Six Months

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Oh right. I have a blog.

::tap, tap, tap::

Is this thing still on?

So things have been a little quiet around here. Let’s talk about why that is, shall we? But rather than droll on and on about how life with two kids is so busy (parents of 3+ roll their eyes at me), let me give you a glimpse into what the other night was like, for example.

Get home from work around 6:15pm. Throw my bags on the couch (laptop bag and breastpump bag) and toss the breast-milk in the fridge. Give D a big hug and sloppy kiss. He squirms away. Two-year-olds are too busy to be bothered with hugs and kisses.

Hubs and baby are upstairs, so head upstairs to say hello and love on the baby.

Discuss dinner. Chicken is already thawed in the fridge, so preheat oven and start washing squash. Hubs says he can handle it and sends me off to play with the boys.

A few minutes later, he says we need a few things from the store (milk) so after tossing the chicken in the oven and leaving the squash in the pan on the stove, he heads out for a quick store run. Says he’ll be back in 20 (which is exactly how many minutes are left on the timer for the chicken). No problem. Everyone is fine and happy.

I’m carrying the baby and see the hubs out the door. As soon as he gets in the car, I hear a “splash” on the floor downstairs. I run downstairs and see water on the floor outside the guest bathroom. Since that’s where we also keep the dog’s food/water, I assume D has gotten into it (for the 547th time). I  see the door is open to the bathroom (we try to keep it closed). I see the dog’s water dish but don’t see much water missing from it. Then I see that the toilet lid AND seat is up. Any guesses where the water on the floor came from? D’s toy balls and his shirt are wet. Grrrrreat. I can’t tell if it’s dog water or toilet water but I’m fearing the latter. And now he’s touching the iPad. Grrrr.

I put the baby in the bumbo and start the bath. D comes running (he loves baths). Strip him down, plop him in the tub, then run to get the baby who’s already crying. Oh and the squash is still on the stove, cooking, so I give it a quick stir. Run back upstairs with the baby to keep an eye on D in the bath. I check the timer for the chicken and see I’ve got six minutes left. That’s just enough time to wash D’s hair so I put the baby in his crib and wind up the mobile (it only goes for 3 minutes), wash D’s hair, then run downstairs to take out the chicken and turn off the squash while the baby is OVER IT and crying because he wants picked up NOW NOW NOW. I pick him up and we watch D play in the tub, trying to get him to say his letters and colors. Then I put the baby in the swing and get D out of the tub and into some clothes – not jammies – because he still needs to eat dinner and he’s just going to get dirty again. Baby is fussing again. He’s hungry and bored. Where is my husband? It’s been 30 minutes! (I also need to buy a ranch house next time.) D beats me back downstairs and is already playing with the iPad again (that I hadn’t had a chance to disinfect yet). I start getting the baby’s bottle ready when hubs walks through the door. He’s carrying a delicious case of pumpkin beer, so I’m happy (although I still yell at him for leaving the toilet seat up AND the door open which is why everything was a disaster to begin with). I take a beer and take the baby downstairs to feed him while hubs fixes dinner for D. Things are calm again. He takes Lysol wipes to D’s toys and the floor. I burp the baby and put him down on his playmat for a few minutes while we inhale our dinner. Then I take the baby and run his bath and put him to bed while D watches one of his shows. Once the baby is tucked in, I take D upstairs and read to him in his room for a bit. He’s been fighting us on bedtime lately and clings to me like a spider monkey when I try to put him in his crib. Bedtime is…a process. By this time it’s nearly 9pm. Hubs is washing bottles and putting away dishes. I try to help but our kitchen is small so I go down to the basement to start some laundry. Then we both grab something sweet (he takes a piece of chocolate, I make a glass of chocolate milk) and we sit on the couch and catch up on the news. A few minutes later, I start pumping and flip back and forth between the TV, work email, and social media (Facebook and Instagram) before we both head to bed around 10:30.

So there’s a typical evening in my house. Complete chaos until after the kids go to bed and then we spend at least half of our precious 90 minutes of free time cleaning up before collapsing into bed ourselves.

Alright, your turn. What’s your typical evening routine?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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