Almost perfect day!

Today was almost perfect. I didn't get tons of stuff done, but that doesn't really make a day good or bad. The kids were up at 7:30am, which immediately scared me to death! I did not know how I would make it through the day! We usually start at 8:30 or even 9. I thought I wanted more sleep, but quickly woke up.

The kids played pretty good most of the day. We mostly followed my schedule perfectly. Breakfast at 8, but the kids didn't eat much. So by 10 they wanted a snack! Actually we saw a commercial for Gerber Yogurt melts, and Evie ran to the kitchen asking for a snack. She loves those! However, we didn't have any. I did have crunchies, and that is what they had. They ate about 3 servings each, 14 pieces X 3. Yes, I count them out! I am crazy, but I like to try to keep track of the kids nutrition. I don't do it with every thing.

Christopher took a nap from 11:22 to 1:30. Evie cried when I took her to bed. We laid down and watched Madagascar 2, but she fell asleep fast, and slept until 2:15! Mommy fell asleep to, but I woke up when my sister called we were all supposed to go shopping together. She is the one who just had a baby a month ago. When she went to leave the house her car wouldn't start. I felt so bad, but there was nothing I could do! She lives 20 min away, and I didn't have a car.

Both kids fell asleep before lunch so they ate lunch after they woke up. Christopher ate Gerber pasta pick up. Evie had apple and honey ham (lunch meat). I had to give Christopher some to. The meat I roll up really tight so it is like finger food. They eat it up that way! Any other way they won't touch it!

When daddy came home around 4:30 he was starving so we decided to go out to eat. We bought the kids back packs, but Evie's zipper broke so we took that back and went to a Mexican restaurant to eat. (I gotta take the new back pack back to, bad zipper again! Thanks Walmart! Do you know how hard it is to get the thing off her, let alone exchange it?

We went out to eat. The food was good, but the service not so much. It is just difficult when you have small kids, and servers don't pay attention to small things. Like refills! We saw our server 3 times, and were there for over an hour! I will complain more about this later!

After that the kids had a monthly play group at the library. They sing song, read books, make craft, and have snacks. I will talk more about this later as well. The best thing is that the kids get to play with others the same age or close! I love that! The worst thing is it is at 6:30pm to 7:30. Which means a later bed time. I aim for 8.

Christopher is asleep now, but Evie is playing around since mommy is on the computer! She already takes advantage and tries to get away with stuff. Plus, she is the master of distraction. She can change the subject in a conversation before you even know what hit ya! I'm in for a world of trouble! Well I gotta get her to bed, but I had a good day and am pleased! Tired, but going to bed happy!

Daily activities update!

I know my schedule for the day looks somewhat impressive, but it is really just a guideline. I'm working on making it a reality. Lately, we are stuck on a late night schedule and waking up later than normal. This started a few days ago when some how both the kids fell asleep at 4pm and slept until 6:15. I didn't get them to sleep until midnight! We are down to 10:40 bedtime now, but with the exhausting fun of Easter we had a late nap again! So I have to start all over! I have a horrible time getting my kids to sleep and staying asleep. The worst is they hardly ever nap at the same time!

Our daily activities

I have a general idea of how I want to spend the day. I am working on making some type of a schedule that my kids and I can follow. That way each day would be predictable and allow my kids some comfort in knowing what is coming next. That being said I have a hard time following any schedule or being on time for anything so this is very difficult for me to do!

This is my perfect day plan:
8am wake up breakfast, bath if needed, get dressed
Work out, usually yoga (we tivo Namaste Yoga)
Play
10am Snack
Play
12 Lunch then nap or nap then lunch
around 2 snack if needed
Play
4 snack if needed
Play
6 dinner
bath if needed
quiet play hoping to get ready for bed
7;30- 8pm get ready for bed
8-9 sleeping

That if my idea of a perfect day. If we need to run errands we would do so in the morning before nap or after nap time if we have to. I prefer the morning since it is very hard to get my kids to nap at the same time. Some days I can't get Evie to nap at all.

I try to make sure we do the following every day, watch Muzzy (foreign language tapes) and read! The kids love Dora and Diego so we usually watch at least one episode of each every day (mommy loves tivo). We also color and make crafts. Mommy usually makes the crafts while they play color on paper, but then they have fun playing with whatever we make.

The best is to save toilet paper rolls. You can do tons of things with them! Like, let the kids color them. They can do this in their highchairs. Then tape 2 of them together to make binoculars. As long as your little one won't eat them! I let my son do it, even though he eats everything! I just give him his binkie first. He has tons of fun and feels so grown up! We also made penguins out of some! Mommy did most of the work while they colored on paper. I used packing tape to tape them together. This has 2 benefits. It holds up well and kind of makes the toy temporarily water proof.

I get a cake or pie pan out and fill it with uncooked oatmeal. Then I give the kids measuring spoons and cups along with other small toys. It is like they have their own indoor sand box. If the floor is clean you can recycle the oatmeal to play with another day! It makes a big mess, but the vacuum picks it right up. The kids have so much fun it is worth it!

We also build with wooden blocks, and mega blocks! I have a cabinet in the kitchen for the kids to. I saved the containers from formula. We make towers with them then take turns knocking them down. Evie can stack them up until it is one higher than her height 35 1/2". So it is a little over 3 feet high.

I don't worry about messes because most of these activities provide so much opportunity for learning that it is worth the mess! Which usually isn't that bad! I have a vacuum from Wal-Mart that I love. It is called a Shark and you plug it in to charge it. It is so lightweight and portable, which makes it easy to use. On the shortest setting for the handle my 1 year old can push it around. Which he loves and I get some of my floor vacuumed for me! Thanks little buddy!

To move or not to move?

We live in a two bedroom apartment, but it is the size of a 3 bedroom. Which means that our master bedroom is HUGE! I have a king bed, two end tables, twin bed, toddler bed, crib, dresser, computer desk, vanity, two bookcases, and a jewelry chest in our room, and we still have tons of floor space.

The problem is that both our kids sleep in our room. My son falls asleep in my bed or my arms, and then is placed in his crib. He wakes up at least twice a night. The worst night he was up 6 times. I think if he had his own room he might sleep through the night. I think that some of the times he just gets woken up by noises we make. Daddy snores, mommy coughing, and sister crying or laughing.

My daughter sleeps in our bed still. I can't try to get her to sleep in her own bed because if she screams and cries (which she will) she will wake up her brother. Then I will be dealing with two extremely unhappy children at one time. If you have more than one child then you feel my pain. One cries so the other can't sleep then they both start to cry followed by you crying as well (if you can't beat 'em, join 'em).

I think that if we had a 3 bedroom I might be able to get the kids to sleep in their own beds and sleep through the night. I am not sure if this plan would work, but it sure does sound good!

We looked at renting some houses, buying right now is not an option. To big, to small, to expensive is all we found so far. The problem is I love where we live. We park indoors so during inclement weather I don't have to take the kids out to go somewhere. I love our neighbors (on our floor). So I want to stay there, but I want 3 bedrooms.

A 3 bedroom opened up on our floor. Which I felt was a sign from God. My husband won't even look at it. It costs more, has less square footage, and has only 1 bathroom. We currently have 2. Another apartment opened up on the 2nd floor, and is exactly like ours. The only difference is that it has 3 bedrooms. Basically our big bedroom only with a wall in the middle.

We told our landlord that we would take it, but now my husband says "No". He says it is stupid to move into the exact same size apartment, but pay more money (70$ more)! I agree, but desperately want the 3rd bedroom! I understand his concerns about money especially with the economy the way it is. Plus, with me not working I feel that when it comes to money I don't have much of a say! We already turned off the cable to save money for a while. I know if I made a fuss he would move for me, but what if he is right and it's a bad decision.

I guess my biggest problem is that I don't know how to get my kids to sleep when I want them to sleep. I am trying for a bed time before 9pm, but most nights I am left at the mercy of my children and when they decide to fall asleep. I don't know what to do! I can't just throw them in bed and let them cry, and I won't

Schedule!

I am fighting my kids and my lazy procrastinating inner urges and trying to develop some type of a daily schedule. It is not going so good. One night both kids are asleep by 8pm then they both wake up around 9 and are up a couple of hours. I am trying, but this is actually really hard.

To complicate things even further my kids couldn't be more different from one another. My daughter is like me and would rather stay up late and sleep in. My son is ready for bed by 7:30 most nights and awake at about 6:30 most mornings. You could set a clock to him. When he starts to get cranky at night I know its almost 7. He needs the schedule most of all because if he is up to long. He becomes a screaming monster!

I know my daughter needs some regularity with her daily life to. Most days she has trouble taking a nap. If I can't get her to sleep before 4 I make her stay up. Or at least I try to. She can't sleep after 4 or she will be up until midnight or one. The worst night was 3am when she fell asleep. Then of coarse baby brother was up at 6:30 all smiles! I just don't know what to do.

Part of the problem is she has never learned to fall asleep on her own. She falls asleep in my arms or in the car. That's it! So if baby brother is awake then I can't lay down with her. I tried putting her in bed and letting her scream for a while that had disastrous consequences. For now I am just doing the best I can. Hoping the day I can just tell her to go to bed comes sooner than later.

I am flexible on what we do during the day, but I try to get some things in. We watch Muzzy or some thing in Spanish at least once a day. I don't make them watch it, but I have it on so they can watch if they want to. I try to play with each of them separately a few times during the day. As well as letting them play together and by themselves. We read every day, and work on sign language. My daughter learns them quicker than I do. Plus, she makes up her own if she doesn't know one for what she is trying to say. We go a lot of places as well. Which also makes a schedule hard to follow.

Creating a Schedule!

I need help. I desperately need to create some type of schedule for our daily activities. I never know day to day what we will be doing or when we will do it. This makes planning for anything almost impossible. I just plan things and hope for the best. I don't know how many doctor visits I have had to reschedule due to kids taking naps late in the day. I don't care if the schedule is perfect I just need some type of a guideline. However, I don't know how to do this I have never been on time for anything let alone follow a set schedule. We have always just let our kids tell us when they are hungry or tired and worked around that. For infants this strategy is fine, but as kids age and become more vocal and active this no longer works. They become over tired and can't sleep or are really cranky. I would like to avoid these tantrums, and show the world the well behaved kids I see when they are not hungry or sleepy. My dad says my daughter is always cranky, but he never sees her when she isn't tired or hungry. I don't know what to do or how to do it. I think for my kids this is a necessity, but I am at a complete loss. I think life would run smoother if the kids and I new what to expect next. How the heck do you do that? Any ideas!