a day in the life - three years later

Just now I went to look up my original post of "a day in the life" and was shocked to see that it was almost three years ago exactly. I cannot believe that it was so long ago. A lot has changed in the last three years. Nora wasn't even here, Evan wasn't even one, and Anya was just about to turn three. Next week our baby will turn six!

Well, if you're up for a long scrolling session, please read all about our day today (actually yesterday since I wasn't able to finish this on Wednesday). I'm never good at eliminating photos.

I got to sleep in a few extra minutes this morning. I am often unable to go back to sleep (just because I physically/mentally can't) when the first kid wakes up, but this morning I had a horrible headache and managed to fall asleep again. This was much appreciated, Steve! I came down around 8:30 and everyone was in the middle of breakfast. Breakfast usually takes a long time at our house. Steve eventually made it out of the house by soon after 9:00, I think. Thank goodness for flexible job and homeschooling schedules or we'd be in serious trouble.



And then some days you just know it's going to be an exceptionally long breakfast. At 9:15, I was getting breakfast -round two ready. Bagels for all. Unfortunately, I forgot the stove was hot from making Anya some tea, and I melted the bagel bag to the stupid smooth electric stove-top. Still not sure how to get it off.



Nora is no longer content with whatever we spoon feed her. She wants everything and often wants to feed herself. We're happy to give her real food, especially since she is still willing to eat almost anything. But she is starting to show some preference, although mostly her preferences tend toward wanting whatever the "new" food at the table is, not necessarily that she doesn't like what she's currently eating. (9:22 am)





Evan loves cereal - they all do, but he is quite fond of playing with it, too. (9:31 am)



We finally finish up breakfast and the kids start playing with something so I get a few minutes to actually put the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher.

I announce that I am going to take a shower. Evan decides he wants to stay downstairs, even though he says, "Well, I might get lonely." To which I reply, "Well, then you can bring that upstairs and play with it in my room." "No, it's okay if I'm lonely. I'm okay." (10:02 am)



After Anya and I gather up all the necessary things for the trip upstairs - blanket, baby, and baby carrier for Nora, blanket, colored pencils, and coloring book for Anya - we're on our way.





Anya sets up her table on our bed so she is away from Nora and Nora begins playing with blocks in the bathroom. Finally, I am able to get in the shower. (10:07 am)







I finish my shower and begin my "counter work" as Anya calls it. Evan appears, tired of being lonely and give me a big hug. We try to take a picture of him hugging me and giving me a kiss. This was the best one. (10:32 am)



Nora needs a massive diaper change, so I pause my counter work. She imitates me doing the sign language for diaper change for the first time. Pretty cool, since she also signed "more" at breakfast for the first time since doing it only a few random times before. (10:37 am)



While changing Nora's diaper, I realize she needs her toenails trimmed. Someone around here is always needing their nails trimmed - thankfully I am only responsible for trimming 80/100 of them. Nora becomes obsessed with the hearts on her socks. (10:43 am)



Evan has now joined Anya on the bed and is somehow managing to play with the colored pencils without annoying Anya. (10:47 am)



I spoke too soon. She's annoyed. Evan needs something else to do, so I accompany him downstairs to get his train sticker book. At first I was irritated that he couldn't get it himself, but then I realized it is still in our pile of car entertainment from our trip to Virginia...three weeks ago.

We come back up and Nora is clinging to my leg. (11:05 am)



Evan sets up his table on the other side of the bed and begins to do something with his stickers. It will be ten hours later before I realize he has dropped tons of stickers down into the space between my bed and my table. (11:05 am)



Nora begins playing with Evan's stuffed animals that he's left in a pile on the floor of the bathroom. She tries squeezing all the various parts of the cow, presumably to get it to make a noise. For Christmas, she got a little fox that makes noises when you squeeze it and she got to play with a dog that Dylan got for Christmas that does the same thing, so I think Nora is now convinced that all animals should do that. (11:10 am)



Then she tries to take off her shoes. (11:12 am)





I finally finish my counter work and Anya shows me the picture she colored. (11:15 am)



Nora heads downstairs. (11:17 am)



Anya and Evan still need to get dressed, so Anya goes to pick out her clothes while I get something for Evan. This is my reminder that laundry day will need to happen soon. (11:18 am)



On the way downstairs, the doorbell rings. Evan runs to the door and taps on the glass. Whoever is there taps back - Evan assumes it is Grandma Cindy since she is usually the only one who responds like this. He is disappointed when it is a Fedex delivery. We get a new light fixture for the office and my new iPhone! (11:19 am)



After everyone is dressed, we begin an activity I spontaneously decided to do this morning. Hilary tried it at least once with her kids and told us about it. This was our first attempt at having organized "centers" for Anya and Evan to rotate through. I set up four centers, Anya wrote a number for each one and I wrote a description for each one. 1 - Make a birthday card for Daddy (at the dining room table). 2 - Puzzles (at the counter). 3 - Build a house for the Woodsey Family out of magnatiles (floor of couch room). 4 - Letter play (playing with this big tub of wooden upper and lower case letters from Jeanie's days as a kindergarten teacher). (11:29 am)



It was quite humorous and difficult to get them to initially understand the concept. I kept trying to get them to sit on the couch and wait for me to set it up and give directions. They couldn't wait, but eventually all was clear and they each set off to their first center and I set the timer for 15 minutes. Anya went to build a house for the Woodsey Family and Evan went to play with the letters. (11:44 am)



With no instruction, I knew exactly what Evan would do with the letters...(11:44 am)



Nora climbing on top of me as I stretched out on the floor to take the photo. For most of the center time, she wandered around, occasionally going to the center where Anya or Evan was at, but they happily shared a magnatile or letter with her. (11:45 am)



The timer goes off after fifteen minutes, but they aren't done. I decide to give them two more minutes before enforcing clean-up. Anya's house isn't quite ready for crashing down yet and Evan has a few more letters to add to his second row across the room. (11:50 am)

Doesn't Anya look like a good little homeschooler in her skirt made out of a pillowcase found at a thrift store? It's so see-through that I intended it as a play skirt kind of like a petticoat to go under another dress-up dress or skirt, but she insists on wearing it for regular clothes. "But mommy, it is so pretty!" So we compromise by allowing her to wear it only in the house.





Second round of centers - Anya moves to make a birthday card for daddy and Evan starts to build a house. Nora gets a little too close to Evan's house, so she gets to sit on my lap to make her own birthday card for daddy. Eventually, I get up to go see Evan's building and I put Nora on the chair by herself. She is super proud of herself. (12:09 pm)





Cozy family. (12:10 pm)





Happy girl. (12:12 pm)





Third round of centers - Evan makes a card and Anya works on puzzles at the counter. (12:18 pm)







Nora walks around. She is walking all the time now. She got the hang of it at Christmas time and the last few days she just walks everywhere. She falls down a lot, but she just gets right back up and keeps toddling. She isn't even really "doing" anything, just walking around from place to place...because she can. (12:19 pm)



Nora rediscovers her Christmas present from Anya - a pen and pad of paper. Usually she just scribbles on the pad with the closed pen. Only this time she figures out how to open the pen and she is thrilled! She does it over and over. I let her do it until she starts to write on the floor. (12:22 pm)



This is all going so well! I start making lunch and nobody is bugging me about what we're going to eat or when it is going to be ready. Go center time! Yes! In fact, I tell them they will probably have to do their fourth round of center time after lunch because it is almost ready. They don't like that idea. Evan goes on to his fourth round when the timer goes off. Anya decides to go back and finish her birthday card and will do the letter play after lunch. (12:31 pm)



Nora finds the center labels and hides them in the chair cushions. (12:31 pm)



Finally, I have convinced them to come to the table and eat. Good thing we don't have afternoon classes for anyone today and don't need to have early naps or we'd be in trouble. (12:46 pm)



Evan tells me some story. (12:50 pm)



Evan wraps his bowl of macaroni and cheese in tissue paper. (12:55 pm)



We finish lunch and Anya and Evan take off on their own to do who knows what. (1:08 pm)



I decide to take this opportunity to clean up the kitchen and actually wash the dishes that are cluttering the counter. Nora is still stuck in her high chair. She's actually not complaining today, so she stays there until she's not happy. (1:19 pm)



When I let her down, Nora goes to find Anya and Evan in the playroom. I still have no idea what they are doing, but since I don't hear any crying or struggles, I keep cleaning up. Eventually I finish and go check it out. Of course, my arrival also coincides with Evan starting to bug Anya. (Just now as Evan is standing at my elbow watching me blog, he says, "Let me see that picture of me stealing Anya's blankets.") (1:31 pm)



Anya and Evan want to pose for a photo behind the couch so it looks like they have no legs. (1:32 pm)



Evan is picking at Anya, continually messing up the blankets she is trying to set up over the doll bed. I decide to put Nora down for her nap and leave the two of them to argue it out. I try to take a photo of me and Nora, but again, my angle isn't working today. (1:36 pm)



My dear little Nora Bear in her bed, snuggling her blankie to her nose. I have been wanting to capture a photo of this moment forever. I'm still trying to get a photo of the side view. (1:37 pm)



Anya comes upstairs to pout that Evan is messing up her stuff. (1:38pm)



We move on to reading stories before Evan's nap. (1:41 pm)



After getting Evan and Nora down, I break the hews to Anya that I have to lie down myself because I still can't shake the headache I woke up with this morning. She is quite unhappy because she doesn't want to be the only one awake. I tell her she could take a nap too, but she doesn't like this idea. I tell her I will sleep on the couch wherever she wants to play. She chooses to play with the letters in the couch room while I lie down on the couch. She interrupts me just once to ask me what letter makes a "yuh" sound. (2:00 pm)

Anya gives up on playing and lies down on the couch, too. I eventually fall asleep and she does too. We wake up around 3:30 pm and I don't feel great, but I do feel better. I can not remember the last time I took a nap. Maybe once or twice this summer when Anya was taking regular naps every afternoon, but not for a long time. So, this is definitely not a typical day.

We get off the couch and I ask her if she wants me to do letters with her now. She shows me that she spelled butterfly. Very cool. (3:41 pm)



Evan wakes up only a few minutes later and cries at the top of the stairs because he wanted to do the letters all by himself when he woke up. I get mad at him because he's going to wake up Nora. He eventually agrees to do them with us and spells his name. (3:54 pm)



After a little word making, someone begins some two- and then three-dimensional building with the letters. It is contagious. (4:03 pm)





We are having a cozy time with dim lights and the light of the Christmas tree in the background. (4:20 pm)



I had told them we weren't going to have a snack today, but then changed my mind and asked them if they wanted to make some pudding. (4:23 pm)



After pudding making, Evan is bothered by something Anya did and hits her. He goes to the stairs for a cooling off period. (4:37 pm)



We're back to more letter building/arranging. They sure do love symmetry. (4:40 pm)







I heard Nora wake up before we made the pudding, but we decided to make it before getting her up. Then she was quiet again and I wondered if she went back to sleep. I eventually just went to get her since it was getting late and we were going to eat the pudding soon. She was awake, but just snuggling in her crib...until she saw me and then she was bouncing up and down holding onto the railing. (4:46 pm)



Here's Nora saying, "Why are you taking my picture instead of putting me in my seat to have some pudding!?" (4:50 pm)



"Take my picture eating pudding!" (4:50 pm)



"Me too!" (4:50 pm)



Anya says she wants a piece of bread, but I tell them snack time is over and we'll eat dinner later. But we decide to make some dough. It won't be ready to to bake until tomorrow. Now they're getting into posing and want me to take this photo of them looking lovingly at the bread dough. (5:15 pm)



We've used the basic recipe from this book several times. It is easy to make with kids because it is hard to mess up.



The kids can't quite escape the center idea. Evan keeps saying, "Let's do more centers!" And then don't really want to play with anything other than the letters and the magnatiles. That's definitely not a problem with me, but very interesting that they are still so into those ideas. (5:20 pm)



Here's Anya trying to sweet talk her little sister into giving her a piece of her car. (5:27 pm)



Watch out - Nora is driving! (5:28 pm)



Evan got completely absorbed in building with the magnatiles. (5:55 pm)



Anya would have been competing for tiles, but fortunately, she was forced to stop playing and go get her gymnastics clothes on. She can wear whatever she wants, but Anya must always wear a leotard and footless tights. So, she is off to change upstairs and then back down for a quick bite to eat of leftover quesadilla from the refrigerator. I quickly heat myself up some leftover fried rice and grab some light reading to take along to gymnastics. There is a lot going on in my head and heart right now related to our homeschooling, but that is another post, or rather like a hundred posts. (5:57 pm)



At 6:05 pm or so, Anya and I are off to gymnastics. I take her to class, supervise her peeling off all her layers to get back to the tights and leotard and wait until she went into class. Then I walk down to the nearby grocery store, frantically get a bunch of groceries, run them back to the car and then watch the remainder of Anya's class while trying to read all about what some book says she should be learning this year.

We return home by about 7:30 pm, unload the groceries and have a second dinner of almond butter and bread, followed by a little more playing before starting our bedtime routines around 8 pm. Anya and Evan tell Steve all about the centers we did and ask me if we can do it again tomorrow. (8:24 pm)



After acquiring/making some new soaps and getting some new hair accessories for Christmas, Anya created (last weekend) this elaborate bathroom counter display where everything has a very specific place and orientation. She is quite proud of it and is so astonished when I don't put something back just exactly right. (8:29 pm)



After everyone has their pajamas on, has gone to the potty and had their teeth brushed and flossed, we all pile into Evan's bed to read stories. For about a month now, we have been strictly alternating between Steve and I reading stories. Tonight was Evan's turn to have Steve read his story (Steve always reads first) and I read Anya's story second. Anya has taken to saying, "Yeah, Mommy! Yeah, Daddy!" after being told that saying that about just one of us isn't very nice. And Evan will almost always want the person who is not scheduled to read his story to be the one reading it. But for the last couple of nights, he always wants Steve (no big surprise in the long term around here), and so this was great because it was now "a matching game," which I assume he means the boys are next to each other and the girls are next to each other.

Here are Anya and Evan posing for one last bedtime photo after stories. (8:46 pm)



After our family story time, Anya gets a special story time with me in my bed. We have been doing this for several months now and have mostly been reading chapter books with the occasional Christmas story or book about the human body thrown in. Right now we are reading Ramona and Her Father. I love this time with Anya. Sometimes, I get impatient with her stalling when I have something I'm antsy to get done after she goes to bed. But she really just loves this time to be with me all by herself and I usually am quite content to be present in the moment and have a really special time with her. Sometimes, we read and she goes immediately to bed. Other times we have some small conversation about something going on - not always serious, often her just being silly. If I'm lucky, once in a while, the moment will be just right and she'll tell me something she wouldn't ordinarily talk about. And just last night for the first time ever, she said, "Well, I guess I do kind of like homeschooling after all." I wept at hearing her response. I so needed to hear those words, and yet at the same time they hurt my brain and my heart that have been so struggling with this decision - going back and forth on what I think we should do for next year. But this post isn't about homeschooling... (8:58 pm)



After reading our chapter (or half of a chapter, depending on the length), Anya is snuggly tucked into bed. The next hour or so is spent with Evan crying in his bed. Steve and I each take turns going in. We each have different techniques and sometimes one of us is better able to deal with it. Thankfully, this doesn't happen every night. But you almost never know when it will happen or when it does how long it will be or what will finally make it stop. Evan's main complaint, at least tonight, was that he didn't want to be by himself. He wanted Steve, but I came in. When he saw it was me, he started screaming and flailing his arms to hit me. I eventually calmed him down and got him to talk about why he was so mad. I lay down with him for a few minutes and got him stuffed animals to sleep with. Both of these things sometimes work on their own. Tonight they were powerless. I left and came back at least two other times. I told him that I had work to do, that I was going to put all the pictures on the computer and show everyone what we did all day and that tomorrow we could look at all the pictures on the computer (something he loves), but that I needed to leave his room in order to be able to do that. He kept crying when I left. I came in one final time with the camera and said, "Should I take a picture of you crying and put that on the computer?" He immediately got a smile on his face and stared at me and nodded his head. I took a picture of him and he asked to see the picture of himself crying. (9:16pm)



I told him I didn't have a picture of him crying because he had stopped crying when I took the picture. I asked him if he wanted to start crying again so I could take a picture of him crying. This made him smile even more. We talked for a while more...I really thought it was going to work this time and he would settle down when I left. (9:17 pm)



He didn't calm down. But then it was Steve's turn with Evan and I came down to load all 250 photos onto the computer and try and narrow it down for this blog post.

After a while, Steve came back downstairs at which point Nora started crying. Great.

We were eventually able to go down to the basement where I attempted to watch Mad Men while blogging. Blogging failed. So, I must wait until tomorrow to write about today. What a full day it was. How ordinary with a few variations thrown in to keep it interesting. Thanks for reading if you made it this far. Maybe I'll do it again in three years.