Snapshot of a Day

I was just telling Chris about my day, and I thought, "I should write a blog about this." Any of you who are moms will be like, "What's the big deal?" but often I am asked what I do day-to-day, and today was just one of those whoppers, so here goes (the abridged version).

Chris leaves for work right before 7 a.m., but Audrey had already woken up and gotten in bed with me to nurse by then. The sounds of the shower and toothbrush and him getting dressed woke her up enough to start her day, in her opinion. I spent about 20 minutes trying to convince her to go back to sleep, when pitter-patter, here comes Noah. Noah asked to watch a movie, so I put on Snow White and put Audrey in the pack-n-play, then lay on the couch for maybe 30 minutes of in-and-out snoozing. Breakfast is leftover pancakes, then Audrey nursed and Noah played while I proceeded to clip coupons and make a massive grocery list. I texted my neighbor, who is down with the stomach bug along with two of her three kids, to see what I could get for her. I got Noah dressed and Audrey dressed, then put Audrey down for a nap (which she finally took after 10 min. of indignant screaming). Then I showered, dressed, and put on makeup--quite a feat, and just barely 11 a.m.! Got the kids in the car (had to wake up Audrey--poor girl, being the second child is like getting the short straw) and headed to Kroger. That shopping trip took about 90 minutes, what with picking the RIGHT grocery cart with the car attached, getting a free sample from the bakery, and constantly telling Noah to ride IN the car, not on top of it or hanging off it like a firefighter. I actually ended up with two carts full of groceries! Yikes!

Audrey fell asleep immediately and since the drive is less than five minutes and the weather was mild, I left her in her car seat with the door open and the door into the house open. We unloaded the cold stuff, took my neighbor's stuff to her, and made some lunch. I did a few chores and edited the bulletin for church, put Noah down for a nap, nursed Audrey, put the rest of the groceries away, marinated the steak for dinner, etc. As I was loading the dishwasher, Audrey was happily crawling around the kitchen, and I suddenly noticed that she had spit up, played in it, and then crawled through it. There was now an interesting trail of smeared spit up leading about eight feet into the living room. (That's when I'm grateful for my Swiffer. And my hard floors.)

Audrey was playing for awhile while I worked on an album on the computer, and she got pretty fussy, so I put her down for another nap. As usual, she screamed as if being tortured to death, so I ignored her--for awhile. I guess mother's intuition made me go check on her, and I noticed she had stinky diaper, so I went to change it, and she had possibly the worst diaper rash I've seen. She was screaming so hard she was shaking. I tried to tell her that if she wouldn't scream bloody murder when she's simply angry, Mommy would be able to tell that she was actually in pain this time! She didn't listen. I filled up the tub with warm water and poured in some oatmeal bath and put her in. The whole time, she was so stinkin' angry that her head looked like she broke out with the measles and she surely woke Noah up. Even the bath, one of her favorite things, didn't settle her down, until I gave her something to play with and made her ducky tub "quack." I bathed her and let her play a bit, then pulled her out of the tub...and she started up again. That temper! Desitin, diaper, and rocking in the chair--Audrey made it clear that she would like to nurse a little. Forget pacifiers, this girl insists on the real thing. She fell asleep and I took advantage of the opportunity to clip her nails. She is now in her crib, still in a diaper and hooded towel, sound asleep; Noah is probably in his bed debating whether I will believe he actually slept if he gets up now.

No one ever believes this little angel screams like she does.

Chris is headed home, so I am getting in a few more minutes of blogging, pictures and email before I make dinner, then off to Bible study at Jimmy & Courtney's new house!

So, what'd you do today?