Swimming Lessons & Our Day Today

Life with 4 kids, an infant, and especially summer time is super busy and a constant schedule juggling act.  I have to juggle multiple feedings and naps around whatever else we have planned for our day, plus try to keep Aspen busy so he isn't bored and bugging his sisters.  Since the reason I do a blog is to help me remember what life was like at each stage (and I'm probably the only one reading this), here is a peek into our day today...

Teague, at 8 months old is still waking up multiple times a night...  last night he woke up at 12:30am (fed him) and at 3:00am (fed him again).  He freaks out if I don't feed him, and with his allergy issues, the fact that all our hardwood floors magnify the sound of his crying, and I'm just too lazy, sleep deprived or both to fight it, I just go along with it.  He woke up for the morning at 6:50am so I rolled over and asked Mark to get up with him so I could get a little more sleep.

Side note:  It's been amazing to me to see how Mark has changed in his role as a Dad and husband over the years since we had Aspen.  With each child, he has become more involved, helpful and emotionally engaged with the babies.  This time around, he often gets up with Teague in the night to give him his binky, gets up early with him so that I can sleep a little longer, was comfortable with me leaving him with all 4 kids when Teague was just 6 or 8 weeks old, and will either take him when he's being fussy so that I can get dinner going or take over dinner prep for me.  He also cleans up the kitchen and dining room (including sweeping) every night, and almost always puts the older 3 kids to bed while I feed and put Teague to bed.  And this is not an easy task!  Willow makes bedtime extremely difficult pretty much every night...  Yes, he's pretty amazing!

7:10am - I got to sleep a little longer, but forced myself out of bed and into the shower at 7:10am.  I got myself showered and dressed for the day.

7:30 - Hearing Teague fussing, I went downstairs and fed him while Mark made juice (we've been juicing daily for the past couple months) and coffee.  

8-9am - Willow and I worked together to make up a batch of GF granola and another batch of regular granola, held T for much of this time, wrote up chore lists for kids, To Do list for myself, and got them dressed for the day.  Got Aspen and Journey started on their chores.

9 - Teague down for his first nap.  I got the other kids started on their chores outside.  Most days I have Aspen pull 200 weeds as apart of his chores.  Journey has to go outside and pull weeds too, but I don't have an amount for her.  She just has to stay out as long as he's out.  It sounds like a lot, but only takes him about 15 or 20 minutes.  While they were working on their chores, I ran back upstairs to finish drying my hair and doing make up.  

9:30-10 - quick kitchen clean up, pack after swimming lessons lunch for kids, get the kids ready for their lessons, eat breakfast

10-10:20 - had to wake T up from his nap (unusual) and quickly fed him while the other kids anxiously waited in the car.  Just a little excited for swimming lessons  :)  Thankfully we took off a few minutes early, because it took forever to find a parking spot.  Aspen was alternately praying for a spot and yelling at people to move and hurry up, haha    He's got a little of both his mother and his father in him, lol

10:45 - Highlight of the day.... the beginning of the very highly anticipated swimming lessons  :)  I was able to get them all into their own classes at the same time (yay me!), although I did have to fib a little on Willow's age.  She is supposed to be 3 to do a class without me in the water with her, but since that wasn't going to happen, and I knew she would hate being left out of lessons, I 'advanced' her age by a few months, haha

 Willow's class

Willow reacted exactly like I knew she would.  She resists new things so she refused to look at her teacher or get in the water at first, but a few minutes in, she warmed up, and by the end, she was having so much fun that she was the last kid out of the pool (as in the entire pool) and cried that she had to go.

  Journey's class

She looks so little compared to the two boys in her class!  I think this class is a bit advanced for her, but hopefully she'll learn a lot!

Aspen's class

He had a bit of a rough start today too.  He missed hearing who his teacher was, and wondered around finally jumping into the deep end of the pool and accidentally joining the wrong class.  He was so flustered he was ready to quit swimming lessons before they had even started!

Once we got things squared away with his class, he had a great time and made friends with another boy next to him.

 Teague's first time down a slide :)

11:30-12:30 - we took stopped at a park to have lunch and play after swimming lessons, then stopped at a Goodwill drop off place to donate some items we've had floating around.

12:30-1pm - unload swimming lesson stuff, feed Teague, put Teague and Willow down for naps and quiet time for Aspen and Journey.

1-2:30pm - lunch for me, quick kitchen clean up, put in 2nd batch of granola to bake.  A little veg time on the computer while I ate my lunch, updated my budget program for July, paid some bills online, made a salad for dinner. 

2:30 - Aspen and Journey up from quiet time, snacks, sent them outside to play.

3 - Willow and Teague up from their naps.  Got Willow a snack, set up the sprinkler for her, tried to do a little cleaning - main bath and sweep main floor - all while Teague was super fussy.

3:30 - fed Teague.  Tried to do more cleaning upstairs with a fussy baby in tow, while kids coming in and out with different problems, hungry, someone not playing nicely, etc.  

4:30-5:30 - tried to put Teague down for a nap.  Had kids clean up the basement, then turned on channel 10 cartoons for them.  Continued to try to clean upstairs bath, got Teague up again since he was not interested in napping, sweep floors, start dinner, gave him a little solid food, fed him again.

5:30 - nap for Teague.  Continued to work on dinner, Willow 'helped' me with dishes, cleaning up around the house.

6 - Mark home

6:30 - dinner time, got Teague up from his nap.

7-7:30 - worked on getting girls to bed with Mark and finished sweeping their room out.

7:30 - fed Teague again for the last time of the day.  Mark finished cleaning up the kitchen, doing the dishes and sweeping, then he and Aspen left for the beach.

8-9:30 - Teague cried and fought bedtime which is quite unusual for him.  Willow also fought bedtime until 9pm (not so unusual!)  while Journey was asleep by 8:15 or 8:30pm.  She's learned to sleep through a lot - including Willow getting spankings!

It was a long day for me today.  Normally the kids are down to bed and the house is clean by 8 or 8:30pm.  Teague was fussy most of the day (pretty sure teething?), and I felt overwhelmed with the amount of cleaning and effort it took to keep the older 3 busy throughout the afternoon.  I'm thankful for a new day tomorrow!