A day in the life of...

5:50 AM - Alarm clock goes off. Am I dreaming? No? Aw crap.
5:50 1/2 - Crawl out of bed, slink to the bathroom for a shower.
6:00 AM - back in room to get dressed, put on deodorant, all that good stuff. A stinky mom is a no fun mom, after all.
6:15 AM - Andy gets his turn at the shower, I dawdle around putting off the inevitable....
6:20 AM - Carefully open the door to tired toddler's room......
6:21 AM - Find out whether said toddler is waking up on the right or wrong side of the bed. We will say that this day, it was the wrong side. You know, for entertainment value.
6:23 AM - Pick out clothes for cranky toddler. What? You don't want these blue shorts? How about the purple ones? How about a skirt with stars on it? Oh, you're going to daycare naked, are you?
6:25 AM - Open the door to younger toddler's room, normally to find a little butt up in the air with one arm around her ducky blanky.
6:251/2 - pick out clothes, get younger toddler dressed. No big fights from her, not this early in the morning! Hallelujiah!
6:30 AM - Turn attention back to cranky toddler. "But I don't HAVE TO GO POTTY!!!" Well, too bad. Let's go try....wait for it...wait for it....tiiiiiiiiinkle tiinkle. Oh, I thought you didn't have to go potty. That's funny....
6:32 AM - Get cranky toddler dressed. Still complaining she doesn't like the shorts.
6:35 AM - Bring toddler downstairs, get sippy cups to hold them over until they get to daycare to have breakfast.
6:37 AM - Try to eat breakfast myself. With younger toddler climbing on me like monkey bars, and cranky toddler saying "please, can I have more? Please? I said please!" "You will eat at daycare" "No I wont" "Yes, you will" "They don't give us food there" Huh. Is that right.
6:50 AM - Make lunch and then escape upstairs for some me time. By me time, I mean "brush my teeth and contemplate "accidentally" falling asleep for 10 minutes. While I am upstairs contemplating sleep, hubby is downstairs wrestling children into shoes and putting "pretties" in their hair.
7:00 AM - We head out the door in various order. Girls get strapped into their seats, mommy says good bye, and internally breathes a sigh of relief. No more fighting with kids for 8 hours!
7:15 AM - I arrive at work and prepare for a luxurious day of working in the FSA department of UHC. One function I do is foreign claims, so sometimes visions of chinese characters dance in my head.
4:00 PM - Get off work and rush home for some "me" time. Oh.wow.this.is.awesome! 15 minutes.to.myself!
4:30 PM - Leave to pick up the girls from daycare, relishing in my last real down time for the rest of the day
4:47 PM - Arrive at daycare. Team up with daycare provider to make Kaitlyn pick up after herself. Put Brianna's shoes on, wait for Kaitlyn some more. Brianna takes her shoes off, I wait for Kaitlyn some more. Put Brianna's shoes back on, Kaitlyn goes potty. Put Kaitlyn's shoes on. No! don't take your shoes off again Brianna!!!! We say our goodbye's and head out the door
5:00 PM - Wrestle a screaming younger cranky toddler into her car seat while older cranky toddler picks old crackers off the floor. Stop.eating.old.crackers. (My fault perhaps, for keeping a filthy van. Any readers are welcome to come clean it for me, anytime). Brianna please stay still. OUCH it HURTS when you pinch people! HA! I got one buckle done! Give me your arm back! Whoa I didn't know a shoe could fly that far off a 2 year olds foot!
5:05 PM - older toddler's turn to get buckled in. But first NO.MORE.OLD.CRACKERS!! Yuck! "Ok, ok, ok, ok mommy". Ha. Famous last words.
5:20 PM - Arrive home to a waiting daddy. We all go in together. Daddy makes dinner. I struggle to get Brianna to stay out of the kitchen.
5:22 PM- Brianna (now aka the cranky one instead of Kaitlyn) screams and yells and rolls around and kicks her legs on the floor and runs after me trying to bite my legs. Yep. Time out time. Upstairs we go....
5:26 - Check on Brianna. Tears on the cheeks, smile on the lips. You sure did get over that fast didn't you....can you come say sorry to mommy? Awwww that is the sweeetest hug and kiss ever, thank you honey, now lets go back downstairs and have a good evening.
5:30 PM- Bring an arching, kicking screaming Brianna back upstairs for another time out. Ok, let me know when you are done throwing your fit.
5:35 PM- Are you done? Smile is a good sign, lets go back downstairs.
5:40 PM - Please don't start another fight...hey lets go look out the window for birds! Please please please let the distraction work. I really don't feel like hauling a human tornado up the stairs. Again.
5:50 PM - SUPPER IS DONE!
5:52 PM- Older toddler proclaims she is finished eating. No you can't go watch Carebears, please stay at the table with us until we finish.
5:54 PM- No, you can't go watch Dora.
5:56 PM- No, you can't go watch Curious George. Stop whining or you will have an early bed time.
5:58 PM- Older toddler gets cleaned up. Younger toddler still eating.
6:10 PM- Younger toddler finally also done.
6:11 PM - Daddy is in charge of you little stinkers! Mommy gets to do some more glorious, luxurious work. This time, washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen.
6:45 PM - Bath time!! Water stays IN the tub girls. HEY! I said, water stays IN the tub!!!
6:55 PM - Ok, so which parent wants to get which child dressed for bed tonight? Toss up - Kaitlyn might run around and not listen to anything you ask of her. Brianna might throw a massive tantrum when you try to take her out of the tub.
7:05 PM - Back downstairs for "wind down time". Fine, we can watch Care Bears now, if you promise to go to bed when we say its time to go to bed.
7:45 PM - Bedtime! YES, you promised. Too bad, its getting dark out (well, it will). It is time for bed. We have to get up in the morning.
8:05 PM - Back downstairs to pick up the living room and do some laundry
8:10 PM - Back upstairs to yell at one or both of the toddlers GO TO BED. No more messing around! Bed time! I love you, good NIGHT!
8:15 PM - HEY! Bedtime!
8:20 PM - Turn that light off, no more messing around! You have to wake up early, please go to bed!
8:23 PM - "Mooooom....I gotta goo pottttty"
8:30 PM - If you don't settle down soon, we might not be able to make it to *grandma's house/zoo/taylor's house/crane lake/park/insert various activity here*
8:31 PM - Time for Wii Fit!
8:45 PM - Pause Wii Fit to listen for suspect toddler activity upstairs. Nope. All clear. PHEW!
9:00 PM - Crawl into bed. Aaaaaah.
9:05 PM - Back downstairs to check if the door is locked.
9:06 PM - Crawl into bed. Aaaaah.
9:08 PM - Forgot to brush my teeth, GRRRRRR
9:12 PM - Crawl into bed. Aaaaaaaaah!
10:00 PM - News is on, better keep up on the latest so that I can be an informed citizen. That, and I'm nosy,
10:20 PM - Well now the weather is almost up, might as well stay up for that so I know how to dress the crankies tomorrow.
10:35 PM - starting to drift off...finally....
12:30 AM - HMPHHHHA?! Briannnn....aaaaa....dropped her nuk.....go give it baaaack. aaaaheeeeoooo....back to bed.
3:00 AM - HMPPPHHHHAAAA?! uuuuugggggh...back...to...Briannaaaa's room.....nuk.....
5:50 AM - BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP BEEEP. Am I dreaming? No? Aw, crap...


And SO....that is a typical day in the life of...me. It is busy and crazy. Yes, often frustrating. Having a 2 year old and a 3 year old presents many challenges. Never knew how stubborn and smart and emotionally unstable they could really be :-) lol. But, it's all worth it. For every look of wonder we witness when they see something new for the first time, for every hug and kiss and "I love you", for every new and fun milestone they hit. Their beautiful green eyes and their sweet little voices. Watching them sleep like little angels. Shopping for little girl clothes! Seeing how far they come in such little time, how fast they learn, how quickly they grow. It is truly amazing and wonderful and I wouldn't trade it for the world!