The calm before the storm.

Every morning I wake up, drink my coffee, get the kids out of jammas, and attempt to put myself together.

Every afternoon, we drive around and get some errands done, or we bake cookies, or we lounge around in our jammas and play with doll babies.  We take naps.  Long naps.  Deaners takes two or three.  It's calm and quiet - usually.  It's a time to make a mess and just be together.  I like to refer to this time as the calm before the storm.  Because the time that follows is, well, insane.

I try to have dinner done by 6:30, which is usually the time D comes home.  From about the time I start cooking, through dinner, and during clean up - this is Deaners "fussy time".  He wants me to hold him, wants me to play peek-a-boo with him, wants me to NOT PUT HIM DOWN.

This proves to be difficult for making said dinner.

So we usually eat separately because we're being pulled in two different directions, by two different kids.

Then, it's bathtime while David cleans up.  I've got this down to a science.  Emma has daddy "time us" so we can see how fast we can take a bath.  This was a genius moment for me.  We take record fast baths, and Emma treats it like a game.  One point for me.

Then Deaners gets a bath and bottle, then he finally lays down for bed without crying his head off.

Emma follows suit.

By this time, if everything goes smoothly [well, as smoooth as it can], then we finally sit down on the couch around 8:30-8:45.  "Hey hunny, how was your day?" comes two hours after David gets home.  Bedtime comes about 10 minutes after that.

I get a great satisfaction from knowing my kiddos are going to bed all clean and fresh, but man oh man, it's a stressful part of my day.

I realize this will get better once Deaners can eat our food at dinner time and can entertain himself while I make dinner.

But for now, I'll just ride the tide.