A day in the life...

Today was a pretty good day with the kids. Here's a recap.

It's morning. Both kids wake up happy. What a relief. Tia wants the TV on almost immediately. That's OK with me today because Gia is refusing a diaper change and I have to literally chase her around the house to get it done.

Time for breakfast.
Tia..."I'm not hungry". Gia...refuses all breakfast type foods. Finally will eat some goldfish crackers.
An hour later when I'm actually able to sit down to eat, Gia now decides she would like to eat my cereal. We share. Tia now eats the 1/2 bagel I toasted for her, as long as I put jelly on it.
Gia gets cranky. I put her in her crib where she talks and sometimes whines for about 20 minutes. Just enough time for me to grab a shower and get dressed.
I get her out of her crib. She is happy to see me.
She is good until about 9:30 when she starts rubbing her eyes, yawning, and of course being cranky. Her timing is not great since we have play group at 10am. I put her down for a nap anyway since this week our group is meeting at the park right down the street from our house. I'd rather be late than bring her when she's cranky. I guess we can't really figure out if she is going to be a one or two nap a day kid.
After about 40 minutes I wake her up and we head out the door. If I let her sleep, we will miss play group completely, and the chances of her taking an afternoon nap are slim.
At play group Gia won't have anything to do with me or Tia, and prefers to stand with 2 other mothers who are having a grown up conversation. Doesn't matter how far away from her I am, she stays by them. One of my friends seems concerned and asks "Do you know those people?'. Isn't that odd for an 18 month old to not want to be near her mother?
We played for 2 hours. Well, Tia and I played. Gia listened to someone else talk for 2 hours, and had a snack. When it was time to leave, Gia screamed like I was killing her. I got her buckled into the wagon and by the grace of God, Tia didn't cry. It's the little things that get us through the day. One screamer is enough, thank you.
At home Gia has a little lunch and goes right down for a long nap. Tia insists on watching Caillou first. Then of course she pulls the "I'm hungry" stunt to stall nap time. I give her an apple and some almonds. Time for nap. Ahhh, quiet. I lay on my bed for 20 minutes. I hear her in her room talking. I go back in and tuck her in again telling her she must take a nap. She agrees, but never complies. At least she is in her room and having quiet time. I can't force her to fall asleep. Meanwhile I start a project that is bigger than me. Our bedroom closet. This thing has been a thorn in my side since we moved here. The folks who owned this house before us had some sort of plan for a fancy closet. So, on one side of our closet we had shelves. No place to hang clothes, just 9' shelves. On the other side was 2 rows of cubes. Supposedly great for stacking sweaters. Where exactly am I supposed to hang my clothes? The best part is the foot and a half of unused space at the ends of these units because the previous owners didn't know how to use a tape measure! You know the old saying "measure twice, cut once". They never heard that one.
Anyway, long story short, I ripped apart the closet. It's still a mess in progress but at least I was able to get that darn shelving unit out of there. I kept praying "Please, don't let it fall and hit me in the head". That's all I need...I could picture myself yelling to wake up Tia so she could bring me the phone to call an ambulance. That would not be good.
Dinner went smoothly. It's Wednesday which used to be my night to go to aerobics, but D.R. has been playing football and had a game tonight. He called at 5:30 to say his game was canceled due to rain and he would be home in time for me to go. I rushed into my gym clothes and threw the kids in the tub. They were having a great time until Tia started flinging a wet wash cloth around, soaking the bathroom. I asked her to stop twice and she did it again so I took the cloth from her. Now begins the tear fest of the century. Enter Daddy, said tears are accompanied by louder cries and lots of drama. It's at precisely this moment that D.R. gets an emergency message from work. He gets Tia in her pajamas and takes care of the emergency. When he is finished, there's no time to make it to aerobics.
I tell Tia the pajamas she picked out are too warm for her. She cries. Fine, wear them. I put a movie on for her so D.R. and I can have some sort of conversation. Gia goes to bed happily.
At the end of Tia's movie, I look over and she is naked. "Mommy, these jammies too hot for me". Gee, I think I have heard that somewhere before.
Time to brush teeth. Tia no longer likes the tooth paste she has been using for 2 years. She wants grape tooth paste. I have looked in every store. There is no grape flavored tooth paste. She cries again because I force her to brush with a tiny drop of strawberry toothpaste. Poor child. Finally she is in bed. She's now wearing her summer pajamas, the ones I wanted her to wear originally that caused tears. This is what happens when she doesnt' nap. If only I could get her to see that correlation.
Jammies and a cup of tea for Mommy. We watch a couple episodes of Prison Break.
Time for bed so I can be rested to do it all again tomorrow.
Lord help me!