A day in the life . . .

Things are pretty mundane in our household right now. Busy, but mundane. Since there are no emotionally fulfilling recent events with which to regale you, I have decided to give you a picture of our average day – with an emphasis on Thor and Princess, of course. Hubby and I realize we are rarely the stars of this blog.

Morning comes early these days. Usually Thor rises first – like his father, he hates a dirty nappy. Hubby and I have been looking forward to daylight savings time. Hopefully since the sun won’t be up at 5am, Thor will find additional reasons to stay in bed. It’s looking good as I write this. Thor usually wakes his sister and they both come into our bed for a morning snuggle. Leaving one groggy adult in bed, the rest of us tramp down to the kitchen for be’fast. For Thor, this involves voluminous amounts of porridge (oatmeal). Princess’ growth needs must finally be slowing because she no longer downs four weetbix.

I take breakfast very seriously

Eating is a bit of an adventure – especially for Thor. He is skilled at making his desires known despite little to no use of the English language. Mostly with grunts. He's already practicing to be a man. He has a disgruntled grunt when you try to feed him something he doesn't want. His long and loud grunt tells me I'm not shovelling the food into his mouth fast enough. And when he’s full, his impatient grunt signals "I want to get down – NOW!". He increasingly demands to wield the spoon which creates a new level of mess in our kitchen.

Now all this grunting is okay with me - for now. I am adept at new languages. I can do "grunt". Apparently Princess can too. Her vocabulary is receeding as she follows Thor's leading. We're starting to have lessons in "you don't HAVE to do what your brother is doing". In between grunts, she practices her "polite" words. Sometimes she even uses them spontaneously.

After breakfast, the morning marathon begins. Sometimes the adult leader changes in a desperate effort to keep our sleep 'tanks' from getting too low. The remaining team leader now settles into clothe and clean mode. By the time that little routine is finished, work, college, and morning chores commence.

Gloves are a vital part of any washing up properly done

Thor and Princess like to help around the house. Princess likes to help with dishes. For that matter, so does Thor, but the number of things on the floor when we're done requires a re-think at this point. They both like to help with the laundry, too.

This looks like more fun than the bathtub!

Princess puts the soap in and then they both sit on the edge of the washing machine and help me put in the clothes. Somewhere in the middle of all this activity, Thor fatigues (despite a name that suggests indefatigability) and heads off to bed. As long as he has "puppy" all is well. Yes, I know a previous blog suggested he had given up morning naps, but that was just designed to keep mommy on her toes. After an unsettled month, they have reappeared and continue on strongly.

Meanwhile Princess and I continue the rounds. Right now, ‘yitter’ is a popular art activity. Mommy does fun things with glue on the paper and Princess shakes the ‘yitter’ all over the paper. Mommy is no dummy though. This is strictly an outdoor activity. No one has ever accuses Princess of accurate arm techniques. All manner of relatives and friends are subject to the random appearance of ‘art’ in their mailboxes.

When Thor finishes exploring his eyelids, we try to do some sort of active activity. We ride bikes in front of the house, visit a park, take a walk, or something else entertaining. Princess has learned how to ride a trike and Thor keeps busy on his little car. Occasionally he tries to take it down a hill or over an edge with all the expected resultant tears.

Lunch is, well, lunch. More grunting, more things to sweep off the floor, more two year old table conversation. We’re still doing afternoon naps – all of us! Even when she doesn’t sleep, Princess has learned to ‘rest’. Thor has yet to develop the skill so if he doesn’t nap, I can usually hear the rattle of cot against wardrobe as he ‘inspects’ all that lies within his domain.

After nap time, Princess usually wants to watch Veggie Tales. For those of you unfamiliar with the talking cucumber motif the videos involve a whole bunch of vegetables without apparent arms, legs, or joints participating in a variety of human activities while singing their hearts out. "If you like to talk with tomatoes . . ." She and Thor have the patience for about 20 – 30 minutes and then the so-called ‘witching hour’ begins. This is hubby’s term, but I think I like his grandfather’s term even better – idiot hour.

I keep my creative brain on full alert for these times. Oh, beware my fate if I’ve left dinner preparation until after naps. As Thor busily empties the silverware and plastic all over the floor, I try to direct Princess NOT to eat the raw meat. Princess and I finally fill a pot with vegetables and get it on the stove. I turn it on. While I’m setting the table, Thor comes behind me and turns off the vegetables. Ten minutes later when there is no sign of progress in cooking, I figure out what he’s done. On the good days, hubby suddenly appears in the middle of all this and mommytainment becomes so yesterday as he leads the troops outside to water the garden or run races on the walkway.

The cutlery is calling my name

After dinner, the bedtime routine begins. It goes something like this: bath, teeth, jammies, read a book, read the Bible, pray, kisses, bed. Thor now heads straight for bed when we finish the routine. More grunting ensues if we do not arrive fast enough to help him into his cot. I could go on about bedtime, but that’s probably a blog unto its own.