Today

Mimi showing off the Toy Story rings

Today I sent a letter to my husband.  He read it to his co-worker.  My morning made them tired.

"Just to complain...these kids are TESTING ME today.  Oh my gosh.  Ernie wouldn't eat her breakfast, asked me to save it for lunch.  Was crazy grumpy all morning because she wouldn't eat her dinner last night, either- had a on-the-floor meltdown because Mimi picked up her notebook. Still didn't eat her oatmeal for lunch, but had a glass of milk and a glass of water and maybe a 1/4 cup of her oatmeal.  Never fear, I'll serve it again at snack AND dinner. Mimi spilled her milk at lunch, probably because E was pulling her hair trying to "trade."  Ernie had a fit about M touching the book she was reading this morning, about the fact that Uncle Bear still has her Toy Story 3 movie so we couldn't watch it together in my bed like we did 2 weeks ago, about the fact that it took her an hour and a half to get through writing 20 lower and capital D's and E's and we never got to watch a movie (and besides- "Did Daddy SAY you could watch a movie today?")  Oh, and when will we go back to music class?  And Mom, what about baking day?  And today is painting day, remember?  And Mom, on Monday don't forget to give me a piano lesson.  Mom, I hope you don't forget to give me vitamins today!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHH.  I explained to her we don't keep those schedules any more, we do things when they work out and I teach what I think needs teaching that day.  She's totally missing the fact that school now involves schoolwork instead of learning to learn from Mom (which was the reason behind the baking, craft, cleaning, painting, and music days schedule.)  

But, she learned to count by 10's this morning, did very well on her D's and upper case E's (she never actually got to the lower case ones, in all that time), M and I read lots and lots of books waiting for E to finish, the girls strung beads to make necklaces...and they LOVE having everything organized so they can find things to play with.  Mimi is great at putting boxes back where they belong in our art cupboard up here, especially.  "

After all this, the girls had their naps.  Well, Mimi took a nap.  Ernie came out an hour later asking if she could be up....alright.  "Mom, can I make a doll now?"  Alright.  

We spent the rest of the afternoon reading, making necklaces, sorting hair doo-dads, and being TOGETHER.  In the school room.  We spent ALL DAY in the school room.  When I told them at 5:00 they needed to go somewhere else and play while I made dinner, Ernie burst into tears because she wanted to read in the school room.  So I guess the room is a hit?  I was a little claustrophobic at the end of the day, though!



Ernie, sorting hair doo-dads into little boxes.  She was thrilled.


Oh, and dinner made both girls cry.  That's happened almost every night this week!  Ernie perked up by the time I got there.  I said the prayer, and before anyone even lifted their heads I told them they MUST try their dinner.  If they don't like it, they can ask for a piece of bread and butter.  At this point, Ernie has not really eaten since a sandwich at lunch time yesterday, and she jumped into action.  Soup!  In Mouth!  You can see the wheels turning, next comes ASK FOR BREAD.  But...she loved the avgolemono soup.  She loved the garlic bread.  She told me 3 times that she loved me, 2 times that the soup was really good, and 4 times "Thanks for making dinner, Mom!"  Apparently the trick to introducing new, delicious, foods to Ernie is to...make her really, REALLY, hungry first.  She had 3 helpings of soup, and two pieces of garlic bread.  She was probably extra hungry, because I'm limiting the girls' milk right now; both of them will, before I realize it, substitute milk ENTIRELY for any meal they don't want to eat.  So everyone gets a nice full glass of milk with their meal, and then if they're still thirsty, I have a huge pitcher of water waiting.  And a bowl of ice.  And they are welcome to eat the food that I make if they're hungry!  (Oh, and dinner for Ernie: she sat down to a glass of milk, a 1/4 cup of soup, a 1/4 of a piece of garlic bread...and her oatmeal.  Tough choice what to try first, right?  Milk...then soup...then bread.  Oatmeal was conveniently forgotten, I was quite willing to give her a bowl full of soup!)


Now everyone is in bed, Dad is home, the kitchen is clean, and I have my feet up with the most impressive Braxton Hicks contractions yet!  My husband said in an awed tone "You've had more energy these last two days than you've had the entire pregnancy!"  Yes.  It's true.  I am finally experiencing that Nesting "burst of energy."  But you know...if I had the baby tomorrow, I know that my girls have had a fantastic day with mom.  Mimi and I read for hours.  Ernie and I did school and projects.  The playroom and the school room are organized and lovely.  The freezer is stocked FULL of things that everyone loves (who doesn't love biscuits or potstickers?)  The house, basically, is clean.  Baby's laundry is clean and ready.  I really didn't expect to be able to walk today after what I did yesterday, but after a few tense moments of trying to figure out which part of me was able to move enough to leverage myself out of bed, I've done OK today!  (It ended up being my arms- if I stuck my fists behind my back, I could push myself far enough off the bed to reach one leg over the side of the mattress.)  Being pregnant is ridiculous, you know that?