Today I had Grandma duty with the kids while Amber helped her sister move. I often think back to when I was a Mom of little kids and all the stuff I did back then. There really is a difference now. I'm tired so much sooner that it surprises me. I don't feel old normally...but put me with a couple of toddlers and I am worn out in no time. Here is a run down of my day today:
I am up chopping tomatoes from the garden when Isabelle wakes up. She comes out of the room and just stands there smiling at me until I notice her.
We get a chair so she can stand by me at the sink and help. We finish up with that batch of tomatoes and get them in the freezer.
Kaylee wakes up and comes out of the room giggling. Can't complain about how they woke up!
Breakfast of yogurt and strawberries.
Grandpa walks in with donuts.
They each want one, of course. And proceed to eat about 2 bites each.
After breakfast, we play with the toys for awhile.
Then we go out in the backyard where Grandpa is working.
We vacuum the bugs off of the couch and then play with the little hand vacuum. We vacuum pretend and real bugs, little bits of leaves, our hands.
The real excitement begins when Grandpa starts mowing the lawn. We watch him.
We go to the front yard to watch him after he finishes the back.
I start to pull weeds so the girls join me and we look for (and find) worms, potato bugs, ants and lady bugs. No one wants to touch the potato bug which I was sure they would love. Isabelle is actually quite distressed to see it walking on my finger and asks me, in a very concerned voice, to put it back in the dirt. I pull very few weeds.
We wash our hands since they are dirty...which leads to the next activity.
We get chairs and stand at the sink to wash hands and then have fun washing the plastic dinosaur toys in the sink with bubbles. This went on for some time but, as with most things with toddlers, ended in tears and a fairly big mess. :-D
I attempted to have some "quiet time" with a movie on the tv. No dice. Not interested. Lasted about a minute.
The Uncles step in (Ryan as well as Amber's brothers Daniel and Sam) and play some chasing games and hide-behind-the-door-and-jump-out games while I clean up after breakfast and put the chairs back.
The girls are ready to finish their donuts now so we sit on the steps out back and finish the donuts (Kaylee eats all of hers and Isabelle licks some icing). We have lost almost all of the clothing they had on because they got wet during the dinosaur washing fun.
We play with the outdoor pillows.
We watch a lady bug walk around until Kaylee accidentally squishes it.
Potty break and diaper change followed by teeth brushing because Isabelle wanted to.
I decide that we should have an outing so we get clothes back on and find Isabelle's shoes. Kaylee's shoes are lost, she gets to go barefoot.
We go to the library! I haul girls to the carseats. Don't forget sippy cups and diaper/wipes (just in case) and Kaylee's walker. Just getting into and out of the car is a workout.
Arrive at the Library.
Play with the trains.
Play with the big stuffed animals.
Sit in the little benches and chairs.
Play with puzzles.
Read MANY dinosaur books including one in Portuguese because it looked so cool and they didn't have one like it in English.
Play with the puppets.
Isabelle gives a puppet show and insists that Kaylee and I sit on the other side to watch (she's so cute!)
The girls take turns finding books to read and bringing them to me. We read LOTS of books.
Back to the trains.
Some other kids show up (boys) who are a little wild so Isabelle is suddenly open to the idea of lunch.
We pack up, check out a few books, and head to Chic-fil-a drive through for lunch.
Chic-fil-a takes forever but we get nuggets and chocolate milk to take home.
Isabelle falls asleep in the car. Dangit!
Kaylee sits at the table and eats lots of food. I am amazed. I accidentally give her Isabelle's cup, which she loves but Isabelle's hates. But I had poured her Chocolate milk in there so I wasn't willing to take it away. Isabelle melts down for a bit but recovers. She drinks her milk with a straw, which is fun!
The upside is that the meltdown has helped Isabelle wake up enough to eat.
I announce that after lunch we will have quiet time. Kaylee decides to just keep eating to hopefully avoid a nap. Hilarious. She kept saying "I'm done" and when I would go to pick her up she would remember the dreaded nap and say "No, still eating" and just keep eating for awhile longer.
Kaylee finally decides she is actually too full to keep eating and I lay her down. She is super annoyed but falls asleep within less than a minute.
Isabelle has "quiet time" with a movie...after going through about twenty options on netflix, she chooses, you guessed it, a dinosaur show.
I sit on the couch rather than pick up after lunch because I'm pooped. It's 4:00 at this point.
Isabelle becomes bored with her movie but isn't falling back asleep (dangit) so we retrieve the library books from the car which seems to help. She lays down on the big pillow with the books next to her and starts watching the show again. Whew, maybe we can relax for a bit...
Mailman comes and RINGS THE DOORBELL! Ack! All the past "baby is sleeping" anxiety comes rushing back. Thinking I should have put a sign on the door. Luckily, Kaylee stays asleep but it freaks Isabelle out. Never thought my doorbell was too loud until now.
Isabelle and I clean up the living room, do some laundry and check on Frank (we like to go out to the garage just to see him on occasion). She gives Frank the biggest, cutest hug ever and I didn't take a picture. Missed it, dangnabit.
Isabelle asks for a snack. She wants ice cream. "I want a huge one, big one ice cream". I give her some because I am a total Grandma pushover and give her whatever she wants. As she eats, she chomps with her teeth and says "I'm eating like a T-rex!"
Side note: During her ice cream treat she starts talking about her Daddy. He goes to work "like Grandpa", he plays with Isabelle and Kaylee, he loves ("lubs") Mommy and he's going to call tomorrow.
Kaylee wakes up and we go back outside to play.
The vacuum comes back out because, really, who doesn't love a vacuum?
Isabelle decided she wanted to draw some pictures so I got out the colored pencils (I don't own any crayons!). Isabelle draws me a picture and tells me that I can keep it when she goes on an airplane back to Alaska. Aw! I draw her a ladybug because she loves ladybugs (in theory...would never touch one). She likes it so much that she wants a bigger one so I draw one for her. We put them up on the cork board so we can enjoy them but Isabelle makes it clear that she will take them with her on the airplane. :-)
We swing for awhile. Grandpa helps out with the pushing. Yay for Grandpa!
Then after the swinging, Isabelle helps grandpa with his project in the garage. She is so cute helping him in the garage. And he's so cute as he explains things to her.
And then...Mom is back!
It was approximately 12 hours of Grandma duty today and it was really a fun time. I'm soooo happy to have these girls visiting me and will miss them terribly when they leave.
And now, I'm going to rest.
No comments:
Post a Comment