Tuesday, November 28, 2006

A Day in the Life

So here's my day today -

I woke up at 6:00 to feed Campbell, who had actually slept really well last night. Then I woke the girls up at 6:40 to get them ready for their day. This involves rushing them through breakfast, shoving them in their clothes and pinning them down to brush their hair. Actually, at this point, Ella's the only one I HAVE to do this to because she goes to school first. This week it's my turn to drive the car pool, so I settle Campbell in the bedroom with Brandon and turn cartoons on for Lily.

This morning I drove Ella, Luke and Matilda to school; it's the first time I've done all three. When I looked in the rear-view mirror it suddenly hit me that I'm really a mom of a kindergartener. These are my kids, not someone else's that I'm just watching for a really long time. When I told Lisa R. about this epiphany, she just laughed at me. In addition to feeling like a mother, I also realized I was the epitome of the suburban housewife - my car is filled with juice boxes, books, baby wipes, and booster seats. And I'm ok with that.

I took Lily to school and then bolted to Central Market because we were out of everything - milk, bread, sugar, real food. I rushed home, unloaded the groceries and then headed back out, poor Campbell in tow yet again. I had promised to help chaperone Ella's class field trip to Zilker Park. I got there early enough that I was able to walk a few laps of the 800 meter loop there. The hills are a lot harder when I do them with Campbell in his bjorn. I'm feeling the results already.

I had fun watching Ella and 80 other kindergarteners tear around like mad on the playground. Ella entertained the other parents with her antics on the monkey bars. Russell is having visions of Ella's being a child-climbing prodigy with him as her guide. I joked that maybe she could be the youngest to summit El Capitan.

After the field trip, I headed to Lily's school to pick her up. Then we headed home for rest time. I actually managed to get an hour's nap in before it was time to fetch Ella from after-school Spanish class. I let her skip doing homework on Tuesdays, so that made our afternoon a bit easier.

It's 6:30, and I'm already wiped out, but I have an hour or two of work ahead of me. The good news is that I'm almost finished with my first post-baby project. The sort-of good news is that there's another project in the works for me. I hope I get a week or two of a break before it starts, though. It's been tough juggling three kids, a husband and a house with the work.

Tomorrow will be easier - I just have to take Ella and her buddies to school and then take Lily to "ballelet" class in the morning and fit in some work hours.

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