Everything I did on Friday, January 3, 2020
Location: Pasadena, CA
6:30am Gibson crawls in our bed and wakes me up
6:50am I get out of bed to cough and blow my nose for awhile. I've been battling a cold/laryngitis/possible bronchitis for a week. It's getting old.
7:00am Make a cup of tea. It does not taste like vinegar, thankfully. My electric kettle had a bunch of mineral deposits on it yesterday so I tried a vinegar soak. Now it's nice and clean. I find a package of Hawaiian hot dog buns in the cupboard that need to be used up so I toast two and add PB&J for breakfast.
7:15am Gibson comes into the kitchen pretending to be Gus because he wants the jelly bean Gus is owed from last night (our current bribe for using the bathroom by oneself). I feed them some generic Lucky Charms. They mainly eat the marshmallows.
7:30am the boys go back to bed to jump on Daddy. DF switched to a new job this year where the vacation time schedule is very flexible, and he was able to take two full weeks off for the holidays. We've definitely enjoyed having him home! I text our relatives in San Diego that we won't make it down to visit this weekend, since I'm still sick. We'll have to celebrate our belated Christmas even more belatedly, I guess.
7:50am Remember that it's the first Friday of the year and I need to start writing this list. DF and boys get up and play blocks in the playroom (Whomp Kings, a game they made up). I hang out with them for awhile.
8:15am Unload the dishwasher. It has been leaking lately. I clean out the "gunk" trap over the drain, which is super gross. Hopefully that will help. Wash dishes still hanging out in the sink from last year (ha ha). We had company for a week over New Years and we're still recovering. DF and kids are playing Lego Star Wars on Wii now. I take a long hot shower and inhale as much steam as I can before my California guilt kicks in about wasting water. I decide to be brave and wear contact lenses today. We had pink eye making the rounds here so I was wary of sticking my fingers in my eyes, but the kids seem to have recovered fully. Try to install the new phone screen protector I got for Christmas. Drat, it's the wrong size.
9:15am Gibson requests a cookie. More tea for me. Clean off the pile of stuff that has accumulated on the top of our dryer, the family temporary storage area. Send a Christmas card that got returned for an old address. Read the news about impending war with Iran. Try not to despair about the state of the world.
10:00am Time for more Mucinex. Watch the Wii game. Gibson is whining sooo much about the game my ears are about to explode. DF turns it off and takes a shower. The kids and I play "what animal am I thinking of?" and other pretending games.
11:00am I eat black eyed peas and greens for lunch. More good luck coming my way! The boys are playing Legos. They eat some beef jerky, apple slices, and corn muffins. Gus blows muffin crumbs all over the place. He informs me his New Year's resolution is to make more messes. <eyeroll> We have a discussion about death, the afterlife, and options for disposal of bodies. This is a fairly common topic of conversation.
11:30am DF takes the boys to a thrift store to look at toys because they want to spend their Christmas money. While they are out, I run the robot vacuum and do some laundry. I get deeply involved in making a "decade in review" post on Instagram, scouring my photo archives for images to represent the spectrum of my life for the last 10 years. I also reply to some messages that come in from a volunteer organization I work with. We are making plans for our 2020 fundraiser. Just as the boys come back, I field a call related to the fundraiser and croak out some words on the phone for 10 minutes. Doing so makes me feel like a productive member of society.
1:15pm Shoppers return home. They are loaded down with swords, light sabers, smash balls, Legos, and other things I don't recognize.
1:30pm Snack time - granola and frozen blueberries. We all play with the new toys. I trim my fingernails and convince the boys to sit on the front stoop so I can trim theirs, too. DF assembles 26 smash balls.
2:40pm all smash balls have been destroyed. They contain little rubber sports-themed figures. I drink more tea and do more laundry. The kids picked up some banks at the store and want to transfer all their coins from their previous banks to the new ones. We practice some Spanish - hola, adios, te amo - because we're planning to send the boys to a dual language Spanish program for elementary school. I send the robot vacuum to the back of the house.
3:40pm cracker snack. Watch Sponge Bob Square Pants. I install a new game on my phone because I recently got a new phone and am going crazy enjoying all the memory space, lol.
4:25pm load and run dishwasher. Fold laundry. The kids are watching Super Wings.
4:45pm turn off the TV. Attempt to get the kids out the door to a restaurant for dinner. They attack me with light sabers.
5:05pm They are finally dressed. (They had been wearing PJs all day. I let them wear PJs nearly whenever they want because soon enough they'll have to get dressed in a uniform for school every day. If they whine about it, I plan to say, "Remember when you were little and you used to wear your pajamas all day every day? That was nice, huh? Now you are big kids who go to school, so you need to wear your uniform.") We finally leave at 5:15. Stop by the UPS store to return my phone screen protector to Amazon. I don't even have to put it in a box. Whoa, such service. We eat dinner at our favorite diner that has a special with 3 hamburgers, 3 fries, and 3 drinks for $11.99. The boys share a burger (and don't even finish it) and I drink water, so it's a great deal for our family! On the way home, we try to pick up an item from our local Buy Nothing group but the family wasn't home.
6:40pm We're home. I unload the dishwasher, which did not leak on the floor. Yay! The kids are excited to see their toys again.
6:50pm Take anti-anxiety medicine, my current best friend. Drink more tea. Motivate the kids to clean up the playroom by rebuilding one smash ball for each small amount of cleaning effort.
7:45pm Snack time. Gibson requests peanut butter on a spoon. Gus ignores my repeated warnings of bedtime approaching.
8:00pm Time to get ready for bed. Gus, predictably, objects that he didn't get a snack. He scarfs down a few pretzels while Gibson brushes his teeth.
8:15pm DF tells them a bedtime story. It's still called a "Goldilocks" story and bears little resemblance to the traditional narrative. Usually, I do it but we've reached the point in the evening where my voice has faded and the coughing intensifies. I go to make a cup of (disgusting, licorice) Throat Coat tea. While I'm waiting for the water to boil, I read the ingredients and notice it has cinnamon bark. Whoops, I'm allergic to cinnamon! I'm off the hook and choose Sleepytime Vanilla instead. Write some Amazon product reviews while sipping tea.
8:35pm Children are loudly singing the rainbow song from their beds. I go in and tell them it's time to quiet down. After one last hug and drink of water, they go to sleep. DF and I watch a few episodes of Undone, a new Amazon show that is really trippy.
9:45pm I take Mucinex and vitamins and head to bed, propped up on 4 pillows.
Thanks for reading! You can check out previous days in the life here:
2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 <-- the most exhausting one
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TV. Show all posts
Saturday, January 4, 2020
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
A Good Day
Das Fenster is back! Yay! He arrived home last week, and we're all glad to have him here again. The boys were kind of out of whack that first day - I think it finally hit them that Daddy had been gone so long. There was a lot of screaming and crying :( But they've recovered now and are in much better spirits.
Yesterday, DF had the day off and we spent a lovely family day together. Having to be the solo parent for so long really makes me appreciate when both of us are here. I mean, life just seems so much easier when I don't have to do everything by myself! Here's what we did yesterday.
Morning
DF took the boys to the park for more than an hour, early in the day to beat the heat. While they were gone, I was able to reorganize the boys' closet (which we are using for storage) and move some boxes out of our room into theirs. This includes some under-the-bed boxes that I'd been wanting to put under their cribs for weeks, but I just wasn't interested in doing it when they were home because they'd want to dump out all the contents, pull the boxes out from under the cribs, shove them back in again, pinch their fingers, climb on the boxes, fall off, hurt their toes, etc...
I also vacuumed under all the furniture (found 20+ Cheerios under the couch) in addition to my regular vacuuming, and swept the non-carpeted floors. They still weren't home, so I just sat on the couch and enjoyed the peace and quiet.
After they got back and the boys ate a snack, they took all the cushions off the couch and jumped/rolled around for quite awhile. DF played with them; I mainly observed and provided comfort for all the minor injuries that ensued.
I can't remember what happened during lunch, but they must've eaten something and it wasn't a total disaster. Oh, I think they mainly had cantaloupe. They like to take the chunks of melon and drive them around their trays like trucks. It's pretty cute.
Afternoon
During nap time, I went to the grocery store by myself. I was able to pick a store that does not have huge shopping carts with two kid driving wheel seats. And, I could stop and consider products for as long as I wanted to make a selection. I think that's my favorite part of shopping by myself - having my whole brain available to think about what I'm buying. I have purchased the wrong item before when the kids were literally trying to jump out of the cart so I just grabbed something and hoped it was what I was looking for.
Instead, I stood in front of the butter/alternative butter section for quite awhile deciding which non-dairy option I was going to try. (I opted for Smart Balance, even though I was skeptical since it listed fish oil as an ingredient and I'm not really interested in adding sardine flavor to my English muffins. But, good news, it's pretty tasty and not fishy!) The only other person I had to be aware of during that time was the guy stocking the shelves near me. He seemed capable of handling life without my intervention. Good, good.
After shopping, I mopped the aforementioned non-carpeted floors (although I did not want to, but given the amount of orange juice that gets sloshed around the kitchen, a once-weekly mopping schedule is necessary). Then I read an easy-breezy fiction book for awhile.
When the kids woke up, we all went up to the pool to go swimming. Can I just tell you, it is soooo much easier to take them swimming with a 1:1 ratio? Wow, how did I forget that?! There were a fair number of people at the pool, probably since the temperatures were soaring over 100. We tried a new technique for post-swim time where we brought their diapers and clothes up to the pool with us and changed them there, rather than making them walk back to the apartment dripping and shivering. It was remarkably successful! They liked lounging poolside and drying off, too.
Later, DF entertained the boys while I got dinner ready. I surreptitiously ate a burrito while they watched cartoons, so I wasn't starving while trying to feed them. Score! The boys enjoyed smooshing refried beans everywhere during their meal.
Evening
We decorated little pumpkins by drawing on them with Sharpies, and they also colored pictures of pumpkins that I drew. Then they ran around the house with their pumpkins saying, "Spooky! Boo!" They think that pumpkins are supposed to be scary, based on an episode of Bubble Guppies. We got some cute pictures of them with their gourds.
The rest of the evening was unspecified play time with blocks, books, pretend cooking, and general two year old silliness. We probably watched more cartoons, though I don't exactly recall.
They were in bed shortly after 8, and DF and I were able to have a normal conversation without any particular agenda or needing to make decisions/plans. It was like two friends talking to each other. Wowzers! I wrapped the day up by going to bed early to try and catch up on sleep after a not very restful night a couple days before.
All in all, a good day :)
Yesterday, DF had the day off and we spent a lovely family day together. Having to be the solo parent for so long really makes me appreciate when both of us are here. I mean, life just seems so much easier when I don't have to do everything by myself! Here's what we did yesterday.
Morning
DF took the boys to the park for more than an hour, early in the day to beat the heat. While they were gone, I was able to reorganize the boys' closet (which we are using for storage) and move some boxes out of our room into theirs. This includes some under-the-bed boxes that I'd been wanting to put under their cribs for weeks, but I just wasn't interested in doing it when they were home because they'd want to dump out all the contents, pull the boxes out from under the cribs, shove them back in again, pinch their fingers, climb on the boxes, fall off, hurt their toes, etc...
I also vacuumed under all the furniture (found 20+ Cheerios under the couch) in addition to my regular vacuuming, and swept the non-carpeted floors. They still weren't home, so I just sat on the couch and enjoyed the peace and quiet.
After they got back and the boys ate a snack, they took all the cushions off the couch and jumped/rolled around for quite awhile. DF played with them; I mainly observed and provided comfort for all the minor injuries that ensued.
I can't remember what happened during lunch, but they must've eaten something and it wasn't a total disaster. Oh, I think they mainly had cantaloupe. They like to take the chunks of melon and drive them around their trays like trucks. It's pretty cute.
Afternoon
During nap time, I went to the grocery store by myself. I was able to pick a store that does not have huge shopping carts with two kid driving wheel seats. And, I could stop and consider products for as long as I wanted to make a selection. I think that's my favorite part of shopping by myself - having my whole brain available to think about what I'm buying. I have purchased the wrong item before when the kids were literally trying to jump out of the cart so I just grabbed something and hoped it was what I was looking for.
Instead, I stood in front of the butter/alternative butter section for quite awhile deciding which non-dairy option I was going to try. (I opted for Smart Balance, even though I was skeptical since it listed fish oil as an ingredient and I'm not really interested in adding sardine flavor to my English muffins. But, good news, it's pretty tasty and not fishy!) The only other person I had to be aware of during that time was the guy stocking the shelves near me. He seemed capable of handling life without my intervention. Good, good.
After shopping, I mopped the aforementioned non-carpeted floors (although I did not want to, but given the amount of orange juice that gets sloshed around the kitchen, a once-weekly mopping schedule is necessary). Then I read an easy-breezy fiction book for awhile.
When the kids woke up, we all went up to the pool to go swimming. Can I just tell you, it is soooo much easier to take them swimming with a 1:1 ratio? Wow, how did I forget that?! There were a fair number of people at the pool, probably since the temperatures were soaring over 100. We tried a new technique for post-swim time where we brought their diapers and clothes up to the pool with us and changed them there, rather than making them walk back to the apartment dripping and shivering. It was remarkably successful! They liked lounging poolside and drying off, too.
Later, DF entertained the boys while I got dinner ready. I surreptitiously ate a burrito while they watched cartoons, so I wasn't starving while trying to feed them. Score! The boys enjoyed smooshing refried beans everywhere during their meal.
Evening
We decorated little pumpkins by drawing on them with Sharpies, and they also colored pictures of pumpkins that I drew. Then they ran around the house with their pumpkins saying, "Spooky! Boo!" They think that pumpkins are supposed to be scary, based on an episode of Bubble Guppies. We got some cute pictures of them with their gourds.
The rest of the evening was unspecified play time with blocks, books, pretend cooking, and general two year old silliness. We probably watched more cartoons, though I don't exactly recall.
They were in bed shortly after 8, and DF and I were able to have a normal conversation without any particular agenda or needing to make decisions/plans. It was like two friends talking to each other. Wowzers! I wrapped the day up by going to bed early to try and catch up on sleep after a not very restful night a couple days before.
All in all, a good day :)
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Teaching Culture (Thanks, Daniel Tiger!)
Ever since I read this article in the NY Times, I've been semi-obsessed with the idea that the role of parenting is to impart your culture to your children. A lot of people think Americans don't have a culture, or that we're just a mix of different cultures, but let me disavow you of that notion. American culture is, in fact, quite definable and observable!
Take our relationship with time, for instance. Americans think of time as linear. You can see that in our verb tenses - we have distinct past, present, and future tenses. We also have additional tenses to use when describing exactly when two different things happened (I had been at work for an hour when my client called.)
From a scholarly point of view, American culture is monochronic. That means we tend to focus on schedules, our activities have a set start and end point, and we do one thing at a time. (If you're interested in the differences with polychronic cultures, check this out.)
Now obviously, not every American person views time exactly the same way, and we all have varying degrees of punctuality, but in general, this is how our society works.
Why do I bring this up? Because when the kids and I were watching Daniel Tiger the other day, the episode's theme was, "It's almost time to stop, so choose one more thing to do." (It's Episode 129, if you're interested.) Daniel and his friends were playing together. Daniel's dad showed up and told him it was time to go home. Daniel didn't want to leave, so his dad sang him the little song to encourage him to move along.
I was struck by just how American/Euro/Western this exchange was! I mean, in other cultures, the family wouldn't have such a strict schedule they kept to. They would not find it necessary to sing a song to their child giving them notice that "it's almost time to stop" because that is not how their brains have been acculturated to think! But in our culture, we do want our kids to follow our family schedule, so I appreciate that Daniel Tiger has such a catchy song to help teach this aspect of life.
That's actually my favorite kid show at the moment - I'm always humming their little jingles, and really, they can be pretty profound. One day I was feeling like I wasn't doing a very good job as a mom, and I was dwelling on everything I did wrong. Then the song came on, "Do your best - your best is the best for you." And I was just like, whoa, Daniel, you're right! I don't need to compare myself to other moms. I just need to be the best mom I can be.
Aha, that's another American cultural influence - valuing individualism! But that's a topic for another day :)
Take our relationship with time, for instance. Americans think of time as linear. You can see that in our verb tenses - we have distinct past, present, and future tenses. We also have additional tenses to use when describing exactly when two different things happened (I had been at work for an hour when my client called.)
From a scholarly point of view, American culture is monochronic. That means we tend to focus on schedules, our activities have a set start and end point, and we do one thing at a time. (If you're interested in the differences with polychronic cultures, check this out.)
Now obviously, not every American person views time exactly the same way, and we all have varying degrees of punctuality, but in general, this is how our society works.
Why do I bring this up? Because when the kids and I were watching Daniel Tiger the other day, the episode's theme was, "It's almost time to stop, so choose one more thing to do." (It's Episode 129, if you're interested.) Daniel and his friends were playing together. Daniel's dad showed up and told him it was time to go home. Daniel didn't want to leave, so his dad sang him the little song to encourage him to move along.
I was struck by just how American/Euro/Western this exchange was! I mean, in other cultures, the family wouldn't have such a strict schedule they kept to. They would not find it necessary to sing a song to their child giving them notice that "it's almost time to stop" because that is not how their brains have been acculturated to think! But in our culture, we do want our kids to follow our family schedule, so I appreciate that Daniel Tiger has such a catchy song to help teach this aspect of life.
That's actually my favorite kid show at the moment - I'm always humming their little jingles, and really, they can be pretty profound. One day I was feeling like I wasn't doing a very good job as a mom, and I was dwelling on everything I did wrong. Then the song came on, "Do your best - your best is the best for you." And I was just like, whoa, Daniel, you're right! I don't need to compare myself to other moms. I just need to be the best mom I can be.
Aha, that's another American cultural influence - valuing individualism! But that's a topic for another day :)
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