Week in the Life: Day 4 AND Halloween

Ruby did not sleep so great last night. Boo! We got up early and came out. I turned off the alarm, turned off the porch lights, let Spot out, and changed Ruby's clothes and diaper. Then I got coffee and some berries and water for her. I finished up our Advent stuff. I decided to do all the same things we do every year but I printed each activity on paper and put them in paper bags so Maggie can open one every day to see what we're doing. Everything is scheduled now and ready to go.

While Ruby ate, I also cleaned the kitchen. Once she was done eating, I let her down to run around and did some work. At 9, we went and woke up Maggie. I made her make the bed. Then we headed to the kitchen to make breakfast. Maggie got to open our first Advent bag. Decorate the house. 

This is Maggie's foot after a fire ant bite and possibly dropping something on it. Laurie insists it couldn't have gotten this bad from just the bite. But she definitely had a bite so I don't know.

Mommy's sweet little pumpkin. Everyone came to my house for Halloween. The girls drew on pumpkins with sharpies and had dinner. 

While Ruby napped, I made Maggie do her morning list and some school work. I exercised, cleaned, and made work calls. After only an hour (!!!!), Ruby woke up. I told Maggie everything she had left before we could decorate the house. She complained A LOT but did it. I played with, sang to, and read to Ruby. Finally we got out all of our decorations and started decorating. I have pictures. It would be smart to put this in a post with those pictures but no way I'm going through that mess. Sorry. We put the tree and all the decorations and rearranged the baby fence to protect it from our little tornado. We hung the wreath and set our all of our little items. Maggie is thrilled.

A little while later, Maggie went to our neighbor's house to play with her friend Dessie. I took Ruby for a bath. While we were in there, Maggie came back and said she needed a snack. So I got Ruby and I dressed and came and made Maggie a snack. She took two bites and ran back out. I laid Ruby down and started yoga but then Maggie and Dessie came over here to play. So I cleaned some more and worked.

Ruby getting her first Halloween candy.

Jeff did make-up.

Another pumpkin!

We all went trick or treating. 

After Dessie went home, I finished yoga. Maggie helped corral Ruby so she wouldn't tackle me. Then Richard came over and hung out with the girls. Then Grandpa and Joanne came over with dinner. It was busy.

Ruby has discovered her belly button and she pulls up her shirt over and over to touch it. Every time she's so surprised to find it. I got her to say, ho, ho, ho a few times but never when anyone else was around and, of course, she never lets me record.

After dinner, we played and watched Home Alone. Best Christmas movie ever. 

Week in the Life: Day 3

Well, I skipped some days but I'm back! We had a lovely Thanksgiving, which I'll write about soon.

Ruby slept great last night. She does not like sleeping anywhere but at home. We got up bright (or not so bright) and early, came out to the living room, turned off the alarm and all the porch lights, let Spot out, and changed Ruby's clothes and diaper. Then we went to the kitchen, started coffee, and got Ruby some breakfast. She's having cheese for first breakfast. We read Kitten's First Full Moon, which Ruby found hilarious.

This is Maggie and the pumpkin. She never finished it. She kept insisting that I do it because she was afraid she would mess it up. She got some of it done but I wish she would have finished it. Hopefully next year. . . 

I woke Maggie up at 8:30 because we had to go get groceries. We listened to Brains On! while we drove. As soon as we got home, I started breakfast. While we ate, I read history, Narnia, and Berenstain Bears. Ruby went down for her nap and I had to take care of the cats. Richard asked me to watch his dogs while he went out of town about a month ago. Turns out, they had fleas. First I just ran and bought some cheap monthly preventative and big shocker, that didn't work. Or at least not for Greenlea, who is definitely getting the worst of it. So then I got Capstar, which worked quickly and amazingly. Unfortunately, you can't just do Capstar because that works for a few days and it kills everything but fleas can survive without hosts on other things (like the dog bed) for 10 days so they came back. This time, I did a Capstar for all three of them and put on flea collars to keep the fleas off of them. I also sprayed all the furniture and carpets and vacuumed (with a flea collar in the cannister to kill any bugs in there). I also washed everything that could go in the washing machine. They are definitely all off the pets and god willing, everywhere else.

We made cookies and notes for all of our neighbors when we moved in. Oh, we have so many great neighbors. The people across the street have an 8 year old that Maggie plays with quite often. There are also neighbors down the street with 8-, 5-, and 1-year old boys that homeschool!!! And the mom's name is Cari. 

Ruby loves to stand on this chair and rock it. I just make her do it on the carpet only. She loves to push things around (her chair, laundry baskets, trash cans, etc) so it can end up on hard floor and that would be a nasty fall. 

After that, I had to make work phone calls and in the middle of that, Ruby woke up. Once she was up, I decided this might be my only chance to exercise so I did. Maggie exercised with me and was so inspired she had me record her making an exercise/yoga ("whatever you want") video. I'll try to post it on Facebook. It was quite funny. After exercising, we read more books. Ruby was so tired and I had a hard time keeping her up even three hours. Once she went down for her afternoon nap, I did my yoga. And then just laid around. I think the bug killer made me feel crappy.

Once Ruby woke up, I started making chili. Aunt Susie came over for dinner. I put Ruby down at her normal time but she threw a fit. I had given her an earlier dinner but I guess it was too early because I pulled her out and she ate an entire bowl of chili. Oops.

We voted, of course. 

Week in the Life: Day 2

Ruby slept better last night. Unfortunately I had set my alarm for 7, which woke us up. I guess it's not such a bad thing to get up but it felt bad at 7 am. Yesterday, I was quite tired. And it doesn't help that Ruby naps during the sleepiest part of the day (~3-5ish) and I let Maggie watch screens if I nap, so she's always saying to me, Mommy you are so tired, just lay down and take a nap. Which seems like a bad idea to have that incentive for Maggie but when Ruby never slept and naps were like it for me getting ANY sleep, she would bother me when I was sleeping. Even now, she'll wake me up to show me something her youtuber did in Minecraft. Lucky for her, I don't react like a drunken hobo being woken up by being peed on by a dog. Ahem.

These pictures are when Maggie and Ruby went to Grandpa's house while I worked. 

Ruby and I came out to the living room. I changed her clothes and diaper and got her some breakfast which she is usually quite insistent about but she hasn't eaten much this morning. She's an unpredictable child, for sure. Right now she's playing with the dog. I've been trying to read her more books. She got several baby books for her birthday and she finds them hilarious. They have puppets and flaps and textures, which she loves.

She looks so suspicious here. I feel like she wants to demand a royal taster.

At 9 am, we went and woke up Maggie. Maggie made the bed while I straightened up the room, bathroom, and closet. Then we went into the kitchen. I made breakfast, filled up our waters, and cleaned the kitchen. Same breakfast. Ruby ate eggs but not nearly as much as she usually does. She just seems blah. She's not sleeping well either. 

I laid her down around 10 am and laid down on the couch. I woke up to Ruby crying and realized I'd slept TWO HOURS!!! Good Lord, I felt like I was dead. And, as much as I needed the sleep, it's thrown my whole day off. Ugh. I didn't get to exercise or get work done during that nap and once Ruby was awake, she wanted LOTS of attention. Joanne stopped by and played with the girls for a few minutes. Then we had lunch and played until around 2. Then I went to meet with one of my kiddos for his therapy.

This is our first trip to our local park. It's 0.7 miles from our house. :-)

On the way home I got a loaf of bread, then made a big pot of tomato soup. Yum! Arlene, the girls' babysitter, said Ruby had been chewing HARD on a toy and she checked and Ruby has a tooth breaking through! Of course. Poor thing. I put my finger in her mouth and felt it immediately. 

Ruby loves bread and soup so we sat down and I tore her off little pieces of bread dipped in soup. She was happy. At bedtime, I gave her a half dose of Tylenol and put her in warm pj's so her little toes wouldn't get cold. Hopefully she'll sleep better tonight. 

I found Maggie's Kindle in her room. Which, as an aside, is ridiculous. When you first glance, it looks clean, but everything that can hold anything is stuffed with crap. Papers, toys, pieces of papers, pieces of toys, etc. I can see her being the star of a hoarder episode one day. 

Anyway, I downloaded our library site on her Kindle so she can listen to her books when I don't want to give up my phone. She listened to the entire rest of her Lemony Snickett book. I'm not sure why I didn't think of this sooner.

Now we're just kind of chilling out. I already feel sleepy. And after a long nap, oy vey.

Speaking of napping. . . Also, when the hell is Ruby going to sleep like a human being! She's 14 months old!!! 

Mommy's little tornado got stuck.

She turned around and whacked her forehead on the laundry room door. Right on the edge. It swelled up fast but the next day, we could barely see it. Odd.

Week in the Life, Day 1 (and pictures of our house!)

I'm mixing it up. These are the pictures Jeff took of the outside of our house. But I'm including a week in the life thing. I've had this on my to-do list for months but it's like we've been insanely busy or something. But! I feel like I can do this now so here goes.

Ruby has been waking up earlier and earlier. I let her play on the floor by the bed and try to grab a few more minutes of sleep which is foolish but sleep is a glorious thing. This morning I heard her manage to get the door to the toilet and shower open so I had to get up to keep her from dumping stuff in the toilet. We came out to the living room and I got her dressed and changed her diaper. Then we came into the kitchen and I got her yogurt and cheese for her breakfast and started my coffee.

I usually work out first thing but I've noticed two things: one, if I work out after I've been awake a little while, I give about 1000x more effort. Also, Ruby crawls all over me, steals my weights, and sticks her fingers in my eyes, ears, and nose. So! I've rearranged it so that I do all my exercise while she's napping. Right now, I'm trying to do a little work while she's awake in the morning. I sit in the dining room so she can't reach my computer.

I fed her breakfast, read her some books, and drank my coffee. Once she was done, I set her free to play and generally destroy stuff and got my computer to do a little work.

At 9 am, Ruby and I went to wake up Magsy. Then Maggie and I stripped the bed and crib and remade both. Then we all went into the kitchen, where I made breakfast, filled our waters, and cleaned the kitchen. We eat the same thing every day. Ruby and I have a sausage, broccoli, egg, and cheese scramble and Maggie has whole wheat toast with butter and jelly and sausage, which she makes into little sandwiches. While we eat, I read from our history book and chapter book (we're still in Narnia; we've finished The Magician's Nephew and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe and are reading The Horse and his Boy). Then Maggie reads from her chapter book (Mercy Watson Fights Crime) and does memory work (we're memorizing our karate studio's student creed and 10 principles). We also do Bedtime Math and talk about the day.

About half way through, Ruby was done, so I took her and laid her down for her morning nap.

After that, Maggie went to play, decorate Ruby's room for the pets, and. . . I don't know. Who knows? She's always moving things and setting them up. Some times I hear snippets but in general she's got the plan in her head and just keeps going. Every once in a while she asks me if she can have a broom or the rest of Spot's toys.

I alternated exercising and working. So, I did my work out video and then called references for my home studies. Then did a wall sit and ran intervals, then finished references. Then yoga, then writing my reports.

Once Ruby woke up, we headed to the kitchen for lunch (Maggie had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich with a cutie and tortilla chips, I finished breakfast, and Ruby mostly had yogurt) and listened to our audiobook (Lemony Snickett A Bad Beginning--which is. . . dark, but Maggie likes it). After lunch, we went for a walk. The weather has been so gorgeous. I made Maggie hold Spot's leash, which she finds exhausting, and we played the guessing game. 

After our walk, we ALL took a shower. It's a circus. We all get in at once and then get out one at a time. First me, then Ruby, then Maggie, who promptly goes to her bathroom and takes a bath. While Maggie took her bath, I played and looked at books with Ruby.

I eventually ate my lunch and Maggie decided she wanted a second lunch. Then Richard came over to see the girls. Ruby laid down for her afternoon nap, I worked, and Maggie did her math and spelling.

Ruby was fussy when she woke up. I'm guessing she's tired. It was the "nothing makes you happy" thing. Poor baby. We ate dinner (chili for Maggie and I and chili and yogurt with peanut butter for Ruby). We did high/low during dinner. Maggie had a great day until late this afternoon and then got upset about everything. She's better now but it was weird.

After dinner, we played in the living room. We sang nursery rhymes and played with the block/books with nursery rhymes in them. Ruby was very carefully trying to stack them (I think someone needs wooden blocks for Christmas). She's been pointing out face parts (when she wants to). She's saying Spot, kitty kat, dog, Maggie, Mommy, Daddy, Ella, bite, all done, more. She says hi, hello, and bye. Anytime someone goes near the front door, or really any door, she screams, BYE! and waves like crazy. Same with hi. It's a fantastic greeting. She's also saying, I love you. She usually just says it back when I say it (and when she wants to) but yesterday while Maggie was in the bath, she just walked up to her and said, I love you. So sweet. Also, today, I was counting and I said one and two and she said three. Of course when I tried to get her to do it again, NOTHING. She has never once said buttons again. Every time Richard sees her, he asks her to say buttons and never, not once. She's kind of a punk, kind of awesome.