My Day

AAAH how I love my children (note the dresses were made by Grandma Cooper - thank you!!). This is my morning.
2:23am "Mommy, Change my diaper. MOMMY....". While Jenna is great at going #1 in the potty, #2 has not been so successful

5:35am Screaming. Sarah has gotten out of her swaddle. I go in quietly swaddle her and put her back to bed.

7:00am. Erik's alarm goes off. He jumps in the shower. I roll over.

7:30am. Jenna comes in our room. She's awake so obviously we must be as well. I try to get her dressed. J: "I want to wear my nightgown". Me: "How about the Strawberry shortcake shirt and the blue pants and pony underwear." J: "No I want a different underwear." Me: "okay - stay still so I can help you get dressed". After much squirming Jenna is dressed.

7:45am. Breakfast. Strawberry chex cereal, water, orange juice and two vitamins. "I want two more vitamins, I want a different juice, I want ice in my water, I want a different napkin - this one is old, mommy make your spoon talk, why do you have raisins in your cereal, why do you have a white vitamin and a yellow vitamin, where's daddy, etc, etc, etc".

8:12am. I remember that I have two children and should probably get the other one. I walk into Sarah's room and the world smiles, birds sing, and I dance in a field of roses. She smiles at me so beautifully as if I'm the greatest thing in the world. I squeeze her and kiss her and squeeze her some more. Change her diaper, sing to her. Then take her downstairs to eat. Sarah cranes her neck while eating to watch Jenna running around the house carrying a blanket.

8:45am. Sarah in the bouncer. I pump. "mommy can you make sleeping beauty talk while you're pumping"

9:20am. Done pumping. Sarah screaming. Jenna screaming at Sarah to stop screaming. I move Sarah to a new location and she's happy. Jenna needs to go potty. "No I don't have to go potty. I don't want to go potty" . Me: "Go potty now and then you can have a sticker and then we can play with puzzles". Not working. Finally Jenna goes potty

9:50am. Jenna still on the potty reading books. I swaddle Sarah and put her down for a nap.

10:00am - 10:02am I sit at the computer for a "break" and look at my email

10:02am Jenna is done on the potty. Now we can play puzzles "mommy where does this piece go? mommy, where does this piece go? Scruff get off of the puzzle!!! mommy, where does this piece go?"

10:27am Sarah screaming. I go up, burp her, feed her a little bit and put her back down

10:33am Jenna and I play tunnel with the blanket. Everytime I try and get up to do something productive, there is fussing and screaming "no, keep playing, keep your eyes open mommy, Please be my friend mommy (how can I say no?!?)"

11:05am I pack up my frozen pumped breast milk to send to Africa in a cooler. Call Fedex and schedule a pickup

11:10am Erik comes home from his meeting early. Hooray! Daddy is here and he is exciting!! Yea!!! Mommy can sit down at the computer and check her online class for 5 minutes

11:35am I start making grilled cheese sandwiches and put plates with grapes on the table for lunch.

11:57am We start eating lunch

11:58am Sarah wakes up and starts screaming

12:01pm Gina finishes grilled cheese sandwich (not really cheese, it's soy cheese because I'm off dairy for Sarah), grapes, and three absolutely sinful brownies in record time

12:02pm Change Sarah and bring her down. Feed Sarah.

12:15pm Daddy and Jenna finish lunch.

12:15 - 11pm Gina wishes she could eat the rest of the pan of brownies, not gain any weight from it, sit in a hot tub, get a foot massage, and not make any dolls or eating utensils talk. Yea right.

You will note that I still have not showered, or even changed out of my PJs by 12:15 and I had to leave for work at 3:15pm. Nor did I get anything productive done this morning.

I had to post a picture of dinner though. This is raspberry chicken with sauteed peppers. I pan fried the chicken (first sprinkled some salt, pepper, and some herbs - like thyme) then took it out of the pan and set it on a plate. In the same pan I put two spoonfuls of seedless raspberry jam, and poured some balsamic vinegar in the pan and a dash of salt. I kept stirring until it was all melted (a few minutes). Then I poured this over the chicken. I've made this dish a few times and it is easy and low fat. Even though it looks funny - it is really good. You could use different flavors of jam too. Unfortunately I didn't make enough peppers and was forced to eat another 3 brownies!!!