I am more than happy to report that we are out of survival mode and almost nailing this parenting of Irish twins thing. It's been a hell of a ride and I honestly cannot wait to watch these guys grow, learn, and love on us and each other. They are such a blessing. I realize that our life would be an absolute bore without the craziness they present.
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| Monkey see, monkey do. |
Our days normally start between 5:00 and 6:00 am, whenever Shepherd James decides. We are on his schedule. Up until recently, he's been a nightmare sleeper. Put him down at 8:00, up at 11:00, back down at midnight, up again at 3:00 and ready to go. Finally, something has clicked in the sweet precious head of his, and he's typically sleeping from 8:00 pm to about 5:30 or 6:00 am...all the praise hands y'all, all the praise hands!
Shep wakes up, we nurse, we play, we goof off. Daddy's alarm goes off and he checks Henry's moniter. Most of the time, Henry is still sleeping. Once Daddy steps out of the shower, he checks the monitor again, Henry is in his crib, dancing to the beat of his own drum. Guess it's time gather the beast and let the day offically begin!
We do a quick diaper change on both kids, assembly line style, and then it's time for breakfast. Lately, breakfast has been powdered donuts for Henry and yogurt for Shepherd. These boys love to eat! While they are contained and entertained with their food, it's time for mama to get ready for the day. This entails a quick swipe of deodorant, brushing of the teeth, and a smidge of makeup so I don't look dead. Pale skin with no blush = the look of death!
Once I'm dressed and ready to greet the day, breakfast is over and it's time to get dressed for school. I call it school because they actually do learn and it's crazy at all the things they are absorbing. Crazy!
Daddy then heads off to work...
Henry watches the garage door open. "Raage." (Garage).
"Bye da-da. Bye da-da." As Henry waves like a madman as daddy steps out into the garage and heads out for the day.
At this point Henry realizes it's school time and will say "shooos." While running to me with his shoes. We throw on his precious Sun and Sands sandals and we are out the door!
Drop off can take anywhere from 10 seconds to 30 minutes, it' all depends on Henry's mood. Here lately, once he adjusted to his new room, it takes no time at all. We are so thankful for those wonderful ladies at FUMC Day School. They treat our boys like their own children and I know my boys absolutely adore them!
Once the boys are dropped off, it's time to head home.
I am a creature of habit. I need a schedule. A routine. Organziation.
I am lost wihtout it. Lost.
Once I get home, I decide to make a fresh and hot cup of coffee. While the coffe is making, I make beds, pick up dirty clothes, sterilize bottles; you know mom stuff. After the coffee is made, it's time for work. I pull out my planner, see what I have scheduled for the day and get to it! Edit, email, marketing, planning the next few weeks, paying bills...if I have a session scheduled later that day or even the next day, I'll go ahead and gather my gear, charge cameras, format memory cards, etc...
My first break of the day is at 10:00 am when it's time to pump. The TV is normally still on (stupid) Disney kids. My first order of business is changing the channel. HGTV or FoodNetwork, yes please!
By 10:30, I have about 2-3 ounces of liquid gold and it's time to get back to work. I normally run errands around this time; making deposits, hitting the post office, and checking email again. I've learned that the earlier I do these dreaded errands, the less likely I am to run into folks and get sidetracked about work. If we are running low on necessities; milk, toilet paper, mac and cheese, I'll make a quick grocery run. If I'm making our big once a month grocery pit stop, I'll prepare my sales paper and coupons the day before. Creature of habit, y'all. I've been using coupons for years and don't plan on stopping anytime soon. I love saving money. Love it. If I can save $25 on diapers/wipes ALONE, that's a good day and I can allocate that money for something else; something fun, a trip, or staright into savings. We are working to pay off all of our debt, so anything we save will go straight into paying off debt. We are really trying to live off of my salary while saving what Taylor makes. It's hard and some days we both say 'screw this,' I want to eat out, or I want to buy the $25 DVD. We are human, after all.
After all the errands and editing and marketing, I look up as my phone dings, "Coming home!" It's 3:00 and Tay's coming home, yay!
From 3:00-4:00 is our time. No work. No phones. Just us. We may watch an episode of Jeopardy, or read our books, but it's time that we have alone with no kids. It's a sanity saver. Definitely.
At 4:00, it's time to get the boys. YAY!
We normally play from 4:00 - 5:00. Some days it's at home, some days it's at the park. It depends on moods; specifically Henry's! Around 4:45 Henry starts to get angry and having a meltdown; "eat. Eat. EAT, MAMA, EAT!" And that's my cue to start mac and cheese.
The boys have dinner from 5:00-5:30 and then it's back outside for more playtime. This is when the photographer in me is yearning for photos and I bust out the big guns and document the crazy.
Play time ends around 6:00 and it's time for baths. We still don't bathe them together, though we've tried. It's an exercise in futility. It just doesn't work, not yet. So we divide and conquer. One will bathe Sheppy and the other gets Henry. Bath time isn't that enjoyable for either boy, so we make it quick and then it's time for fresh diapers and pajamas.
Shep will typically nurse at this time and Henry will have his glass of night night milk. Once the milk is done, Henry will bring me a book and sit in my lap and we will read and read and read until he turns into an ass. That can only mean one thing: Henry's bedtime!
Henry is so great. You can ask him, "do you want to go watch your movie?" And he'll say 'night night' and cart off to his room with his blanket and his milk. Cue the minions! Kisses all around, and night night hugs, and Henry is down until about 6:30 the following morning.
Shepherd James is another story.
I'm not sleepy mama. I'm not. I promise. We will nurse again, try to snuggle him to sleep, and he'll fight it. For hours. So we then make the executive decision to ride him around. Before daddy is even out of the driveway, Shepherd James is passed out. Daddy rides around 10 more minutes just to make sure. Then Sheppy is down for the count (fingers crossed!) and it's time for mama and daddy to have dinner, clean up after the Irish twin tornado, maybe watch tv and then time for bed. And it all starts over again the next day.
This is just a typical day. If Tay's on call, things can change at the drop of a hat. He gets called out in the middle of play time, bath time, dinner, the middle of the night. Those call weeks are hard. Extremely hard. We are both living on edge. It's hard NOT knowing if he will be called out or not. We know the minute we get comfortable doing something, it could change. I'm forever grateful for his job and the service he provides this community, but no one understands what it's like unless they've lived it.
If I have a session scheudled during the late afternnon, all of this fun/dinner/bath is on daddy while mama works. If he's on call and I have a session, we'll either just wing it and pray no one needs an emergency section or intubation, or we will call his folks to come and sit with him while I'm gone. Most of the time we've been lucky, but not every time!
The weekends are completly different. They are an absolute free for all. I normally work every Saturday and Sunday, so a lot of the weekend parenting is left up to Tay. And I'm greeted with the biggest smiles and hugs when I come home and it's honestly the best thing I've ever experienced.
So, there you have it, our normal days! They are crazy. And loud. And messy. And we wouldn't change a single thing about it.
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