The 21st of February

Wow.  Six months after my first "21st of..." post and I am still at it.  I am hoping to keep this up for a year.  So far, so good.

However...I did have higher hopes for today.

I fully intended on using the big camera.  After all, today Claire turns seven months old and we take pictures of her every month with the big, fancy camera.  So I just thought I'd lug it around all day and capture amazing shots that would make even the most mundane day look not-so-mundane.

Of course, that didn't happen.  I fell asleep early last night and we woke up early this morning and had to get Jack out of the house early because Charles had an important work call that actually required a quiet house.  Which means we didn't break out the fancy camera anyway, and even if we had, it probably wouldn't have been charged...etc., etc.

No big camera for this girl.  No, my day was captured (kinda like last month) on my iPhone whenever I remembered to take a picture.

7:00 AM

The day starts off...cold.  BRR.

Shortly after we all wake up, Charles makes pancakes for Jack.  Right before I took this picture (literally, as I was standing there with phone in hand), Jack says, "Is today a school day?" and I responded with "yes, today is a school day."  This did not make Jack happy.  "But I don't want to go to school!!!"

Oh!  And that wasn't the first pancake Charles made.  The first one ended up in the trash because Charles poured salad dressing all over it instead of syrup.

And here's Claire, in her bouncer while I get ready, staring at Jack who had followed me into the bathroom to tell me, over and over and over again, "I don't want to go to school today!  I don't want to go to school today!"

8:00 AM

I drop Jack off (this is his fourth week going to pre-school part-time, and for the first time today...there were no tears!) and get thee to a Starbucks.  

8:30 AM

This is me, nursing the baby.  Because we are about to head out to Central Market for some serious grocery shopping.

9:00 AM

I love Central Market.  Produce, produce, everywhere!  And OMG...shopping with Claire is so...easy.  She just chills in the Ergo.  She had fallen asleep in the car and I hoped she would fall back asleep once she was in the Ergo, but that didn't happen.  She was much too interested in shopping.

10:00 AM

Right after I took this picture, Claire's patience wore out.  She was tired.  And I apparently chose the World's Slowest Checker-Outer to check us out.  So, after standing in one spot for about 10 minutes, this little lady decided she'd had enough.  

11:00 AM

Back at home, groceries unloaded (thanks, Charles), and hummus and a fresh whole wheat tortilla in my stomach,  it's time to nurse Claire again.  I hope she'll go to sleep since she really hasn't slept at all this morning.  She doesn't of course.  And at noon...

12:00 PM

I load her back up to go pick up her brother.  This time, Charles comes with and we all go to the local cake/cupcake shop to buy Jack a treat since he didn't cry once at school.  On the way home from the cake shop, Claire falls asleep.  And then wakes up as soon as I take her out of the car.  But then, falls asleep again.

1:00 PM

She naps on me for over an hour.  See that little scratch on her cheek?  That's my fault...I let her fingernails get ragged (good LORD baby fingernails need to be cut often...) and she went and scratched herself.

While she naps...wonder of all wonders...Jack falls asleep on the couch.  

2:00 PM

She wakes up smiling.  Which makes me smile.

OH...I should add here that although she is usually a poor sleeper, she does have an excuse for the extra-poor sleeping this week has brought us - she cut her first tooth yesterday!  Her bottom front/left one (that would be my technical dentistry talk, ha!), and a full three months earlier than Jack got his first tooth.  Also?  She's pretty much crawling, in an awkward sort of inchworm/bunny hop style.  So, she's been busy - which could very well be contributing to the non-sleeping.

5:00 PM

After everyone wakes up, eats a snack, uses the potty, and gets dressed, we take the kids to the park.  Jack got a new kite and today is the perfect kite-flying day - 70 degrees and a little windy!

This is Jack looking at the playground and struggling over what he wants to do - fly the kite or go down the slide.  He reminds me so much of his daddy in this picture.

Kite-flying wins as the activity of choice.  

And it's all great fun!  Until it crashes.

But then it flies again (and boy do I love this picture)!

And then, Charles takes over and it crashes.  In a tree.

Around this time, a little boy and his mom come over to watch and it ends up being a little friend of Jack's from school!  So, once the kite has been rescued (and flown, and crashed a few more times) we all head over to the playground.  Where Jack and his friend play really well together...until Jack falls.

He falls on concrete and scratches up his elbow and his hand a teeny bit.  Jack is nothing if not dramatic, and I would say on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the highest) his pain tolerance falls somewhere around a 1-2.  So this little fall was a Very Big Deal.  I was quick to the punch and pulled his sleeve down over his elbow before he ever saw it (there was blood - not much, but enough to send him off the deep end if he noticed).  Unfortunately, he saw the scratch on his hand and from there, the evening went downhill.  Here he is at the top of the slide, after he had recovered from the fall, when he noticed there was a bit of blood on his hand.

We ended up leaving right after he came down the slide because of the meltdown that ensued.

For the next hour (keep in mind his shirt sleeve is still pulled down and he still hasn't seen his elbow), Jack repeats...over, and over, and OVER AGAIN..."Mommy, I have a problem.  I'm hurt."  

As quickly as possible, I feed him and then start the bath.  Things seem to be improving.  He is excited about taking his bath and seems to have forgotten the pain he was in minutes ago.

7:00 PM

This is my bathtub.  MY bathtub.  Full of kid toys and baby baths and probably kid pee, too.  The bathtub I never use.  The bathtub Jack was excited to get in...until...I took off his shirt and he discovered the scratch on his elbow.

:::SIGH:::

Cue the meltdown.  This time, it was a big one.

I was able to get him into the bath but he was afraid to put his arm in the water.  While Claire splashed away merrily in the baby tub next to him, Jack was working himself further and further into a frenzy.  Within two minutes or so, he was screaming at me to get him out.  Which I did.  And promptly tried to pick him up.  But, he didn't want to be picked up.  Not by me, anyway.  I got my first, "I don't want you, Mama!  I want Daddy!"

And I admit it.  It hurt.  Probably more than it should have, and definitely more than the little owie on his elbow hurt him.  I mean, he's expressed a preference for his daddy before...on many occasions...but not like this, and not when he's hurt and supposed to want his mama!  Sometimes I fear that spending all this time with the baby is cutting into the bond I have with Jack, and moments like this make me think "Yep, I've messed it all up for sure now."  

I know in my heart that he's three and that kids do this...but still.  It sucked!

8:00 PM

By 8ish, the baby is asleep and I'm about to start this blog post.  Which will be interrupted by the baby as she wakes up about thirty minutes after I put her down.  It doesn't help that I can hear Jack yelling in protest to what sounds like bedtime.   But I let Charles handle that and get the baby back down to sleep.  

See that nightstand?  It was my grandparents.  My Dad said it was in a model home back in the 60's.  I kinda love it and kinda hate it (we have two, plus a big old dresser).  If I were crafty I'd get all Pinterest-y and make it into something nice.  But I'm not, so I probably won't.

And now?  At 10:00 PM - both kids are asleep.  Claire is restless but I'm hoping she'll stay down a bit longer.  Charles has promised me a foot rub, and I'm going to end this now and go collect.  BOOM.