I’m sitting here thinking how content I am and what a good day it was. Remembering how I wrote “A Day in the Life” on what turned out to be a not so good day, I wonder what it would look like on a day like today. So here is how my day went today.

It began much earlier than I wanted it to. I woke around 1:00 am to Will’s cries. I almost got up right away and then realized since it was the third night in a row that he had got up after going to bed, that maybe I should just let him cry it out. I waited for what seemed like awhile, but since time seems to be distorted in the middle of the night, I’m not sure how long it actually was. Finally I got up and went to check on him. He’d wet through his clothes, so that was most likely much of his problem, but once he saw me there was no way he was calming down very easily. So I brought him to bed with me and nursed him. He seemed hungry, and almost fell asleep after nursing about 20 minutes. I put him back to bed and he went back to sleep with minimal fussing.

Thankfully, he slept in more like I have been used to him doing. The last couple of days he’s also woke early in the morning wanting to nurse, so I didn’t know what to expect this morning. I heard him cough at about 7:00 am; so I got up, went to the bathroom, and then headed to get him. As my hand reached for the doorknob, I suddenly thought “What in the world am I doing? He’s not crying, just leave him for now.” So I crawled back in bed and slept for about 20 more minutes. Then I decided to go ahead and get up so I could shower before feeding Will. I ended up showering, getting dressed for church, getting Elise dressed for church, doing her hair and giving her breakfast before I went to get Will up. He was happily playing in bed waiting patiently for me to get him. How I love mornings like this. They had been getting quite common, but the fact that he’d not stuck to schedule the last two days make me more thankful for this one.

I fed Will and then got Elise out the door with Daddy and Pop (who’d come to pick them up). John and his Dad spend the morning praying for John’s brother Mark who is in Iraq. They take Elise to Sunday School for me. Elise had put up some fuss about going without me this morning. She wanted me to come too. I was looking forward to a quiet laid back morning without her. But how do I explain this to her? I did debate about hurrying with my preparations and I could have just made it to Sunday School myself. I haven’t been in weeks. I decided against it, as I still hadn’t eaten breakfast.

I ate breakfast in front of the computer with Will playing in his saucer behind me. He soon wanted to be picked up and so sat in my lap while I did stuff on the computer. I could tell he was needing his regular morning nap, but I knew that it would be messed up by church. I didn’t put him down right away, thinking I would just keep him awake and hope he’d sleep at church. But when I went down to finish getting ready it was still only 9:30 and church doesn’t start until 10:15. I made the decision to let him get part of a nap before church so he’d at least get some sort of a nap, as he often won’t sleep at church. He fussed when I laid him down in his crib, but stopped immediately and settled down to sleep. He’s been fighting naps the last couple of days as well, so I was thankful for the ease of this one.

I sat back at the computer to kill time. Very quickly it was 10:00 and time to go. I hurried downstairs, grabbed Will’s bag, put on my shoes and loaded the car. Will was sound asleep and didn’t move a muscle when I went into his room. Feeling slightly bad for waking him, I picked him up and headed to church. He is not one to go back to sleep easily once woken up, so he was up for good by the time I got to church. He was happy to play in laps during the first part of the service, but soon got grumpy, so I took him to the cry room to nurse. We spent the rest of the service in there since he was not real quiet and since he’s been sick I didn’t want to put him in the nursery.

After church we were planning on going out to eat with John’s parents. I went to pick up Elise and found her in the playground. She was easy to find as she was crying quite loudly. Apparently she had given some trouble about leaving the playground and then subsequently got “hurt” on the gate. I am starting to see a trend here with her getting hurt after she doesn’t want to do something. Then she insists that she is crying about getting hurt, not because she doesn’t get what she wants. I know that she may not be purposefully doing this, she really does hurt herself when she does this, but the proportion of her reaction to it is probably dependent on her feelings before the incident, not on the measure of pain experienced.

I walked her crying to the classroom to pick up her craft and then to the bathroom for a Kleenex. There was one detour as she screams about wanting to go with Aunt Hannah, and then having to say good-bye to Aunt Hannah. She at one point took off after Aunt Hannah to say good-bye. Hmmm, is this going to be one of those days?

Elise rode with Nana and Pop to the resteraunt and John, Will, and I met them there. We visited and enjoyed good food. Will was getting tired as he still hadn’t slept since his interrupted morning nap. He entertained himself for awhile demolishing crackers. I’m not sure how much he eats of a cracker, but when he’s done with one, you might have a hard time finding it as it ends up as mush and small pieces all over him and the floor. He tried French fries and lemonade as well. He did not like the French fries, but he thinks lemonade is pretty good. By the time our main dishes arrive, he had to be held to stay happy, so I ate with him in my lap. If I turn him around so he is facing my shoulder, it is a little easier as he can’t grab my food that way. By the end of the meal I was standing rocking him as he was so tired he wouldn’t sit still anymore. He fell asleep just before we left.

John and I were having a realtor meet with us about our house this afternoon and I needed to do some more cleaning before she came. We decided this would be accomplished more easily without Elise around, so I sent her with Nana and Pop to be dropped off at my Mom’s house. Will slept through the transfer to carseat and then to his crib at home. That doesn’t often happen. I had 3 hours before the meeting with the realtor and decide that I needed to spend at least a little bit of it resting. So I curled up on the bed and fell asleep. I woke up about 10 minutes later. I was feeling pretty refreshed and knew that I need to get started on cleaning so I got up.

Not knowing how much I would accomplish before Will woke up, I began cleaning random messes. John helped quite a bit. It turned out that Will slept 2 hours and I was able to just about finish before he woke up. Once he was up, I only did a little bit more as I had to feed him and then he got scared with the vacuum cleaner and had to be held. I still had a few minutes left before the realtor came, so I put Will in his front carrier and tried to sweep with him attached to the front of me. It didn’t work very well, but I did get one room swept before the realtor came.

The meeting with the realtor took an hour. Will played on my lap nicely the entire time. When she left I got ready to go out to Mom’s to spend some time and pick up Elise. John stayed home to do some work and play games on the computer. Will slept in the car out to Mom’s and so I was sure he’d fight being put down for another nap at her house, but he didn’t. He smiled as I laid him in the playpen and didn’t cry once. He slept for an hour and a half, and would have probably gone longer, but I thought I should probably get him up for awhile so he’d actually go to bed on time. We played games and I fed Will bananas.

Around Elise’s bedtime I decided to come home so we don’t get a late night tonight before we start our new schedule tomorrow. As I drove home I thought how nice it was to be returning to a clean home. My house is cleaner than it has been in months! I am hoping to keep it near this level. I have housecleaning chores scheduled for every day, but when your house is a complete mess, it is hard to make any headway. Starting with it clean to begin with will make quite a bit of difference. Now I just need to get caught up on laundry. That will be my main chore tomorrow.

Will went to bed without a problem when we got home. Elise had some meltdowns when we left Grandma’s and when we got home. She was definitely tired as she fell asleep on the way home. When we got home she said she didn’t need to go to the bathroom before going to bed and I was willing to go along with that until she said that she had went at naptime and that is why she didn’t need to go. Knowing that naptime was hours past and quite possibly the last time she went I said she needed to try again before bed. She flat out said no. I told her again, she said no louder, then jumped on the bed and yelled NO. Needless to say, a spanking happened next. It shocks me sometimes when she is so defiant, but at least those are the times that discipline is the most clear to me. Outright rebellion will not be tolerated, and in some ways is a whole lot easier to deal with than manipulation, subterfuge, and arguments. I talked with her for a few minutes after the spanking. Then I sent her to the bathroom. She of course, went. When I asked her later about it, she said, well “yes I went, but I didn’t need to go then.” “What do you mean?” I asked. “When I jumped on the bed, I didn’t need to go then.” I tried to logically explain how if you can pee 2 minutes later, than obviously you did need to go, but somehow this does not make sense to her. Oh well. We read a book, prayed, and then she went to bed without a fuss.

And now here I am. So was my day better because I didn’t have Elise for part of it? Hmmm, that worries me. Should not having her sometimes be something I enjoy so much? I do know I felt like I was needing a break, and I think that probably every mom needs those refreshing times away from children. I also know that a good deal of my feelings right now are stemming from my clean house. It is so relaxing to sit here knowing the room behind me is just about spotless, as is the whole downstairs. In fact, I keep looking around to admire the room. What a mood lifter it is. And it feels good to have put so much work into it. I definitely accomplished something over the last 3 days, with John’s help of course. Some of the things I cleaned I had been putting off for months, so it was good to finally do them. There is still more to do, but at least my energy is not being drained every time I walk through the rooms that were beginning to look like trash dumps. My mood is probably also helped by the fact that Will is sleeping so well today as compared to yesterday. Hopefully his sleeping struggles over the last few days were temporary and we will slip back into a nice routine. I also have high hopes for tomorrow and my new schedule. Though I do almost feel I need a weekend again as I was cleaning most of this one. I am not looking forward to getting up to exercise in the morning, but I am looking forward to the results of it. I hope this week goes well.