Solo Parenting Live-Blog

Hey, it's got to be better than an election-night blog.

It was just a very strange day yesterday and today. Kim is out of town for a week for a conference, so I al flying solo with the kids from this past Saturday until this coming Saturday.

The last 24 hours have been, well, interesting. here goes.

We start off Sunday morning: Easygoing, very light. We clean the dining room, watch some kids shows (Oswald, Diego, Clifford), have pizza for lunch.
1:30 PM: Kids go down for naptime.
1:50 PM: Alex tries to claim he has taken a long nap. Um, no, Tuck him back into bed.
3:45 PM: Both kids wake up from nap after Sammie climbs out of crib and hollers.
4:30 PM: Get everyone showered, cleaned up, and dressed to go outside.
4:35 PM: Reveal that we’re going for ice cream before we go to the playground. Yay!
4:45 PM: Get ice cream.
4:48 PM: Alex throws fit because the chocolate syrup is touching the dinosaur cookie. Refuses to eat ice cream and throws a sulky tantrum. I wish I was making this up. Sadly, no.
5:00 PM: Sammie finishes her little strawberry ice cream sundae – and has not messed herself at all. She ate it all, with a spoon, and got none of it on her face, hands, or clothes. Wow. Is she really still under 2?
5:10 PM: Still in a tantrum, Alex is still refusing his ice cream, so Sammie and I eat it. Sammie has no problems with eating more ice cream.
5:15 PM: Back in the truck to go home – playground cancelled on account of tantrum.
5:16 PM: Disclose punishment – he must go to his room, clean it all by himself, and is not allowed to do anything else until it is done, and in the meantime Sammie can play with any toys she wants downstairs.
7:00 PM: Alex finishes cleaning his room. I am extremely impressed by how well he did.
7:05 PM: Alex and Sammie take turns jumping on his bed with 90 or so stuffed animals on it.
7:20 PM: Dinnertime – chicken nuggets, peas, carrots, and iced tea at the newly cleaned dining room table.
8:00 PM: Finish dinner and go back to the living room for playtime and reading before bedtime.
8:01 PM: Start watching a movie the entire family can enjoy…..Caddyshack. (edited version on ESPN Classic) Alex liked a lot of the silly things in the movie. Thankfully the Lacey Underall parts were a bit over his head and there wasn’t any of that kind of activity shown.
8:45 PM: Boats crashing into each other is very funny.
8:50 PM: Getting struck by lighting is also very funny.
9:05 PM: So is cleaning your house with a leafblower.
9:20 PM: Take kids upstairs after a golf course blows up (again, very funny to a four-year old).
9:40 PM: Finish changing kids, tuck kids in.
9:55 PM: Alex comes downstairs #1
10:10 PM: Alex comes downstairs #2
10:30 PM: Alex comes downstairs #3 – he definitely has my procrastination gene.
10:45 PM: Thank God, he’s finally asleep.
11:20 PM: Samantha starts screaming in bed and pulling her jaw – hooray for growing molars and teething!
11:23 PM: Tylenol and cuddling = no more screaming.
11:40 PM: Attempt to place Sammie back into crib.
11:50 PM: Abandon attempt to place Sammie back in crib due to screaming fears of the dark and of closets.
11:55 PM: Finish tucking Sammie into big bed.
12:15 AM: Finish reassuring Sammie that nothing in the house will hurt her or get her and that there are no monsters in the closet.
12:16 AM: Turn on closet light to reinforce lack of scary monster thingamabobs. She stops pointing at the closet.
12:30 AM: Sammie falls back asleep after trying to cuddle as close to me as humanly possible. Very cute.
12:31 AM: I finally fall asleep.
4:05 AM: Sammie falls off bed while sleeping. We are no longer sleeping. Repeat Tylenol and cuddly reassurance.
4:20 AM: Sammie goes back to sleep.
4:50 AM: Alex comes into big bed to cuddle too.
5:05 AM: Everyone’s asleep again.
6:00 AM: Alarm clock goes off.
6:01 AM: Alarm clock stops going off when it hits the wall.
7:00 AM: Wake up.
7:40 AM: Get out of house with kids in tow.
7:58 AM: Arrive at office. Momentary check-in while the kids eat Nutri-Grain bars and milk. Nothing urgent, time to take the kids to school by 9 AM.
8:45 AM: Arrive at daycare. Drop off Alex.
8:48 AM: Get back in truck with Sammie to go get diapers and another pair of shorts because she messed up her outfit with the NutriGrain blueberry bar and spilled milk on herself.
9:22 AM: Drop off Sammie, who promptly starts crying again when it’s clear I’m going back to work.
9:59 AM: Return to work.
10:04 AM: Find out that I could have worked from home because no one else is working in the office today.
10:05 AM: Begin banging head on desk.
10:28 AM: Finish banging head on desk.
10:40 AM: Debate whether I can get away with sleeping under my desk.

Hopefully, tonight will be smooth, and I can actually marinate the steaks I had planned yesterday to serve tonight. Maybe I can also get more than 4 hours of consecutive sleep. At least I already know that I can work from home tomorrow so that’ll save me about 80 miles of driving.

In the meantime, there is a bottle of SoCo calling my name this coming weekend. Only 5 more nights to go.