A (Birth) Day in the Life of a Mom

The last time I did a "Day in the Life" post, things were a little different.  As in, Cooper was a wild toddler and Penny was a baby.  It really sort of amazes me still that I even found the time between nursing Penny, chasing Cooper, changing two sets of diapers, and trying not to lose my mind that I actually posted to the blog.  While our life now is a lot more free, fun, and adventurous, I don't really trust my writing skills to make a routine day with the kids seem interesting.  So I picked a special day...My birthday!  Here is what unfolded on October 24th (besides the fact that I turned 33).

5:30 a.m. Our sweet Penny, who has just of late figured out how to open her bedroom door, woke us up by coming into our room and announcing “I get up”. I gingerly and sweetly lifted her into our bed for some cuddle-time thinking, “Wow, what a sweet way to start my day!”  Our sweet Penny was furious that we didn't instead jump out of bed, bright-eyed and ready to do her bidding.  A spectacular heel-kicking, banshee screaming fit ensued.  I admit it now, I was ticked.  I was being nice!  And it was my birthday! And it was FIVE THIRTY!  The coffee maker doesn't come on until 6:15!  We got Penny back to bed but we were up. When she got up again a little later, she was being really cute and sweet, as she tends to do.  Anyway, back to MY DAY.

7 (ish) a.m. David picked up breakfast so I didn't have to cook. (Love him!) I had already made the kids lunches for school, and the kids actually ate their breakfast without any probing. (Who are these kids and where are the REAL Cooper and Penny???)  It was no wonder I had nearly an hour to kill before I needed to get the kids to school.  That never happens!  So I worked on the kids' baby books.  Completing the kids’ baby books and memory boxes is a task from “the list” so before the kids even went to school I had a sense of minor accomplishment surging through me. 

9:15 a.m. After dropping the kids off I added to that good feeling by going for a run.  A side of endorphin never hurts a mood!  Afterward, I leisurely showered and got dressed.  Since it was my birthday, I turned on the TV to listen to while I dressed.  I NEVER do that!  Generally during the week the TV is big fat off between the hours of 9 a.m. and let’s say 6 p.m.  After that we might be desperate to hear ourselves talk so we turn on Netflix for the kids, but, I digress.  Some trashy talk show came on, showcasing how ridiculous other people’s lives are, making mine look Ah-MAY-ZING!  The morning continued with a chat with my mom on the phone and some idle email/Facebook/blog reading time.  Ah!  Quiet and idleness!  LOVING my birthday so far!

11:00 a.m.I decided I need to get SOMETHING accomplished today, so after picking up around the house, off I went to the community center to get in on some early voting. (Who knows what’s happening on Election Day.  I might (EEK!) have kids with me, or I might forget or the lines will be long or, well I need to vote because I will HATE myself if I don’t vote.) Second snag of the day (snag numero uno being the early wake up)…the Caller Times was wrong (insert shocked gasp here), early voting doesn't start until TOMORROW.  I wasted 20 minutes of my birthday driving to the community center, wandering around like a dolt, only to barely catch the sign stating “Early Voting-Oct. 25.”  Grrr. Oh well, I still had “sense of accomplishment” and exercise endorphin in my system, so no biggie. 

11:25 a.m. Next on the list was lunch with my girlfriends, which of course is the key to any girl’s heart.  Since I got there 20 minutes early, I satisfied my inner nerd by reading my book in the parking lot. Coffee followed lunch, caffeine being my “sense of accomplishment” and exercise endorphin stand-in of choice, particularly on those days when I don’t accomplish anything and don’t exercise.  (I have just figured out exactly HOW I managed my caffeine addiction in the first place…).  

1:41:37 p.m. I pushed the clock to the absolute last second I needed to head towards the kids, school and not be the deadbeat-late-to-pick-up-the-kids-mom that every school, daycare, and babysitter hates.  I wasn't late.  Score! 

2:00 p.m. Then my favorite gift of the day occurred when I walked into the school.  Cooper’s teacher said, “Cooper told me it was your birthday today, so have a happy birthday!”  You assume kids are self-centered.   You accept that kids are self-centered.  You are OK with that.  MY four-year-old, however, is not!  The fact that it was his Mama’s birthday was important enough to him to not only remember it, but to spread the word!  That’s my boy!!  On the way home, Cooper shrieked in delight as we passed the water tower near our house.  You see, we play a little game.  Cooper announces he sees a water tower.  That is my cue to say, “Oh, cool, well, we are going to drive right by it!”  Then Coop tells me how it is going to drop sugar.  Then I say, “NO!  It’s not a sugar tower, it’s a water tower!”  Hilarity ensues.  (Hey, its not my fault you didn't get the joke.  You really had to be there.)

2:45 p.m. After the 93rd day in a row of having Welch's fruit snacks and goldfish for a snack, Cooper took a nap.  On this particular day, Penny had napped at school and would not nap at home like Cooper. This meant that I was NOT going to get to flop onto the couch with chocolates and Jane Austen like I had planned.  (No, that is not how I usually spend my afternoons.  It's my BIRTHDAY people.) I still had caffeine in my blood stream, so this is no biggie either.  Hardly snag number three.  Besides, I get to use the birthday card today.  In this case, a Spot DVD…Penny absolutely loves Spot right now and frankly I DID NOT feel like playing with play-doh or trains or dolls or whatever, so a win-win!  I didn't DARE flop onto the couch while she watched because EVERY MOTHER KNOWS that the surest way to get your kid to need/want/demand something is to flop onto the couch and get comfortable.  So I busy-beed (David’s term for when I get rolling doing stuff around the house) for awhile, working off that caffeine. 

4:30 p.m.David came home early (Another gift!) and tried to get Cooper and Penny interested in singing me “Happy Birthday.”  THEY were more interested in Spot, who was still on TV(oops, I might have "accidentally" started it over), so David had to sing alone.  Oh well, the thought and the iPHONE more than made up for it! (Insert another shocked gasp sans sarcasm this time...I have finally joined the rest of the modern world and get to trade in my "dumb" phone.)

6 p.m. We took the kids to a bar to meet up with friends.  Yes, a bar.  But it was a kid-friendly bar.  It was a blast, simply because we have good friends.  And the kids had a blast, which  was what I wanted. I just wanted to do something for my birthday that involved my kids...you read the 2 p.m. entry right?  Birthdays are super important to Cooper!

9 p.m (or  10?) Cooper is super bummed that we leave said bar.  He tearfully kept saying "I want to go to the beer park!  I want to see a birthday cake!"  Oops...to Cooper, birthdays mean cake. We had kind of forgotten that part.  David feels bad for not getting a cake until I assure him I did not need a cake.  (There was NO WAY I was going running tomorrow...)  Since Cooper was still crying and seemed to have forgotten that he ignored us when we did the whole song and gift gig earlier, we improvised.  David quickly threw the iPhone case back into the gift bag and stuck three candles into a rump of leftover banana bread.  I got "Happy Birthday" sung to me for the second time.  THAT was just about the cutest thing ever, and it made my day the best thing ever.

A Penny In My Thoughts

School Picture, September 2012...A real sweetheart! 

Since Cooper is in school five days a week and Penny is in only three, I have had quite a bit of "alone" time to spend with our spunky little girl.  While this is really wonderful for us both, it is also a challenge!  Penny has a very sweet soul but she is also very strong willed.  I know she gets a lot of that from me, so I try to remember to pick my battles and truly enjoy this stage of her life. At any rate, here I am, in the here and now, with a Penny always in my thoughts.

Add sunglasses to the growing pile of things that have to be with her when we leave the house.  

Penny and baby at the aquarium.

Art Show

Penny...

Cooper...

Birthday Party Pics!

Happy before the party even starts!

Before...

Let the games begin!

Here we go!

Kids in the bounce house.

More kids and Daddy in the bounce house.

Charley in the bounce house!

Let us eat cake!

Even Penny ate cake.

Bounce house break.

Every kid that comes over likes to play trains!

More bounce house with an old friend.

The after picture.

Thank you everyone that came to our party and for Cooper's presents!  He had a wonderful birthday party!

Cooper is Four!

Yes, you read that headline right.  Cooper. Is. Four.  In a lot of ways it really doesn't seem that long ago that Cooper was that sweet little baby wreaking havoc on our sleep and our entire outlook on life.  I feel my growth as a person is directly parallel to this kid's age.  In other words, I am four years wiser, smarter, happier, more feeling, and less selfish.  Our real life began when we became parents, and our adventures in parenting began with Cooper.  It would be impossible to list all the ways in which this sweet boy has matured and changed in the last year, it is just that stark.  In a nutshell, we don't have a baby or a toddler or even a preschooler on our hands here.  We have a young boy.

This young boy is, simply put, smart, funny, sweet, and sensitive.  More descriptively, he is an optimistic, quick-witted, crack-up jokester (and knows it) and a heart-meltingly cautious Mama's (and Daddy's) boy.  When you ask Cooper a question, a lot of the time he gives the wrong answer...on purpose.  We have just begun conversations about the importance of telling the truth, though he doesn't really "lie" to lie...he's trying to be funny.  For example, the other night we asked him how old he would be on his birthday.  He immediately answered, with a big grin on his face, "25!"  Cooper is also one cuddly and conscientious kid.  He is known to sneak into our bed at 4 a.m. and loves to sit on our laps while playing on the iPad or reading a book.  We think it is super cute too how he looks after Penny in public and tries a lot of the time to include her in what he is playing.  He tells me all the time, "Mama!  Don't forget Penny!"  (As if I could.)

Showing Penny a thing or two on the iPad.

Cooper still loves Thomas the Train but his interests have expanded into other areas including The Little Mermaid, Angry Birds, and firemen and firetrucks, particularly Fireman Sam.  He likes to do typical little boy stuff including riding his trike and his jeep, climb stuff, and play with cars and trucks (and trains). He LOVES to go the Ranch where he can see the fish, run around, swing, and ride with Pa-Pa in the tractor.  Cooper loves to wear cowboy boots, play iPad, and he is always on the lookout for trains and bulldozers when we drive in the car.  He likes school though I think he misses his old school. (The "castle" school.)  

Deep in train play at the ranch.

We recently visited the doctor where Cooper measured in at 41.5 inches tall and 39 pounds, putting him in the 75th percentile, and as our pediatrician exclaimed, "Tall and thin!"  From the doctor's standpoint, Cooper is one active, healthy and developing-just-fine kid.  We agree.  I really don't think I would change a thing about this kid, other than getting him to overcome his stubbornness about food.  He likes what he likes, period.  Coop is doing well at school, and has FINALLY shown an interest in drawing and coloring.  He doesn't nap while the other kids nap at school and instead draws me a picture to bring home.  Cooper is a BIG sleeper, which is so funny, considering how his first year of life went.  He takes a two hour nap after school everyday, only because I WAKE HIM UP after 2 hours. 

We celebrated Cooper's birthday yesterday by sending cupcakes to school for him to share with his class and with cupcakes and presents after dinner.  Oh!  And Nonnie came into town too, which he was thrilled about!  We will be having a little party for him on Saturday, which means of course, more pictures to follow.  

New Thomas set!

Happy Birthday Cooper!  We love you!