Woznation

7:00am — The big kids ‘clocks are green’ (we have the ‘OK to wake’ clocks and they know not to leave their room until 7:00am when the ‘clocks turn green’ — best investment ever!).  They both come into my room and crawl into bed and wake me up. We put on a Blaze episode while I wake up a bit and I hear Zev start to fuss. I grab Zev and we head downstairs while the kids finish their show in the bed.  (Phil is already gone. Hes always up by 5-ish. He took Barney out and drove my car around for 15 minutes since it died the day before and he wanted to make sure the battery was working again. He was at work by 7:15).

I do a zev diaper, make a bottle, get the kids oatmeal ready, and grab a cup of coffee. The kids come down and everyone eats before playtime.  I help Evie in the bathroom and set up Zev with some toys in ‘the baby cage’.

8:00am — I head upstairs with Zev to get ready while the kids play downstairs.  Zev hangs in the pack-in-play in our room while I get dressed.  Wil and Evie get in a fight downstairs and I end up making them both come upstairs to play in their rooms while I finish getting ready.  Everyone gets dressed.  I do a diaper for Zev.  Phil calls about planning some work travel.  We all head back downstairs and I get Wils school stuff ready — snack, library book, and parent-teacher conference signup sheet.

8:45am — We are out the door to drop off Wil at school.  Its still warm enough that we dont really need jackets yet.  We park and get out to play on the stairs with some friends and I chat with parents about the Cubs.  We make it back home by 9:15 and Zev plays in his bouncer and Evie plays in the playroom while I clean up breakfast, straighten up the house, start roasting some chicken for dinner, round up all the trash in the house, start the dishwasher, put laundry away, and water plants.

9:45am — I make Zev a bottle and head upstairs for his nap — do a diaper and lay him down, but have to check on him a million times and keep laying him back down until hes finally asleep around 10:15.

10:15am — Evie sits at the table with me to do ‘homework’ while I make notes for Wil’s OT teacher.  We only have a few more sessions, so his therapist and I are making sure he has everything he needs.  I finally eat a larabar.  Then unload the dishwasher, take out the chicken, take barney out, and start to get lunches ready since we have to eat at OT.  I get Zev up around 11 and do a quick diaper, help Evie in the bathroom – then we are out the door.

11:15am — heading to get Wil from school.  On Wednesday he has ‘Computers’ and tells me all about this game he played ‘jumping to get the letter J’.   The kids eat in the car on the way to OT.  We get there 5 minutes early so I have time to give Zev a bottle in the waiting room.  After Wil heads back with his teacher — Evie, Zev and I run to target down the street.  I bump into a mom from Wils class last year and try to be friendly but I only have 30 mins!!

1:00pm– we make it back to OT just in time to get Wil and make it back into the car  before it starts pouring down rain! I meant to give Zev a pouch and some crackers while we were out but never had time, so hes getting super grumpy.  We’re home by 1:30 and within 10 minutes Zev is changed and in the high-chair eating.  Evie picks out her small treat before nap time, I help her in the potty and I tuck her in for a nap. I have no idea what Wil was doing during all this. I head back down to help Zev finish up his lunch and hear Evie go in and out of her room like 5 times.  So I head back up to reinforce that its nap time and to stay in the room. Wil plays with Zev while I get target, lunch, and bookbags out of the car, and start cleaning up and putting things away.

2:oopm — make Zev a bottle, do a diaper, and lay him down for his afternoon nap.  Evie finally seems to be asleep.  But I go upstairs about 5 times to get Zev asleep.  Wil is watching minecraft videos on youtube on the tablet (he doesnt understand yet that you can actually play video games yourself — he just watches other people play video games, haha — someday we’re going to blow his mind!).

2:30 — i finally sit down.  i’m exhausted by this point. Its nice to sit with Wil in some peace for a second.

3:00pm — Its time to get Evie already!  I carry her downstairs and she and Wil watch a show and have a snack while I take barney out and get the mail.  When I come back up, we make cards for my Aunt, cut fingernails, then playtime — Currently they love making houses out of megablocks and magnatiles for their little paw patrol figures.  I usually expect Zev to get up around 3:30 or so — but by 4:00 hes still not up and the big kids are still playing nicely by themselves.  I dont quite know what to do with myself when things are this calm.

4:00pm — I start prepping dinner.  I cut up some onion and butternut squash for risotto and by 4:15 Zev is up.  I do a diaper, bottle, and cut his fingernails.  Then he plays in the kitchen while I start cooking the risotto.  Hes pretty fussy and feeling a little warm.  He ends up on my hip for most of dinner prep.  I pop some chicken nuggets in the oven for the kids. I havent heard from Phil since the morning, so I’m not sure when hes supposed to get home and the kids are fussy – so we sit down to eat around 5:20.  Kids try the rice, but eat mostly chicken nuggets and bread roll.  Zev like the risotto though!

5:45 — Phils home after a marathon 4 hour meeting.  He eats and we chat while the kids play/fight in the other room. Zev hangs on my hip until I pass him over to Phil so I can go upstairs and change for 6:15 yoga class.

6:00pm to 7:30pm — a glorious 1.5 hours out of the house.

7:30pm– I arrive home.  Phil has the bath filling up.  I get the run down of what I missed: Zev pooped,  Wil accidentally poked Zev in the eye, Wil and Evie did NOT play well, and Barney had eaten two toys in the basement. I give Evie and Wil their baths, then Phil takes over on PJs and books while I give Zev a bottle, pjs, diaper, bed.  Zevs still warm, so we give a bit of medicine.  Then I head over to Evie rooms for songs.  Then to Wils room for songs, and then back to Evies room for songs again, while checking on Zev and laying him back down a million times in between.  Phil is downstairs cleaning up the kitchen and putting on the cubs game.

8:30pm — I think this is the time I finally went back downstairs.   I start a load of laundry.  Phil is making his lunch and prepping coffee for tomorrow. He sits down to write some work emails and I hop in the shower real quick.  Then around 9:15 we grab a beer and watch the cubs!! I’d say 999/1000 days we’d be in bed with lights out by this time, but its game 7 of the world series! so beers and baseball it is.  I switch the laundry at some point and check work emails.  By the time the rain delay hit — we did finally go upstairs — I woke Phil up for when they won — Lights out around midnight!

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So yeah — thats a typical day around these parts — when the cubs win the world series!

Synopsis: Nine Zev diapers, still helping Evie with nearly every bathroom break, but Wil is independent.  Evie and Wil are good playmates but also tend to fight a lot. Zev is currently contained but starting to learn to bust out of his baby cage making things very difficult for getting things done.  Zev is having about 24 ounces of formula + whole milk and lots of solids.  Big kids are picky eaters but learning to try new foods.  Even though I mentioned checking on kids and reinforcing bedtimes often — we are still very lucky that our kids go to sleep relatively easily and stay asleep for the entire night (usually).  I took my fitbit off before yoga and dont know how many steps I ended up with — but its easy to get 10,000 a day around here!  I was lucky to fit in a work-out out of the house (but didnt get any work done, thats usually the trade-off).  And even luckier to stay up late and hang-out with Phil.  We paid dearly the next morning!