Day in the Life - Winter 2013

With prompting from Navigating the Mothership I present A Day in the Life for winter 2013.
Saturday, January 19th, 2013
Riley - 2 years, 11+ months

I totally planned on documenting my Day in the Life on Thursday, but didn't remember until 8:30 at night. It's a shame since I had this super weird dream that morning in which I uttered "thanks for the crotch hug". People are right when they say context means everything. Instead you will have to hear about my Saturday morning dream. When I woke at 4:04 I recalled a dream that I thought I would remember for sure since I couldn't get it out of my head as I tried to go back to sleep, but no matter how hard I try to remember it's gone.

However, I did fall back to sleep and had a dream that I should have taken a picture of Jesse for my day in the life when I was just awake. Apparently, I totally thought I was still awake or something. In my dream Jesse and Riley were in bed with me, but when I looked over at him he had a nuk in his mouth and was holding a baby doll. I totally had to take a picture of that! But by the time I grabbed my camera he was sitting up playing with Riley and the baby and nuk were gone. I was so bummed that I didn't capture that moment and that's all I remember of the dream. (I'm sure he'll be delighted to know I shared that dream with the internets.) I then woke up after what felt like 5 minutes of sleep to find out it was 5:43 - way to early to wake up, but almost two hours later.

I tried to fall back to sleep, and I'm pretty sure my body would have if my brain let it. So I 'rested' until I heard Riley making noises across the hall. I went in to get her and decided that she could watch some cartoons in my bed with the hope that I could get some more rest. Jesse fell asleep downstairs so it was just us girls hanging out in bed (including Lucy the cat).

I didn't actually rest as I had anticipated because Mr. Roger's Neighborhood was on and I got to see how fortune cookies are made and I got to see Eric Carle create some of his characteristic art for his children's books. It was actually really interesting stuff. (Update: Saturday night I had a dream that I was at an event where they served fortune cookies. They must have been defective because mine looked like it had been flattened on one side before it totally hardened up and one looked burnt, but I was able to grab a good one that I planned to bring home to Riley.)

Riley and I headed downstairs to eat some breakfast and to harass Jesse. That second part wasn't intended, but it was a little challenging keeping Riley from making noise and waking him up. I don't think he was too pleased, but, you know, he's a dad and he understands what comes with that role.

Riley helped feed Lucy while I got our breakfasts together. Lucy is a tad fat so some time ago we decided she would work for her food. We'd throw one nugget of food and she'd run for it. We've been lazy about doing it (and it shows on her). I had Riley do it one day to keep her preoccupied and now she wants to do it all the time.

Besides making and eating breakfast I cleaned up around the house and did laundry. We started music classes again so I wanted to get the house in better order before we left for that. Plus, we had a pretty full day scheduled.

I've been having some huge dry eye issues for 4 or 5 months now. I'm working with my doctor on different treatments which have all included eye drops. In a couple weeks he's going to put in these plugs that are supposed to help keep my tears on the eye. I hope it works, but I also read that omega 3's are good for this as well. I emailed Jesse about it on Thursday and he ordered me some supplements right away. Let's see if they work.

By 8:00 am we were rushing to get ready and leave by 8:30. It seems like it would be more than enough time, but it's amazing how long everything takes to do. But we did make it out the door on time to music class.

The only way I could get her to stand still for the picture was to tell her to stand by the frog... then she kept wanting to stand by the frog. And all through the day she repeatedly told people that she had on a "cute shirt". Not sure if that was something I said to her and she was just copying it or if she really thought that herself.

We took a music class with the same company last year and while Riley enjoyed it she was always the wild one in the room. All the other kids sat complacently in their parents laps while Riley ran around the room (often not listening to directions). This time Jesse was a little more excited for her to take this class than I was (partly because I don't want to be seen as the parent who can't control their kid). But this year she has totally embraced the class and is so engaged. Sure, she doesn't always listen, but I am ok with that. That's normal. Plus, we think the teacher this time likes Riley's spiritedness (is that a word?). I neglected to take any pictures in the class, but  scarves, sticks, a parachute, crafts, music, dancing... all occurred within 40 minutes. Loads of fun. Riley even got some "jingle bells" as she calls them to take home with her. She was pretty darn excited.

The day before I had suggested we head right to the gym after music class even though I had to be at a baby shower at 1:00 pm... which was an hour and a half away. So glad Jesse talked me out of that because I barely had enough time when we got home to wrap the gifts, feed Riley and myself, do some more laundry, and take a shower. I only left about 20 minutes late, but figured I would be fashionably late.

This is me attempting to wear mascara. It's one of the few times I've done so in months due to my dry eyes. I'm putting in about 6 eye drops a day so makeup just seems like a pain. Putting the mascara on was like doing it for the first time - I had my lashes all clumped together and mascara all over my lids. Luckily, I was able to clean up enough to make myself presentable.

While I was attempting to make myself presentable Riley got into one of my drawers and found these back up glasses. I ordered them online for $25 just in case they were ever needed. It's a good thing I never needed them because the prescription wasn't quite right. Also, once I got them I thought they were ugly, but Riley looks great in them. I'm a little jealous.

Shortly after noon we headed down towards Albert Lea, MN for my birth sister-in-law's baby shower. Yes, that's sort of a mouth full. Tara is married to Derek who is my birth brother and the shower was at my birth sister, Lindsey's, house. (I was adopted and found my birth family years later). It was a fairly nice morning with clear roads, sunny skies, and a decent temperature of 41 degrees. The only downfall was that it was a bit windy so I was on high alert the entire drive down.

I was also hoping that Riley would sleep in the car since the baby shower was right during her nap time, but I made the mistake of telling her she could have the iPad in the car... and there was no sleeping with that.

Southern MN has way less snow than we do.

We showed up about 20 minutes late, but these ladies were on top of things and already started the games. I was ok with this since I'm not a huge fan of games anyway, but it turned out I was a winner in the first game I played.

I did not win this game

We got a little surprise when my birth dad, Leo, showed up. I don't get to see him (or any of my birth family) very much so it was nice to get to chat for a bit.

There were a few other kids there... and books and balloons so Riley had a good time as well. 

Lindsey, Riley and me, of course.

Some last minute primping before we left

We headed home just before 4:00 pm and I was overly optimistic that Riley would fall asleep in the car. I forgot to bring her comfort sleeping items so she just whined for the iPad... and I gave in. 

Oh, Minnesota and your large sculptures of everything.

I stopped to get gas before I got on the highway and it was apparent that the temperature dropped and the wind picked up. The car said the outside temp was 31, but it felt far colder than that. I just hoped that my ride home wouldn't be a white knuckler with the force of the wind, but it sort of was. Let's just say I was grateful when we got home and got in the door. It was cold out and is only supposed to get even colder over the next couple days. Like, don't leave the house cold.

It was about 5:30 and I know both Riley and I were hungry (plus she was getting sleep deprived crabby). I opened the fridge and freezer and made a note that I might have to go out in the cold the next day after all as we really need groceries. Jesse's mom had brought him a party pizza (to remind him of when he was 15 apparently, and me too - didn't we all eat those things when we were teens?) which has been sitting in the freezer so I decided to pop that in the oven. Moments later Jesse walked in the door. He spent the afternoon with his buddy, Tom, playing a board game. There is a game store in Roseville where you can also go and hang out to play games. I don't totally get it, but I don't have to - as long as Jesse gets to see his friends and has fun.

We decided to throw together some other food for Riley so she didn't have to wait for the pizza to cook. And we popped in the movie "Brave" which I just won at work the day before. Eventually, we all sat down to eat with completely different meals. But at least we ate together.

After dinner Jesse gave Riley a bath while I finished putting the laundry away. I then read a bunch of books to sleepy head and put her down about 7:20 - 10 minutes early. It's not much, but she didn't make a peep after going down.

After Riley went to sleep, I finally sat down in front of the computer to write this post and organize all the photos I took during the day. After about an hour I determined I should really eat some veggies after eating  pizza for dinner so I made myself a small village salad.

Doh! Realized a day later when looking at this picture that I forgot the feta!

Seat stealer

At a quarter to 10 the cats start bugging me for food and I realized that I was starving. I don't like eating that late, but there was no way I would make it through the night. I poured myself a bowl of cereal, typed up some more of this post and eventually made my way to the basement to say goodnight to my husband who had been watching West Wing all night. It's 10:30, which is about a half hour after I usually go to bed, and Jesse is asleep on the couch. Some natural disaster show is on and it's talking about the great flood in East Grand Forks in the 90's. I get sucked in, but finally pull myself away at 10:45 and crawl upstairs to zonk out in bed.