A Week in my Life 2014 -- Monday

I'm joining Kathryn at Team Whitaker throughout the week.

I'm excited, especially, to capture two times in our life. First, Clare is 2 and Peter is 7 months -- watching them grow up and capturing that is priceless. Second, Charles is on his second of three medicine rotations, during intern year for his family medicine residency. Read: really hard on everyone (except, hopefully, the kids). So, with that in mind, welcome to a week in my life.

Wake-ups

Pager* - 0
Baby Peter - 2
Clare - 0

*Charles wasn't on call, so getting paged would have actually been surprising. Just wait. ;-)

Morning

4:30 -- Charles' alarm starts going off. He's up and in the shower. I roll over and doze while he gets ready.
5:30 -- He comes to my side of the bed to give me a kiss good-bye.
6:15 -- Finally drag myself up for some morning quiet time. I have mentioned on the blog several times how much I love getting up before the kids when I can and spending some quiet time alone. I drink coffee, blog, catch up on the internet, hopefully go through the daily readings.
6:45 -- I hear Baby Peter stirring, get him up, and nurse him. Take pictures of the trees.

7:15 -- I hear Clare stirring. She patters out and tests the waters until I give her the sign to come out. She runs around the corner, gives me a hug, and asks for a diaper change. Yes, there is potty training in my future. No, it's not this week (you're welcome, reader).

Today, I'm fighting a cold, I'm feeling better than I had on Sunday, but decide to forgo our play group's trip to the zoo, since I don't want to push my luck. Most Mondays, we join a group of fellow resident wives and their kiddos to play. In nice weather, we usually do something outdoors, but once the cold hits, we'll take turns hosting at our houses. This group has been such a blessing to me this year! Within the group, there are five or six little girls who are now 2, and all of them has an infant sibling. You couldn't ask for a group that has much more in common than that.

Because we're not going to the zoo, and because of my lingering cold symptoms (today: coughing junk up, fun!), I decide we're going to have a "lay low" morning. Which is a fancy way of saying the kids play while I do stuff. We had breakfast, cleaned the kitchen, put shredded beef (birria, family) in the crock pot for dinner,  did a bunch of laundry, and got the kids' closets winterized.

Clare and her princess life

Peter in his "fort" (under the coffee table)

Throughout the day, there was a definite lingering "knowledge" in the back of my mind. The weather was turning. Overnight. I was preparing to say good-bye to lovely fall and hello to winter. The big unknown for our family.

Yep. 72 one day. 37 the next.

Afternoon

Our early afternoons are pretty routine, so I'll write about it in greater detail later in the week. But, as usual, we had lunch, and got the kids down for naps (without too much struggle on Peter's end, and only one return to bed on Clare's).  While they were down, I had lunch, and winterized my closet with my not-quite-a-capsule wardrobe. I'm not jumping on the bandwagon. I counted my everyday pieces and ended up with 35, but I know some were in the wash, so . . . take it as you will. Since I have no real experience with winter, I don't have a good sense of what to expect to need, so I didn't want to get rid of too much. I did, however, hang several "question mark" pieces with the hanger facing backwards in my closet. If they haven't been used when I start moving spring pieces back in the closet, they'll head to Goodwill. 

Once Clare crawled out from her nap (literally -- she was being a baby spider), we decided to do some quick mother-daughter pedicures -- our first -- before Peter woke up.

We also got a surprise box in the mail from my sister. You guys! I am so unbelievably blessed by this girl. She lives in San Diego, and we talk every day. Sometimes several times a day. Yesterday, we FaceTimed twice. Whit had grabbed a scarf I left at my dad's when we were in Arizona several weeks ago, and mailed it back -- along with a care package for the kids and me! Such a fun surprise!! *all the emojis*

Once Peter woke up, the wind had picked up, so I decided against a trip to the park, and took the kids out to play in the leaves in our yard instead. Peter was not particularly interested. Clare thought it was fun for about 7 minutes before our thin Arizona blood dragged us inside. But I got some great shots out of it. :-)

Evening

At 5:30, I started making rice for dinner, fed Peter, and got Clare eating. On his medicine rotation, but especially on days like today, our rule is that if I haven't heard from Charles by 6pm, I go ahead and feed Clare. If I haven't heard from him by 7, I get both of them in the bath. If I haven't heard from him by 8, I put them to bed (but that, thank God, has only happened once).

Tonight, I get the call at 6:15. Daddy is headed home! The kids are already eating, but I decide, like I usually do, to wait and eat with Charles once the kids are in bed. It's just nice having that time together, and it's nice to eat a communal meal instead of a drill-sergeant one.

He had a long day, so we end up talking through baths, and finally put the kids in jammies and get them to bed on time, another routine I'll flesh out later. Clare fought it, but gave in with only a small bout of hysterics (I'm not ready for this phase. I'm not!) cured by some Daddy snuggles. Charles and I had dinner, finished up chores, and headed to bed.

Coming up: lots of weather talk! Errands! Wild and crazy gets wilder and crazier!