For my mom and dad...

So in preparation for my trip to Brazil I thought I would sit down and write out everything I could think of about our day, anything about everything, just to help my parents out with the nine days they will be staying with the kids. I got panicky the other night when putting Maverick to sleep. As I went to place him in his crib in his usual sleep spot and position, I realized that there are so many things that I don't even think about mentioning to my Mom and Dad and our life that they just wouldn't know unless I told them. Mav's favorite sleep spot would be one of them. The obvious stuff is obvious. Of course my Mom knows the usual bedtimes, favorite foods, and popular stories. She has a list of friends and how to get in touch with them. But it's all the little things that will come up, and even if I leave a list a mile long, it will be those little things that will be where my Mom and Dad are just going to have to figure it out and improvise. I love that my Mom is so in tune with my kids that in many ways she can come into this house and fill my shoes, so to speak. I am so grateful that the obvious stuff is obvious with us, and I don't need to leave a list of how to comfort my kids if she is crying or whatever. My kids know and adore my parents, and I wouldn't have been able to feel confident going on this trip leaving them with anyone else. But I still thought it would be helpful, Mom and Dad, for me to write down everything and anything I could think of about a usual day for us for you to look over and refer back to. And then I figured, why no blog about it? This will probably be good to look back in the years to come. I dod something like this last year titled "A Day In The Life..." with the intention of doing that every so often to remind myself of what a typical day was like at that age and stage so I guess that is really what this is. Hope it helps!

-The day starts right now usually with Tula waking up, maybe around 7ish. If you can get to her fast enough, before she yells too much, you will get a few sweet minutes alone with her before Mav hears the commotion. And vice versa. If he wakes up first and you race in to get him, you will get some of the biggest and brightest smiles. But as soon as Tula hears him she is up and at em too. Don't worry about them waking each other. You think they are both happy to see you until you show them to each other first thing in the morning. That is pure joy! Tula squeals and goes running towards Mav. Mav flaps his arms with excitement. This may be their happiest time of day together. We usually go into Tula's room, open up the blinds, and they play with books for awhile. I change Mav's bum and we ask Tula right away when she gets up if she has to pee. If her sheets are clean, she will most likely go running for the potty when she wakes up, or have no problem going if you ask her.

- Breakfast seems to be getting later and later. Tula and I used to eat right away, but she doesn't seem in that big of a hurry, she likes her book time in the morning, so it's usually Mav who reminds me to go and make breakfast. About half an hour after waking, we all pile downstairs. I usually dress Tula before going downstairs and Mav stays in his jammies till after morning nap. These kids would eat scrambled eggs with ham and cheese every morning for breakfast if I let them. I usually make 5 eggs for the 3 of us with 2 slices of ham and we split it all up. We probably eat this 3 or 4 mornings a week. Tula goes in the wooden restaurant highchair at the table and Mav goes in the white one, but I pull him up to the table as well. Tula wants her milk right away, but she will let you know that so I don't worry about that. Most of the things she knows she wants, she knows how to communicate to you. Makes life so much easier! Anyways, yogurt, oatmeal and cheerios and milk are all safe breakfast foods that they both eat.

- After breakfast is playtime with the downstairs toys. This will last a good half hour, they are really starting to play together and interact so much more. Tula will usually go over to the bucket of their little toys (this is their favorite thing to play with) and dump it out and pass a couple select toys to Mav for him to play with. They play at their little kitchen and love to go and hide and play together in the spare room. Watch the bathroom though, I have to leave the door open for Tula but Mav will go in and play with the toilet water so it is a pain. Lately I have been just shutting the door and Tula is getting really good at asking when she has to go pee.

Around 9:30ish is Mav's first nap. It's not really a set time, but I think you will just know when cause it really seems like out of nowhere he just gets miserable. As soon as he gets cranky I take him up, and Tula will either continue to play, or if she gets mad that I am going upstairs with Mav I ask her if she wants to come up and watch tv. She loves tv right now and will jump at the chance if I tell her she can watch a bit. She knows to not knock or bang on the door now when Mommy is putting Mav down, so she will sit there for 10 or 15 min and just watch and wait. Mav goes down for the am nap easily. He usually barely nurses, just needs a quiet place and some quiet time. He doesn't usually fall asleep in my arms anymore, in fact I know he is ready for me to put him in his crib when he starts to get really restless and moving around. I place him on his back closer to the top of the crib and closer to the wall, and he usually rolls over immediately to his belly and kind of hides his face in the corner and goes right to bed. Sometimes when you walk out of the door, for whatever reason, he will fuss, but only for a minute and then he is out. His morning nap is the big one, usually about 1.5 hours. This is your chance to get stuff done! If there are two of you, it should be a piece of cake. Tula would love to get out of the house at this time, usually we are stuck to the house because of Mav's naptime but its a very happy and playful time for her so she would love to go anywhere you take her. Sometimes she will ask me "out, park, car?" and I have to remind her that Mav is upstairs sleeping and we can't leave. Sometimes I let Tula watch a little more tv and I will do what I need to at my computer or on the phone. Most times she hangs with me and wants to help with whatever i am doing. Something in the kitchen, in my room, making the bed, whatever. This is Tula's time though.

- Lunch time around noon. Mav should be up soon. I forgot to mention, and this is important, that you want to make sure you get Mav down for his morning nap on time or else he sleeps too late and is not ready for his second nap by the time she is ready to go down. This sucks because then you won't get a "break" at all in the day, if you aren't able to nap them in the afternoon at the same time. So, lunch. Tula often eats a plate with ham, cucumber and cheese cut up. Or and apple. Oh, loves yogurt. And loves it when I make a can of chicken noodle soup. Maverick usually just gets a yogurt for lunch, maybe some of Tula's apple or somehting cut up afterwards for him to pick at.

- After lunch is the time to get out of the house for us. He is up and happy and she still has a little juice left in her before her nap. You can't go too far or she will fall asleep in the car on the way home and then won't transfer well into her crib and wake up and then you are screwed because now you get no naptime break plus you have a cranky toddler. Keep her awake till you get home and take her upstairs, make sure she goes pee before naptime and shut the blinds so she knows its time for sleep.

-Anytime after 2 is Tula's naptime, and Mav's second. And I still haven't found a formula on how to do this easily yet. Tula usually gets "five minutes" of tv while I put Mav down and he goes to be then I go get her and we read ONE (only one!) book and then it's time for snuggle. Lately, we have been reading longer books. She probably won't let you pick up anything but a Curious George book. In fact, when you are walking down the hall towards her room for naptime she will start saying "George, George" just to let you know what she wants to read. Sometimes, if she is really tired and you read read gently, she will actually fall asleep while reading the book. She will usually transfer into her bed no problem from her rocking chair, but you already knew that, right Mom?

- BREAK TIME! You now have a good hour or two, if you have down things right and got them down at relatively the same time, to do whatever you desire. This usually involves getting dinner ready. Or chatting on the phone. Or sometimes even a nap. It's quiet time, whatever you do!

- Tula usually wakes from her nap miserable. I have no idea why. Just be prepared. I mean, I guess it is hit or miss, but when she is grumpy, she can be a bear. If she made it through naptime without wetting the bed, this is great but she gets mad if I ask her if she has to go pee. It's annoying. So I usually just take her downstairs and ask her about her Elmo potty and that helps, then she goes no problem. I think this is a rough time of day for her cause she sort of slept through afternoon snack and its almost dinnertime. She used to nap earlier and get up and have a snack around 3ish but because I really try and keep them napping together in the afternoons that is no longer the case. So when she wakes, and although dinnertime is near, I do let her have a little snack. Usually its around 4:30-5 and I am not ready for dinner but not close enough to tell her no snack. It's getting a little too hot, but she still loves to take her snack outside.

- Mav gets up around the same time from afternoon nap, and although he wakes a little happier, he also is loking for a snack or at least a big drink when he gets downstairs. This is often a time they like to play outside. In the afternoon, our house provides a lot of shade to our backyard so they can play a lot more comfortably out there. Mav loves it when you fill the blue water table for him to splash around in and Tula love it if she can have some water in the sink of her house. You have to keep an eye on them out there but usually I can go into the kitchen and work on dinner a bit while they play together in the yard.

- Dinnertime. Hmmmmm. Mav loves just about anything, especially any sort of meat. They both will eat mac and cheese every night (for every meal) for that matter. Good luck with dinnertime!

- After dinner the kids are usually happy to play more while John and I clean the kitchen, we do that quick and then try and either get on the floor with them or go outside. If we get done dinner and cleanup early enough we will do something fun like go to the park or for a walk. Tula loves this. Tula loves to have something for Daddy when he gets home. Most of the time, we do something like make an iced tea or whatever but I guess you probably won't know when he is coming home so you can't do that. She loves to have something to show or tell him as soon as he walks through the door. Mav lights up too when Daddy gets home. I look forward to you guys spending a week with John and being able to see what an incredible Daddy he is to our kids, and how much they both adore him. no that you didn't know already, but it will be fun for you to see again!

-Bedtime. Tula has a shower every night and Mav has a bath. How we usually do it is that John takes both the kids up and I stay downstairs and make his lunch at this time. He puts Tula in the shower for her playtime and gives Mav his bath, then calls me to come get Mav and put him down while he washes Tula. By the time Mav is down Tula is out and lately she wants me to put her to bed so I have been. Similar to naptime. One story, ten lights out and snuggle for a few minutes. We pray. I ask her who we pray to, she says "Jesus". When I am done praying, she says "Amen". It is one of the sweetest, most beautiful parts of my day.

- Tula is potty training and doing great throughout the daytime, we haven't had an accident in a long time and she will tell you if she has to pee or poop. Nightimes, she will no longer wear a diaper but she still has accidents and needs a little help. My first hint, she sleeps with no bottoms at all on now. That way, when we do the midnight potty runs, there are no pants or panties to take on or off. You have to go in and wake her and take her potty right around midnight. And not after. I have went in at 12:30 a few times and she has had a mistake. She is is used to 12 so I would stick with that. Then, if you can try and wake up once more through the night and take her, she will be fine and you shouldn't have any accidents. If you don't do that second trip, chances are good she will have an accident so beware. She likes to go on the big potty with the stool under her feet and sometimes, for the nighttimes ones I have to actually get down and hug her while she goes, I think she is just so tired and out of it half the time she seems to be falling asleep on the potty, if you are holding her it helps her to just relax and pee quicker. She will ask to snuggle on her way back to her bedroom, I don't let her walk at all cause I am trying to keep her as asleep as possible. Just tell her you will rub her back and pretty much as soon as you get her back in her bed she is out of it.

- Mav is just starting to sleep through the night. He has done it a couple times, and I believe this is nothing less than a complete answer to prayer, as this was one of my biggest worries in leaving him. All he knows is me or JOhn in the middle of the night. And all John is good for is bringing him to me. He nurses briefly, just for comfort, and is back asleep. I guess, if he were to wake you could try a bottle or have one sitting there in case. Maybe a paci? Whatever works, I don't care what you have to do. I am still hoping and praying he will just sleep though every night for us but I guess we will have to see. Just take care of my baby boy. The poor guy will be very sad if Mommy isn't there in the middle of the night to rescue him I think.

I love being able to leave and know that my kids are being left with some of the only other people in the world that love them as much as I do. What a special thing it is to have grandparents. To see your own parents with your own children is such an incredible feeling. I love how much my kids love my parents and as nervous and anxious as I am to leave them, I am excited for all the fun GG and Papa bonding time they are going to get. Thank you , Mom and Dad, for doing this for me. I know you are looking forward to it as well, but this is a huge gift and sacrifice you are doing for me and I just cannot even begin to tell you how thankful I am. I love you guys, and I hope you have a fabulous week with my three favorite people in the whole wide world!