Are you still reading!?

TUESDAY

4:15am - Maddie slept all the way through the night until now! 9 hours. I feel fantastic, and feed her her bottle, burp and change her then lay her back down.

8:45am - Robbie and Ellie sleep in too. They wake up and I get them out of bed, change and dress them, then unpack the rest of their bags from our weekend away.

9:20am - Maddie wakes up for the day. Feed her a bottle while the kids play trains / dollhouse / dress up.

10:15am - make breakfast (toast, blueberries, scrambled eggs, yogurt). Empty and reload dishwasher, set the kids up with their toys for playtime.

11:00am - feed Maddie a small bottle and lay her down for her morning nap. Eat my breakfast and do my devotions while the kids play down in the family room.

12:00pm - make roasted tomato basil soup for dinner later on.

1:30pm - my mom comes over to spend time with the kids and give me a break. We are eating lunch when she arrives (turkey wraps and raw peppers and carrots with dip). Ellie goes down for a nap, and I let Robbie skip his today.

2:00pm - mom feeds Maddie a bottle when she wakes up while I take a shower. Then she takes Robbie to go get a haircut and a milkshake. Maddie goes down for another nap, and I give myself a mani/pedi with my free time.

4:00pm - mom stays with the kids while I run to the grocery store for items the store I went to last night did not have.

5:00pm - make and feed the kids dinner, just as Rob calls to say he got off the train and realized that he left his car keys at work and will walk home from the train station. Once he's home we give R & E baths, and Daddy reads them bedtime books while I bathe Maddie (all the while promising myself that I will bathe her more often, poor thing!) and put her to bed. Then we put the older 2 to bed. They are w.i.r.e.d.

7:00pm - I volunteer to go get Rob's car from the train station and strap on my running shoes. Freedom! I run like the wind. Sort of. But it doesn't matter, it feels so great.

7:30pm - Rob and I sit down to eat dinner - mozzarella panini's and roasted tomato basil soup. Ellie is keeping Robbie awake by yelling "WAKE UP, ROBBIE! WAKE UP!" among other things. She gets her first moment of discipline with Daddy. And then her second. This girl... such a handful right now at bedtime.

8:00pm - pull Robbie out of the room in hopes that Ellie will no longer be distracted by his presence and fall asleep. We hang out and watch TV.

8:45pm - Ellie's still calling out and screaming. Rob and I decide that if she's still pitching fits when it's time for the rest of us to go to bed, she's getting bumped to a pack 'n play in the living room. We are sort of out of options (and bedrooms! ha!).

9:00pm - pick up the house, clean the kitchen, settle all babies that might still be awake, and go to bed.

*Update: My sweet sister left this comment, and I want it to make it into the blog book!

Aunt Kels has left a new comment on your post "Are you still reading!?":

Dear Ellie,

Getting put to bed first every night is no fun - I know exactly how you feel. I still remember having to crawl into bed knowing that everyone else was still awake having fun downstairs when I was little too! Oh poor El-bell... But here's the thing little one; your mama needs sleep these days. And so does your big brother. (and the rest of your family!) Don't worry, when you're a little older you can come have sleepovers and stay up a little extra-late watching movies or just for kicks to make up for it ;)

xoxo,
Aunt Kels