March 6: Cooking, cleaning, and clobbering

It is a windy Chocolate Tuesday! It was a good morning – all kids were obviously excited about their Nutella chocolate breakfast. Twin Crazy first said that she wanted oatmeal and then changed her mind (rightfully so) when she learned from her older siblings that it was Tuesday.

Highlights of the Morning and Commute:

I checked work email first and responded to some messages related to some work I was doing on behalf of our Europe office. I also gave some feedback to client team members on some deliverables that I reviewed last night, that way they have this feedback first thing in the morning when they get to their desks.

We woke up to a cold house this morning – 64 degrees. The heat was not turned on last night.

Twin Crazy peed through her diaper so her bed was soaked. I have to buy night-time diapers for these two.

Big Bro was hiding under his covers. At first we didn’t think he was in his room, but he wasn’t in my room either. Where is Big Bro? I admit that I was a bit nervous. I changed Twin Husky quickly and went to his room and quickly felt ontop of the bundle of covers and hit a knee or leg or something. He’s here! Whew. He was laughing since he tricked us.

Big Bro asked to see a picture of a Batman lego so he could color in his batman picture. I googled it and found an image for him. He knows about how I can do this on my phone and makes these random requests to me all the time.

Downstairs Red said that she was going to eat 100 pieces of bread for chocolate tuesday. Big Bro said that that doesn’t make any sense. If she were to eat 100 pieces of bread her stomach would explode. I laughed and told him that I absolutely LOVE this stage that he is in. He reasons all of the time. He challenges you when things make sense or they do not. He comes up with alternatives. He negotiates. He manipulates. He is on his toes and it keeps me on mine.

Twin Husky was shoving his face into his cereal bowl to lick up the milk. Eventually he figured out how to lift the bowl to drink the milk. So cute. He was in a great mood this morning.

Vitamins! All kids went nuts. One of the brands offers “fish” and “star” shapes and Big Bro wanted a “star” so Twin Husky asked for a “star” too. Then they both started dancing around chanting “star! star! star! star!”. It was so cute. Brothers. Male-bonding. Over a star vitamin.

I put Vitamin E on Twin Crazy’s owie on her nose. It is a really bad scab now and I’m concerned that it is going to fall off too fast. It would be a shame to have a scar on that cute little face of hers. We talked about Big Bro’s scabbed knee and how nicely it healed. And Big Bro noticed it too and was going to say something about it… how his skin is clean and how you can’t see much of a scab anymore.

Red got changed without a problem. She has a new “system” for putting on her socks which she was explaining to me. I was only half listening.

Big Bro was ready to ride with the Motley Crew. He called for me and said goodbye and I called for him and told him I loved him and for him to have a great day. He was off.

Even though we were early, we divided up the drop offs. Red requested me since she did not have me yesterday. I said goodbye to the twins and told them to have fun today. Twin Crazy wanted me to sit in the front seat and drive. So sweet. So nice to feel needed. I told her I would pick her up after school.

Red looked so cute in the back seat of the car. She was sitting there with her baby doll all smiles. I love how she looks at me when we have this time together. I called her my little buddy. Drop off went very smoothly and it looked like she was excited to be with her friends.

On the way to the car I checked email and found out that I secured a very, very difficult organization who will participate as a speaker at one of the forums. YES!!!! I am psyched. Apparently our firm has tried in the past without much success but I was able to land it through LinkedIn of all sources! YES!!!

I will be very busy today. Back to back meetings with some breaks in between where I will need to get work done. It will be fast and furious today. I will need to get a good breakfast on the way to work.

I’m on the ferry now and feeling good. There was good separation between us this morning so I feel stress-free. I got a tremendous night’s sleep. My plans are coming together for my solo weekend. I’m am feeling good (as of now).

Highlights of My Working Day:
Another busy day….

The office move is still going well. I am “squatting” in someone’s office until my furniture arrives. No problem. I’m easy when it comes to stuff like that. I saw an equipment cart and thought it was great… it was for one of the contractors who are working on our space. The cart made me laugh which was a great way to start my working day.

I followed up with some emails regarding the forums we are having in April, in terms of guest attendance and also potential speakers.

I had a primary interview with the project team with one of our client colleagues. It was a good meeting.

I met with an ex-colleague who works at a company that we would like to invite as a guest for one of our meetings in April.

I met with the team in the AM to go over what we were going to review with the client during our status meeting in the afternoon. I added some content and made some suggestions — they handed it off to the client in time for their review.

We had our client review meeting and it went REALLY well. They appreciate the tangible work provided to them so far, and they understand the methodology of market sizing we are using. Our first “interim” project review will be next week and we will be so far along with the client – we can use the time together to go over scenarios and impact versus showing them analysis for the first time.

I requested my admin to schedule some meetings for planning purposes for the forums; speaker requests and content that the audience will want to have covered.

The ferry home was enjoyable. I feel good about the day and feel like I’m making progress on many fronts at work. I also feel good about the kids and am looking forward to what this year will bring, once we get passed the storm and once we know that the kids will adjust.

Dinner and Bedtime:

I picked up Red first. She was busy playing with a friend in the playground. Her smiling face is so sweet – she shows so much joy. She is so playful and free-spirited.

We picked up Twin Crazy and Twin Husky next. They were excited to show me the little cars they were playing with. I noticed that they always were right near each other… parked together either side by side or in a line together. I wonder if all kids in small daycares behave like this together or is it the fact they are twins? I can’t tell.

We picked up Big Bro and again he rode his bike home. I asked him earlier in the trip if he was OK and if it was OK for me to go ahead without him. He excitedly reported back “YES Mommy!!!”. I turned the hazards off and slowly accelerated, looking at him in my rear-view mirror.

As I pulled into the garage, Red stated that tonight is my night with Big Bro and Red for bedtime routine. I unpacked the kids and the stuff and waited for Big Bro’s return. He came back all smiles, gave me a fist-pump, and pushed the button to close the garage door.

Inside, I gave the kids a small gold-fish cracker snack. Then started dinner. I made chicken cutlets with homemade breadcrumbs. The kids helped me make the breadcrumbs and also made a mess on the floor which Big Bro vaccumed up. Big Bro also pounded the chicken. They set the table. They were amazingly cooperative. I think the snack helped, along with keeping them busy and keeping them feeling useful.

All ate well. Red was a scavenger and ate up everyone’s string-beans. Big Bro, despite helping to cook the chicken, rejected it completely.

Afterwards Big Bro and Twin Husky had an issue with a ball – Big Bro grabbed the ball away from Twin Husky and actually hit him on the head. I couldn’t believe it. I think it even surprised Big Bro. I sent him upstairs. He kept coming down. I threatened his bike ride for tomorrow. He came out again. I threatened his bike ride for Thursday. He finally stayed quiet and sulked with Legos. He wound up losing his two bike rides.

After cleaning up, I went upstairs because I wanted to read with Big Bro. I think he felt bad and needed some reinforcement. He was playing Legos so I let him be. I changed Twin Crazy into pajamas, put some Vitamin E on her scab-less face to hopefully avoid a scar, and then everyone wound up coming upstairs.

I had Big Bro and Red tonight. I read to them. They were great with their teeth. We did “magnets” (responsibility boards) and Big Bro insisted that he did not earn magnets for several of the items — even those that I would have given to him…. He felt guilty about hitting Twin Husky. We talked about it. He said he felt bad. I reassured him that even though his behavior was bad tonight that he is still loved. And Red even said that “You still love us even if we have bad behavior”. I also wanted to make sure that he FEELS loved. Its one thing to say it all the time but its another thing to really FEEL loved. And I asked him if he felt loved and he responded yes. So I think we ended on a good note despite the hitting and not listening episode. It really is a shame since he was SOOOOOOOOOOO cooperative after school. Riding his bike home, helping with dinner, cleaning up, setting the table. He was a dream tonight. I don’t know what went wrong.

I wound up holding their hands as they went to sleep. I’m downstairs now thinking about the day and feeling good. I’m thinking about the work I need to do tomorrow and feel like it will be a good day.

Til tomorrow –
– Mama K

March 6: Cooking, cleaning, and clobbering

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March 6: Cooking, cleaning, and clobbering

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