim. Pick up nanny at park. Go home. Start dinner while nanny plays outside with girls, or sometimes we reverse this role. At 5:30 or so it's dinner time. After dinner we move to bath. Every other day we wash Alia's long lustrous hair before moving to bath. Around 6:15 we finish with bath and it's cozy time! That's when the girls line up on the couch and get to watch one, perhaps two episodes of Dora the Explorer. And then, around 7:00PM we make the pilgrimage to the girls' room. We brush teeth. We read stories. Alia goes potty for the last time. Amelie gets her last fresh diaper. And we toss them in the bed and sing the last song of the day...Amelie likes to hear her ABCs and Alia prefers 5 Green and Speckled Frogs.
Tuesday, Thursday are very similar, however, there is no meeting with the trainer, so I typically use the time between 1 and 3:00 to either 1) nap or 2) attend to whatever little projects pop up, such as reorganizing the play room, boxing up old clothes the girls have outgrown, pre-making snacks for weekday snack, attempting to organize my iPhoto events, or call me crazy, going to pick up miscellaneous items without 2 girls in tow. We still have swim at 4:00PM. We still have the same morning and nighttime routine...it's just that I'm not spending nap time at the gym.
And every day of the week? After the girls are in bed? I make dinner for Ajay and myself. We spend the remaining hour or so of our day eating, cleaning up, catching the latest show that Tivo caught for us, and call it a night at 9:00PM. From that point, I may be awakened throughout the night by Amelie's cries perhaps 1, perhaps 3 times, or perhaps rarely not at all. But on the not-at-all nights, I awaken myself, in fear of being awakened, and wait for the crying. Which, if it isn't happening, really sucks because I'll lie there awake all night waiting to be awakened.
Saturday and Sundays are family days when Ajay isn't working. We try to do something together as a family in the morning, like going to the park, the beach, the carousel, and as of recent, the movies (Winnie the Pooh is the first movie that both girls have gone to and we've seen it twice in one week!). We have lunch together, and then during nap time, Ajay and I usually take advantage of the silence and grab some rest ourselves. After nap, we swim in our pool, play in the playhouse, or go to a park or a local outing. Then again, it's time for dinner, bath, and the bedtime routine.
So, where might I find time to write? Well, I could get up earlier. But typically I'm bargaining for the love of whatever God might be out there for more time in bed when my alarm rings, so the idea of facing the day earlier is well, just sad. There's Tuesday and Thursday nap time...which is when I'm writing this...but typically I schedule myself to the hill with my doctor, dentist, haircuts, errands, etc. on those days. So where does that leave me? In my mind, the weekends are kind of off limits because I really like for us to spend what time we have together as a family as a family and second, I typically put Ajay's have-tos ahead of my want-tos. If he needs to call his patients for work on something for his job, I'll cover the girls so he can do what he needs.
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