A snapshot

The good news is that I think about writing this blog several times a day. The less good news is how hard it is to actually sit down and write. Partly because I'm trying something new which is that I aim to actually edit my first draft rather than typing full-force and hitting "Publish", which would essentially be creating a stream-of-consciousness online journal which is not what I want to do. And partly because. . .you know, many kids and stuff.

My older kids got up at 5:30 this morning. Considering that a few months ago our son woke up every day at four, this shouldn't seem too bad. But they've been sleeping until six or seven lately and losing that extra bit of sleep today made for a rough start. I'd also been up at 1:30 and 4:30 to pump because my breasts hurt and woke me up before my alarms. I am a nursing mama with no babies to nurse at the moment so there is lots of pumping going on.

My big littles and I played for an hour. I then had them crawl to the kitchen so I could fold them into their blue Ikea high-chairs and feed them breakfast--multi-grain Cheerios, blueberries and scrambled eggs with cheese. Oh and a last-minute addition of a toasted end-piece of sourdough bread spread with cream cheese. Note to parents--this ended up being perfect for teethers to gnaw on, despite my initial concern that I'd given them too much crust for their taste. The end of breakfast was announced by someone waving the rest of his toast around his head and flinging it behind him onto the floor. Done! Wiped cream cheese and eggs off hands and faces and carried them into our bedroom so my husband could watch them while I pumped again. Went and got them and brought them back to their room where we played some more. I implemented my soon-to-be-patented parenting move (invented during pregnancy) which is Lay On the Floor on a Blanket with a Pillow and Watch Children Play. This is very effective until one of your children gets into a biting phase and you have to be available to separate the kids any time a mouth approaches a body. It also puts you into prime injury territory what with 1-year-olds' tendencies to hurl themselves full out onto your sore breasts or curiously pull your hair as though it is a piece of rope or, you know, bite. So up again to supervise and play the game of throwing a red spiky rubber ball into an empty diaper box and shouting "Hooray!" every time I made it in. I shouted, they just looked excited.

Our blessed baby-sitter arrived at 8:30 and took over. I went to pump again and then went to take a nap. I felt momentarily guilty before laying down but then did it anyway because I was soooo tired. Man are we in for an awakening once we've got our little babies home and they're reminding us how truly little sleep one gets with newborns. So nap-time it was.

Woke up 1.5 hours later, kissed the big babies before they went out for a walk, made myself a sandwich and sat down to pump AGAIN. Now it is almost noon and I haven't been to visit our girls yet. I haven't showered. The dog has not been out. Many things to do. But a quick sit-down to say hello to anyone reading and to keep recommitting to getting words on the page.

I'm working on a post about food and another one about snakes. Get excited!