ok. going to be short and sweet…with a little hosting fun slipped in…because momma had a FULL day.
here’s the run down.
8:30 a.m. Our day started. T is a night owl–so I was up much too late last night waiting for her to go to bed. Momma made a firm bed time rule after last night. To our beds by 10:30 and lights out at 11pm. This is new for me:) My littles crash around 8.
Got Laney and Isaac ready for their birthday parties (when you have 4 kids–you have birthday parties every Saturday). We waited until the last minute to wake princess T up. She likes sleeps in until about 10am. New to me too:) We woke her up at 10am and I literally escorted her from her bedroom to the car with juice and muffins waiting for her in the van. If you don’t rise early–you have to eat on the go:)
10:30 a.m. Drop off Laney at birthday party #1.
10:45 a.m. Swing by toy store to get present for birthday party #1 and #2 (life is TOO crazy right now to be prepared ahead of time.).
11:00 a.m. Run back to birthday party #1 drop off gift. Race to birthday party #2. Princess T is asking to swim–but we have to roll with it…arrive at birthday party #2 full of 2 and 3 year olds.
I thought it would be best for us to hang at #2 because #1 was a swim party and I knew it’d be too crazy to have princess T swimming with all the 5 year olds. I thought it’d be good to hang out together at the 3 year old party…but she got SO excited to see all the new things that she quickly took off her shoes with the other 3 year olds and dove in the jumpy. I didn’t want littles to get hurt so I coaxed her out and explained we’d go to a jumpy place this week. Yes–other parents were looking at me like I was crazy. These were friends from my littlest ones preschool so most at the party didn’t know we were hosting, and I could tell they were trying to figure us out. THEN the firetruck came which was really entertaining and fun for both Isaac and T. She really enjoyed it and was fascinated with it all! We had a minor incident with a sliding glass door–but other than that…smooth sailing and a lot of fun–and now we have Monkey Joes on our to-do list this week…her new favorite thing!
12:00 p.m. Left 3 year old party because it started getting overwhelming for our T–so we went back to party #1 to pick up Loo bear. Visited for a bit and then headed home to wait on Richard and Parker to get home (they had a father/son get away together…Parker needed some daddy time).
2pm Loaded everyone up and scooted over to Atlanta Athletic Club to swim with my sister’s family. We’ve been playing at our hood pool that has no lifeguard–so no big rules or whistle blowing. I totally forgot all the rules pools with diving boards have…no jumping in the diving board area, no hanging on the rope, no running…rules that you just grow up knowing. I tried my BEST to explain the rules with my handy translator–but to no avail–we got the whistle blown at us:) We had so much fun here that we decided to stay for awhile…we stayed until 5 o’clock! Every one was happy–so momma wasn’t going to leave. Uncle Harris taught Parker how to dive and Frankie baby was running and jumping off the diving board for the first time. So fun to watch my 3 year old fish!
5pm Scoot home to meet Richard. Oh–forgot to mention I had them all at the pool while Rico stayed home with napping Isaac. Momma is the nap queen–and my ITY needs his nap. Momma probably should have stayed back too–but I knew it’d be better for me to take princess T to the pool.
6pm Took the longest shower in history–and stayed up in my bedroom just sitting there–waiting to see how long I could sit there before anyone needed me. Rico Suave knew I needed some down time–very thankful for some much needed QT!!!
7pm I guess the QT was really what momma needed. I got out for the first time in awhile–I went to Aunt Nisia’s and just sat on her front porch! Parker man went with me and we just had some much needed R & R out of the house together.
9pm Got home–found T and Rico Suave playing cards in the living room. THANKFUL they were having some fun time and I heard lots of laughing. Such a good thing for me to get away for this! Inspired by my new VBFF Dara a new hosting momma who coached me through setting rules/boundaries for a 15 year old…and established new bedtime rules over google with T. Wasn’t sure how it was going to go–but it went GREAT. She said “okay!”. Yay. Had to talk about some other rules…no coming in bathrooms without knocking and other things we needed to cover. Success! (Now sticking to them will be the real challenge)
10:30pm YAY! Our new bed time in full effect. I got tested on this one…
10:40pm Okay–so the testing set me back 10 minutes…but I won at 10:40:)
and that…in a nutshell…was our day! now off to bed at a reasonable hour! VERY THANKFUL!
by admin
Whew! so many things you don’t think of with hosting a teenager!! You are doing awesome! Glad you found some alone time!! Love following your journey.
Hi Andrea! So glad you are getting some QT and setting those boundaries!!! Sleep is good medicine and rules speak ‘love’ to children who’ve never had anyone care enough to set them! I was so encouraged to talk to you the other night and ‘escaped’ from my own home that evening to visit with a dear friend…returned home ready for whatever! I think we’re settling in a bit (said with breath held, fingers crossed, eyes on heaven)…Nadia actually gave daughter, Leah, a ‘normal’ hug good night last night. We were all amazed that she didn’t start the tickling and holding on and baby talking…of course, she followed that up with LOUD strumming on the guitar as I escorted her to bed 🙂 but it was a step forward! I listened to some Christy Knockles on Pandora after reading your blog and really enjoyed her, so thanks for introducing me to a new artist…and I’ll see if Nadia will listen to her. It sounds like you are really having some great intimate time with T and it challenges me to do the same and not just ‘get through’ the day. Sometimes having just enough Russian to get by is a detriment to using Google to really ‘talk’ about the Thing that matters the most. Working on plans to come to ATL next week and possibly get together with you all. Hope you have an amazing day!!!