A Week in My Life 2014 -- Wednesday

Joining Kathryn at Team Whitaker.

Wake-ups:
Pager -- 2 (or was it 3?)
Baby Peter - 2.5 (one was at 5 -- I got up after nursing, but he went back to sleep)
Clare - 0

Morning:

Wednesday dawned cold (again -- but highs around freezing and wind chills in the teens might be nothing to northerners, but for us . . . it ain't no joke), and I was still fighting congestion galore from my cold. BUT Wednesday is story time at the downtown library, so we had places to get (slowly, since it doesn't start until 10:30).

Early morning snuggles

We got ready and bundled and headed to the central library, across the street from Clare's "castle" (the historical society museum -- I'm not sure what the building was originally). I didn't get any pictures because I was trying to keep us out of the cold, but I can replay this one from this summer.

Only grey, cold, bundled, and frozen.

Story time on Wednesdays is the best. Miss Nina, the leader is fantastic. I don't anything about her background (she's probably in her 60s), but she is a born kindergarten teacher. She is just so good with the littles. Clare and Peter both love the signing and dancing. It really shows Clare's learning personality, too. She listens so attentively, and really processes new rhymes and hand motions. At story time, it sometimes seems like she's not participating well, but she's absorbing it all. I know because we get home, and she starts doing the new ditty -- and has it down pat!

She also loves staying to play puzzles and letters and read books after story time. Meanwhile, I'm just trying to keep Peter from chowing down on the library's germy, germy goods.

I also love story time because we're getting to know people there. I find myself saying hi to parents in the parking lot who we see week after week. And it really is a small world! I have a couple of play group friends who usually bring their kids. Before our time, they had befriended a frequent story time mom and her littles. On Sunday, we saw each other at Mass, but didn't see one another to talk after, so yesterday, we were able to talk Mass times and behavior. It's just always nice to have those connections.

Afternoon:

After we got home from the library, I set to work making Clare's favorite lunch -- macaroni and cheese. While I was boiling water and cooking pasta and cutting fruit, she was playing with a car in the kitchen. The car, apparently, was misbehaving. "Car, that was naughty. Time out. 2 minutes." She sounded just like I must sound when she meets the same fate. Oh, the ways parenting opens your eyes to yourself!! My sweet, good-hearted girl couldn't stand to let the car go the full two minutes before, "Mama, I check on the car." I was laughing and self-reflecting all at once.

Blurry Peter and the "naughty" car

After lunch, both kids went down for naps without a hitch. Thank goodness, because I needed some downtime! I plopped myself on the couch with a hot cup of tea and the computer. I caught up on Project Runway:All Stars (just not the same as the original), and also caught up on some emails and computer stuff. I felt better and rested.

During that time, I totally felt the earthquake near the Oklahoma border. I had never felt one before and it was so weird. The house felt like it "shifted" and then didn't. I had no idea what was going on until a friend mentioned feeling an earthquake on Facebook. Lightbulb!!

I tried the mom blog selfie -- I'm not there yet.

As a result (I think) of feeling more rested, the remainder of the afternoon went as well as can be expected. Lots of playing and a bit of afternoon crankiness. The highlight was starting baked potatoes for dinner, because Clare has decided that washing potatoes is her job. She brought her chair over and pulled up her sleeves and got to work.

One other funny bit from our afternoon and evening: Clare got it in her head that she was going to wear underwear last night. We're potty training soon, and talk about it a lot. She loves looking at her undies, but, you know . . . Anyway, on several occasions, she came out with her panties and various statements of how she was going to get to wear them. At one point, she had them over her pants with two legs in one leg hole, pulled up to below her knees! Soon kiddo! Soon!

Evening:

Charles didn't have to admit patients or see clinic patients this afternoon, so he used it as a chance to get some work done (always more to do than time to do it, poor guy), and was able to get away a little after 5:30. We were able to have dinner as a family, and had way too much fun playing with the kiddos before bed. After, we were able to wrap up chores and enjoy a little TV together before we went to bed ourselves.

Coming up: a chilly Thursday! Baking! More attempts at a decent selfie!