A Day in the Life. . .

A few weeks ago my sweet neighbor asked me if she could send her 11-year-old daughter over once a week to be a "mother's helper" for a few hours. Um, yes. I wasn't going to turn that one down. Her excuse was that her daughter needs to learn responsibilities and that she might learn better if she is helping someone else out rather than doing her assigned chores at home. I think she could see my edemic ankles and knew with my ever-growing stomach that I probably can't bend over very well right now. Either way, I love the help.

Katherine has been over twice now and she is a super helper. She washes windows, cleans out my cupboards, mops my floors, whatever I ask her to do. I should have thought of this before!

Here she is doing my least-favorite chore. Ok, so they are all my least favorite. I live the life of a maid. Clean, clean, clean.

Today I had a day that no "mother's helper" could help with. I hate to complain about being a mom because I looked forward to it and hoped for it for so long. However, some days are just really difficult.

My day started at 5:21 a.m. with Tristan pounding on his door and crying for "mama". Oh, that's me. I thought I better go in and get him back to sleep so he didn't wake up the rest of the sleepers. Fat chance. He was ready for the day. That's ok, I thought. I will just get up and get my chores done and take a nap while he takes a nap.

As chance would have it, Kennedy was ill today. I encouraged her to rest on her bed while I put Tristan down for a nap. She actually fell asleep. That rarely happens anymore. Just as I finished my lunch and headed upstairs to take my nap while all was quiet, I heard a lurching sound coming from Kennedy's room, followed by some cries. I went in and there was her lunch all over the floor. That's ok, I thought, I will give her a bath, clean up the mess and turn on the t.v. for her. Then I will take a little nap.

As chance would have it, Tristan took a one-hour nap and was up and ready to go again by the time I got Kennedy settled in front of the t.v. So I bagged the nap and powered through a bunch more chores. I made four meals to put in the freezer for future use (after the baby comes) and also made a meal to feed the missionaries tonight. I also cleaned up the mess, read some books to my kids and sat down for 5 minutes.

Tomorrow I will prop my feet up and coast the rest of the weekend. . . .

Toddler-Induced Insomnia

So little did I know what I had in store for me this week. The second night after Tristan learned his new trick of climbing out of the crib, I was visited at 3 a.m. by the little guy. From that point on I received a visit about every 20 minutes until I finally gave up at 6 a.m. and just let him stay in our room. I was so tired and upset and the tears just flowed down my cheeks. "I can't be up all night with a newborn AND a toddler". The day continued and I had to go to a dentist appointment which meant that we would be away from the house and his bed, in case he wanted to sleep. I had to leave my kids with a friend and luckily he did ok. I was surprised.
Chris and I discussed the problem and decided that the mattress needed to be on the floor and that Tristan would no longer sleep in the crib. We would leave his door open a crack if he stayed in bed but close it if he got out and came out of his room. Luckily he hasn't learned how to open the door yet or I would be toast because so far the system seems to be working. Tristan doesn't always like going down for a nap but he is getting used to his new sleeping arrangements. He does still try to rebel a little though.
The other day he had a few 5-minute cat naps in the car but was tired enough for a nap. He cried for a few minutes after I closed his door but settled down, played for about a half hour and then fell asleep. What does one play in a room with a crib and a dresser? Just take a look at the picture below.
I guess he prefers sleeping on the floor because he moved his mattress himself. You can't really tell but that is a whole container of wipes on the floor that have been pulled out one by one.