Day in the life - Saturday, May 7th

First of all - Happy Mother's Day to all the mamas out there! I also know that this day can be kind of rough for some - those who are dealing with infertility and those who have lost their mothers, as well as those who just don't have a good relationship with them. I'm thinking of all of you today.

Here we go again, this time a weekend for a change of pace! Although this wasn't exactly what I'd call a typical day, it is a day in the life nonetheless!

6:20am - Jolted awake by Annie crying pretty hard, which I can hear despite my STILL plugged up ears. I'm beginning to think maybe seasonal allergies? I've just felt stuffed in the head for about a week now and it's very annoying. Anyway, Ben checks the monitor and Annie is still laying down and seems to already be calming down so we just turn the monitor down for a minute to give her a chance to settle herself. When she's ready to wake up she's usually happy, so if she's crying that's pretty much a signal she needs more sleep. When he turns it back up she's quiet and asleep again.

7:00am - Hear some babbles from the monitor, but Annie is still laying down. We continue resting and she occasionally makes a noise but is not sitting up, so whatever.

7:15am - Ben is awake, so decides to just go get Annie - he gets her, changes her diaper, and brings her back upstairs. I can't even remember now but I think I might have come downstairs to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth at this point because I was feeling like crap from the plugged up head. We all go back upstairs and lay on the bed - Annie seems to almost want to go back to sleep - she keeps laying on top of me sucking her thumb, but she doesn't actually give in to being tired. Eventually we both want coffee, so we go downstairs.

7:45am - Bring Annie's chair out on the porch with her milk. It's a beautiful day, which is funny since when I check weather.com, it says it's raining. There is literally not a cloud in the sky, and it's already kind of warm. Ben immediately turns on Bluegrass Saturday Morning as he does every Saturday - one of our few family traditions. Annie sometimes bounces around but it's not quite as loud on the porch so I'm not sure she notices much today. I also took the sheets off our bed (we do this FAR too infrequently) to wash them so I take those down to the basement and get the laundry started right away.

I do also have a pic of me on the porch, but... yeah. Not going on the blog. To the 3 people who saw it on flickr before I changed it to "friends & family" only, I'm sorry :) [note - I've gotten a few questions about this picture. It's not inappropriate, it's just ugly. Me first thing in the morning with my bright red robe on = not that pretty]

8:05am - I go into the basement again and grab 2 apple pumpkin muffins out of the freezer - one for me, one for Annie. We eat them on the porch, and after she finishes hers, she comes over and tries to have mine. I somehow fend her off - I was waiting to eat mine until Ben finished his elaborate coffee ritual, which takes awhile. For awhile we were doing cold press coffee, which he made at first, but then we got in a growler from Dunn Bros. Then recently he decided to go back to French Press coffee but the process has since become even more ridiculous to me - he keeps the coffee beans in the fridge, measures out 1/4 cup each day and grinds them then - he can't just keep them in the grinder, oh no. They must be FRESH. He then puts the grounds into the french press, and when the water is boiling, pours it in - here's where it gets even crazier. He then sets the timer for exactly 4 minutes, and will not push the press down until then, so the grounds can properly steep into the water, or something like that. I don't pay much attention, and just get a cup when all is said and done. Once the coffee is done, it goes into a thermos so it can stay piping hot. Whew. This is all him, by the way. I can tell the difference between good and bad coffee, but I put so much cream and sugar in mine that by the time I drink it, it's irrelevant.

I tried feeding her bites but she just wanted the whole thing.

Anyway, Annie then makes her distinctive face that indicates a messy diaper so I go change her but alas, it was a false alarm.

8:20am - I tell Ben to make Annie up some yogurt so she'll stop trying to eat my muffin, which he mixes with applesauce and cinnamon - she eats that up too, I guess she was hungry.

Annie is entranced by these shoes

Decides she needs more toys out on the porch

8:47am - I get a text from Laura, who is a new blogger friend - we are scheduled to get coffee at 10am, and she has to cancel. BIG POUTY FACE HERE. I was way looking forward to meeting her, but her kid barfed on her so that's as good an excuse as I've heard, that's for sure! After this I'm kind of down on the day and want to do something to make up for my loss of morning plans. Annie makes her poop face AGAIN, so Ben changes her this time. This time a better effort, but still not her usual. Something definitely seems off about her today.

8:58am - Molly and Mia come over from next door - I borrowed Mia's shape sorter for awhile while they were vacationing in Aruba and haven't given it back yet - so Mia found a star and had to bring it over.

9:00am - Despite not having any plans until later, I still want to shower now, so Ben takes Annie on a run to Menard's to get some supplies for the garden he's building. I shower, get dressed, and do my makeup and hair and feel much better. I also take Annie's laundry down to do and put our sheets in the dryer.

9:45am - Ben and Annie arrive home, it's pretty warm outside so I decide to take Annie's long sleeve onesie off, and put her in shorts so her cute pants (now capris, really) will stay clean for the party we're going to later. Yup, it was snowing on Monday and we're in shorts on Saturday. That's Minnesota for ya!

Annie and I take a little walk down the driveway when they get back - these shoes are hard for her to walk in, so I'm impressed by her efforts.

10:05am - The mailman FREAKS ME THE F OUT by dropping the mail on our front porch. Annie makes ANOTHER poop face, and keeps yawning - what the hell is going on with her??! After changing her diaper AGAIN, I lather her up with sunscreen while she checks out the mail. We then leave for a walk to the park - I decide to just take along my borrowed 75-300mm lens for a change of pace. Annie is super lethargic and when we get to the playground, just sits there staring. Usually she is chomping at the bit to get out of her stroller, so we know something is up. We take her out anyway and she does play a bit but not with her usual vigor.

Crazy how much the landscape can change around here in just a week!

We let her go down the slide a few times by herself and she bonked her head... so now it's supervised trips only.

A little happy at least

My favorite backyard in the neighborhood - the one I call the urban oasis because it's surrounded by tall hedges and really secluded

Soprano roars at us from Nate & Molly's porch when we come back

11:00am - We came back from the park, and I made her some sweet potatoes and leftover chicken from last night so she could eat lunch a bit early, and went out on the porch to read her a book which she seemed to enjoy. We then decided to check Annie's temperature because she still felt warm. We have been extremely lucky and really have never even needed to check her temperature before in her life. I think we did maybe once? Anyway, we don't even have a good thermometer, just the one that came with our baby first aid/grooming kit - it takes forever. We sat there for awhile and her underarm temp eventually got up to about 101. Perhaps I should have been more concerned, but she had no other symptoms of anything, so I figured we'd just give her lunch and put her down early for her nap and see how she was later. I know that it's normal for babies to run low temps and this wasn't that high... but it was just so sad.

Annie's lunch

Annie was NOT pleased about this, at all.

11:30am - Ben had plans with Justin to go on a bike ride today before his birthday/going away party later. He left, and I gave Annie her lunch. She kind of picked at her food, ate a few bites but then just half heartedly spit them out. I put the chicken and sweet potatoes back in the fridge, and just gave her a banana which she did eat thankfully. All rules of being a hard ass about food go out the window when she's looking this sad! I also made her up some peanut butter toast - she ate a bite but then just spit that out too. Then she started kind of scaring me - just looked away blankly and started breathing heavy like she does when she's falling asleep. Uh, I've seen pictures of OTHER babies asleep in their high chair (even my sister!) but I would have NEVER thought Annie would EVER EVER do that - she seriously has NEVER fallen asleep on the floor playing or anything like that, or anywhere random - so this is FAR out of her norm. So I watched her for awhile, kind of curious if she'd do it. She did close her eyes a few times but just looked so sad obviously so I cleaned her up and put her in her crib.

This is the saddest picture I've ever taken.

11:50am - Annie is down for the count. Normally she is barely even looking remotely tired even by 1pm, and has been fine even until 2pm on occasion. Damn, something is UP with her and I hope a long nap fixes what ails her! I run down to change the laundry again after I put her down. Deposit sheets on the chair for the time being.

Yup, I took a picture of the sheets.

12:00pm - Since it was beautiful outside, I knew I needed to spend naptime in the backyard. Thus begins the 6 months of guilt about spending time inside if it is at all nice out - every moment counts when you're stuck inside for half the year! Prepare some dip for myself - 4oz cream cheese, softened for a bit in the microwave, with some salsa. (I do not eat all this dip, but that's just how much cream cheese I had) Lunch of champions! Go outside with my chips, dip, the monitor, and Two Kisses for Maddy. My coworker Miranda lent it to me a few weeks ago but I had been avoiding starting it because I knew the story and knew it would be hard to read. So glad I started it finally! I stayed outside for awhile at the table, reading and munching on my chips. I was glad to have my huge sunglasses on because I frequently started crying from reading the book. My butt eventually fell asleep, so I got the outdoor blanket from the garage and spread it out on the ground so I could lay down. I notice Annie rustling and making a few noises at 1:10 but nothing major.

My view - there's the garden Ben made! Unfortunately he made it BEFORE he read the book on how to do it, so now he has to make some changes, but oh well.

A little self portrait.

1:45pm - I am getting a bit concerned about getting sunburned, so I come inside and read some more. I start to do things around the house, like dishes and putting the sheets on the bed but stop because I don’t want to wake Annie up at 2:20 - I want her to have as long of a nap as possible and she seems to usually be a pretty light napper.

2:37pm Annie is rustling a bit - she starts crying so I go in there and hold her with the lights still off - she rests on my shoulder for awhile, still feeling pretty warm - she then gestures toward the crib again so I put her in. I watch her for awhile - she's just laying there with her eyes open, sucking her thumb. I leave the room - she lays there for awhile and I can see her eyes are open but then she moves out of range of the monitor. She stops moving so I figure maybe she went back to sleep. Justin's party starts at 3, and clearly we won't be there then. I'm definitely giving Annie as much time as she needs to rest today! After doing the rest of the dishes and a few other things, I decide to just lay on the couch for a bit and rest.

Eyes open

3:36pm - Annie appears to still be sleeping. I am getting concerned, and also do want to go to this party, so at 3:45 go in to check on her. Annie's eyes are open - she sits up when I go in there so I pick her up - she's definitely still warm and lethargic so I give her some tylenol. I've already found out there will be no other kids at this party, and it's outdoors, so I figure it's fine to still go - I can either sit at home cuddling with Annie, or go to Jake and Allison's house and sit outside holding Annie.

3:57pm - We pull out of the driveway - I hope if Annie still needs more rest she just rests on the car ride there, which is about 20 minutes. We arrive at Jake and Allison's and Ben immediately takes Annie and gives her the other half of a banana for her snack, with some milk. She eats that pretty well. Everyone is just sitting outside, some people are playing bean bags. I mostly talk to Michelle who has a son who is a month older than Annie and has a C-section scheduled for #2 in 11 days. Yup - they'll be 16 months apart! I was weirdly jealous of her, but not really. We discuss how at least her son will basically know nothing different than having a little sister - I've heard horror stories of moms with kids who are 2.5-3 years apart with jealousy issues and all that, but I guess pretty much any age difference has it's pros and cons. They also couldn't even find a shirt that said "Big Brother" in a small enough size for him - haaaaaaaaaaa :)

Annie seems to be much better - not incredibly interested in playing but doing ok. She isn't interested in eating the chicken and sweet potatoes I brought, so she gets to just have watermelon and graham crackers for dinner. Again, all rules out the window when she's sick and we're not even home. Oh lovely. (To make up for this, she had sweet potatoes, peas and chicken for breakfast today, which she gobbled up :) By about 6pm, Annie seems to be in much better spirits which is good. It was a beautiful night and we had a great time at our first BBQ of the season!

For some reason, Ben enjoys taunting Annie

My dinner

Annie is a bit scared of Jake

A smile!

6:45pm - Annie and I leave the party - Ben stays there because it's Justin's last party before he moves to Montana to be with his love, Chelsea. (Justin is Ben's high school friend, Chelsea is mine, so we are basically calling ourselves responsible for their happiness. No big deal.) We drive home and Annie is chatty in the backseat, pissed whenever the sun is in her eyes - much more normal now.

7:05pm - Get home, immediately get Annie in her jammies, give her milk and read her Goodnight Moon, then brush teeth, wash hands and put in bed. (Random update from last Monday's day in the life - Annie's lead levels came back super low, so we don't need to mop our floors! I still figure washing her hands is probably for the best though, so we'll continue that, I guess :)

I like how she's making her cheese face at the camera... except the camera isn't pointed at her - ha.

7:15pm - Annie is in bed, I move out to the porch to enjoy more of the evening. I love listening to the neighborhood kids playing and watching couples on their walks. I've said it before, but there is almost nothing I love more about our house than our front porch! I chat a bit online to Nate, who I can actually see on his porch. Ha.

I rotate vintage photos of Annie as my laptop background - this one at 5.5 months old is one of my all time faves :)

8:10pm - Decide to move inside for a change of scene. The internet is kind of boring so mostly I'm just going through the photos from the day.

8:39pm - Annie makes a noise and moves around for awhile, didn't turn into crying.

8:48pm - Have exhausted the internets, so I turn to Gossip Girl. Before I start, I decide to do all the rest of the dishes, and fix myself a bowl of Lucky Charms for dessert, even though I actually already had dessert at the party. Watch Gossip Girl for awhile, but man is this episode ever boring. I don't even finish it actually, which is a first. Plus I CANNOT stand how many commercials CWTV.com has on there - horrible! I swear it's more than the actual TV. Not that I'd know since I haven't watched actual TV for months, but whatever.

9:45pm - For probably the first time ever, I go in to actually check on Annie, versus going in to just rub her head for my own benefit. She seems warm but then again she always is when she sleeps - she doesn't seem hot so that's good.

10:09pm -Annie makes another noise, again not crying. I decide to go upstairs and read more of Two Kisses for Maddy, which I do until about 11 when I go to bed. No more wake ups for Annie or I for the night!

Annie actually had a very similar day today - totally fine in the morning, and then feverish and lethargic in the afternoon with a long nap, but better after tylenol and seemed much better later in the evening. Maybe teething? I have no idea, but it's very strange and I hope she isn't really sick!