August 2: Chocolate mustaches

OK so I think I had my first technical glitch with my iPad.   I lost my entry from this morning.   So I’m typing this now from memory….

We had a terrible night last night.    Red kept waking up.   I slept through the first one – she was scared about something.   The second one was at 4 AM — she was in the hallway with the lights on, just sitting there upset.   She had a fever.   After some medicine I scooped her up in our bed (I know I shouldn’t, but I couldn’t help it).   So we woke up very groggy and were running late from the start.

Highlights of the Morning and Commute:

• Twin Husky and Twin Crazy were going bonkers with yogurt.   It was in their hair, up their noses, all over the place.

Twin Crazy is crazy over yogurt

• Big Bro and Red ate quickly because of Chocolate Tuesday.   We give them Nutella spread on bread/bagel on one day of the week and they picked Tuesday.   Their faces are covered in chocolate and I want to kiss it all off.   Red looks like she has a handlebar mustache of chocolate and she looks very happy.

The mustaches of "Chocolate Tuesday"

• Twin Husky is really talking now, clearly.  “Down”.   Uhhhhhhh  ohhhhhhhhhhwwwww”   How cute.   I love this stage.
• Red does not want to get changed so I pack up her clothes in the daycare bag, along with Twins’ shoes, jackets.
• We are running extremely late so we whisk everyone off.
• I at least had time for some coffee but will need to deal with breakfast later.

They sky is looking ok but I’m trying to get energized for the day.    I think I’m in a better state of mind to be more productive today.   Today I will need to:

• discuss sales status of big meeting in October
• Review and complete our whitepaper deliverable for our client
• finally get to the go-to-market materials for our other firm initiative
• have a business development call with a potential client to qualify the opportunity and also get a sense of his budget.

• Reviewed the white paper draft in the early AM, and then reviewed again in late afternoon and provided my last feedback. The analyst will send the paper to the client directly tonight. I think it turned out well and hope that we have established a good working relationship with the client. I hope we over-delivered so that we position ourselves for more work.
• Accompanied two Directors to look at office space. We will likely be moving locations and this was our 5th space to view. I liked the space and think it will work for our team. Plus, it will be much cheaper. Our group needs a change and I think this will be a better site and give us an infusion of energy. I love new beginnings.
• Discussed sales efforts of business development initiative for October meeting. We’re making great progress.
• Had a conference call with a potential client (that I fielded on Friday). We qualified his need and I will begin the proposal tomorrow.

Some things I planned to do I never got to – but will carve out time for those things tomorrow. I love the flexibility that this job offers when it works in my favor!

The sky is light. The weather looks nice. I am on my own tonight with kids. Red is sick; I just received a phone call from daycare. 103 degree fever. She will give her Tylenol but I will be dealing with a clingy child tonight, on my own. Hopefully this illness will not spread to the rest…..

Dinner and Bedtime:

• Picked everyone up and received stacked hugs from the kids.   It was like dominos.  So cute.
• Got everyone inside and jumped on dinner.   Thin cut pork chops with peas and leftover pasta.   Big Bro helped me cook.  He seasoned the pork, poured frozen peas into a bowl, added butter when they were done, and also added butter to the pasta.   I think because of these efforts he wound up eating like a champ.   I couldn’t believe it.   He was so well-behaved and easy to deal with.  Very pleasant with me and all the kids.    I’m going to think of more ways he can help in the kitchen and see if this could be a driver of better behavior…
• Elena served herself peas with a big tablespoon.   I couldn’t believe it.   She then proceeded to drop the spoon on Red’s head so then I had two girls screaming and crying at the same time.
• I take Twin Crazy, Twin Husky, and Big Bro to get the mail with me.   Twin Husky makes a run for it and hides behind the neighbor’s bushes.   We all said “bye bye” to him but he still wouldn’t budge.   I came out 30 seconds later to see where he was, and he was still standing there, but this time LAUGHING.   Man that completely backfired on me.
• I think an entire package of Costco grapes were consumed tonight by all kids after dinner.   I don’t want to be the one changing the diapers tomorrow AM.
• There was lots of playing, kissing, wrestling, flipping the kids around tonight.   All were very fun – Red was subdued so that was sad.
• Bedtime routine with Twins went great.   I just tell them it’s time to go up and they both run for the stairs.  They enjoy book time, singing, and kissing each other good-night.
• Bedtime with the older kids went good too.  We’re getter faster at this.