Soap Operas and Bon-Bons

Incase you ever wondered what I did all day as a stay at home mom, here's a "Day in My Life."  It's a little old, I wrote it in May but didn't publish it.  It was a Thursday, so it was a light day because the big girls were at school for 3 hours in the morning, leaving me with just the baby.  The house is (and was) on the market, so I spent more time than I'd like cleaning things and less time than I'd like hanging out with the kids playing games and doing crafts, but it was a pretty typical day--and a pretty good one.

Let's begin...

7:00 Good morning!
I change and attempt to feed the baby who is much too excited about a new day to really eat. As I wrestle Baby Squirmington, Ed changes and toilets the big girls.

7:10-7:30

Adelaide plays in a sunbeam while I tidy up the bedrooms, start some laundry and pick out 2 school appropriate outfits each for Matilda and Evelyn to choose between.

The big girls eat breakfast and watch cartoons downstairs with Ed. He makes himself coffee and cinnamon toast for the girls.

7:30-7:35
I say “good morning!” to the big girls, let dogs out, notice Evelyn has removed her own wet diaper and have another potty training pep-talk with her, which she steadfastly ignores.

7:35-7:45

Adelaide is ready to really eat now.

Evelyn wants to mess with Adelaide while she nurses. Since Evelyn is distracted by 

bothering the baby, I seize the moment to pull of her broken dangling fingernail. I know it 

didn’t hurt, but she is very angry with me none-the-less and shrieks and runs off to pout.

7:45-8:05

Now that Evelyn is gone, Adelaide really gets to eat. Once the feeding is done, the fingernail 

assault is forgotten. Time to get the girls ready for preschool. 

Always best to start with Evelyn--she may be more picky about her clothes, but she’s also 

less likely to cry and scream about getting dressed and having her hair brushed.

Wipe hands and faces, get the girls dressed, brush hair and have the girls put their nighties 

in the hamper. Send them downstairs to get their shoes and then put the unchosen outfits 

away.  If I open the closet to put the rejected outfit away while Evelyn is still in the room, 

she’ll see ALL her dresses and surely decide what she’s wearing is no longer good enough.

8:05-8:15 play My Little Pony with the big girls before they go to preschool

8:15 Ed takes the big girls to school

8:15-8:50 
Tidy up downstairs and outside.

Wash dishes.


Feed dogs.


Take breaks to talk to baby and replenish her Cheerios.

8:50-9:25
Change the baby and put out toys for her to play withStart mixing up a loaf of buttermilk honey sandwich bread 
while dancing and singing to 80s music
clean the counters, table, sink, stove and microwave while 
the mixer kneads the bread. 


Put bread dough in bowl in oven to rise.


Clean yogurt off inside and outside of back door.

Now, the fun really starts!

9:50-10:30 
Search for putty knife to free bar of soap from bottom of the bathtub. Fail to find it, use a 

pancake flipper instead.

Unstop the toilet.

Tidy up the bathroom.
Start another load of laundry.
Shower.

10:30
Knead and shape bread... oops, let it rise about 15 minutes too long... it should be fine.
Wash mixer bowl and bowl dough rose in.

10:35-11:05
Put bread dough aside for second rise
Pay bills
Inventory fridge and pantry to update shopping list

11:05-11:34 

Bread is baking, baby is sleeping, kids aren’t home from school yet, time for me!

11:35-11:55 
Kids are home from school.
Watch them devour a snack of aged cheddar with daddy.
Clean up snack, put bread out to cool, wash loaf pan.

11:55-12:05
Another load of laundry
Retrieve and change baby.

12:05-12:15 Feed baby

12:15-12:25 make lunch for big girls

PB&J, carrot sticks, rasins and strawb

12:25-12:45
Wash coffee cups Ed brought home.
Feed girls lunch.
“Appreciate” Evelyn’s fusion cuisine approach to lunch as she shows me how she jammed all her food into a little bowl.

PB&Jcarrotsticksraisinsandstrawberries

12:45-1:00
Another load of laundry
Vacuum upstairs

1:00-1:15 attempt to put the kids down for nap. 
Kids are terrible.

1:15-1:30
Sweep the stairs
Vacuum downstairs to drown out cries.

1:35-1:45Notice dogs have tracked in bits of mulch on pretty much every floor I’ve just vacuumed and Evelyn is still yelling. Change and feed baby.

1:45-1:55
Give up on traditional nap and convince (plead with) girls to play quietly together in their rooms.
Start another load of laundry. Think of how much I love my dear husband as I methodically empty tissues, coins, paper and assorted other bits of junk from his trouser pockets. 
Fold and put away laundry. 

Shake shreded paper towel out of clean clothes. 
Re-evaluate laundry methods.

1:55 Sit down on couch to watch Bones on Netflix and drink a bottle of water.

1:56 Evelyn is yelling again. Listen to see if it’s just complaining or something that needs my attention. Decide to ignore her.

1:57 Still yelling. Wonder if I spent too much time cleaning and not enough time playing with the girls before nap and maybe that’s causing the nap trouble? Remind myself that as long as the house is on the market, I just have to keep it clean. 
Feel guilty anyway.

1:58 baby is crying now too.

1:59-2:25 feed baby while she dozes in my lap.

2:25-2:27 Evelyn hurtles over her gate and comes downstairs to wake up the baby. 
Put Matilda and Evelyn in my room to watch a movie in bed hoping they will sleep a little before quiet time is over.

2:28 sit down to finally have a sip of water.

2:29 Evelyn demands a drink of her own.

2:30-2:35 Deliver chocolate milk to the children who never sleep.
Realize I haven’t eaten all day.
Make a sandwich.
Finish Bones.
Resolve to finish sandwich!

2:36 Evelyn is downstairs. Again. At least she’s playing with the baby and I got to eat my sandwich. I give up on nap.

2:45-3:45 Play indoors--My Little Pony, Barbie, dress up, color, puzzles, Memory game and snack

3:45-4:00 Everybody Clean up!
Do another load of laundry with my “helpers.”

Tidy up bedrooms from messes made during nap failure. 

4:00-4:05 sunscreen, sandals, round up toys to play outside.

4:10-4:20 Yes, five minutes after we got outside, baby decides she wants to eat. Go inside to feed baby and watch big kids play in the (fenced) yard through the window. 
Wonder whether or not my napless children would behave in a family restaurant tonight... likely not. 
Still don’t want to make dinner.
Plan to play outside as long as we can where Evelyn can run and scream and get her tired little tantrums out without as much trouble.

She's eating a rock.  And she is very happy and quiet while doing it.

The girls love to try to feed Laddie lawn clippings.
Here, they are evaluating the best flowers to try to make him eat.

Evelyn is making a 3 course "meal" for Laddie

5:00 beer.

Well, Little E, how is that?

This is how Evelyn "asks" Daddy to push her

5:10 baby wants to eat... again! Daddy is home!


















5:25-5:50 Big girls play upstairs while I make dinner.

5:50-6:20 I feed the kids diner.
Evelyn gives Adelaide the crust of her PB&J sandwich. 
We all freak out.
She’s fine.

6:20-6:45 Ed puts the big kids in the shower

6:45-7:00 (about 30 mintues early due to not napping) 
Big girls get pjs
Fold and put away laundry. Dry last load of the day.
Put Adelaide in the shower for a good rinse.

7:10-7:50
Ed puts the big girls to bed, I feed Adelaide and put her down.

7:50-8:05
Clean up dinner

8:05
Kids are all sleeping. 
Read, surf the internet, watch TV, look at clandar and to do list to see what is up tomorrow. 
9:45 Go to bed. Will wake up 3-5 times overnight to feed baby. (Happy to report that baby has since moved to her own room and is waking less often than she was at the time this was chronicled)

Grandpa Mike's May Visit

While Daddy was in Arkansas selling palate trays at the WalMart show in May, Grandpa Mike came to visit.  We played with toys, went to the park, visited the zoo and played in the yard.  Matilda and Evelyn really enjoy having Grandpa read them stories at bedtime and showing off for him.  It's always great to have him come and visit!

Last Day of School

Here are a few pictures to remind you what the girls looked like at the beginning of this school year.  Matilda was 38 months old and Evelyn was 23 months old.

September, 2011

September, 2011

September, 2011

Just LOOK at what a difference 9 months makes!  Here is Evelyn, always on the move, on her last day of preschool, May, 2012:

And Matilda.  She still "fits" in the dress, but it's in the "must wear shorts underneath" category now, she's all legs and imagination!

Their school celebrated the last day by having all the kids and parents meet at Wheeler park.  This is Matilda and her "best friend," Annabella, playing in the truck.  Matilda has bloomed, socially, at her first school.  She's gone from a baby who cried every day when I left for the first 6 weeks to the big girl who took the tiniest, youngest girl in the class under her wing, and made "best friends."  She will miss Miss Stephanie and her other teachers in the fall when she moves on to her new school, but we are so happy with the great start she got at KPW!

Miss Heather brought ice pops for the kids.  I don't think Evelyn ended up having one--she was much too busy climbing and running and sliding and playing with HER best friends--Brock and Henry.  She has loved school as well and settled in without a hitch, thanks partly to Matilda being there.  It will be interesting to see her on her own at KPW next year.

Princess Night with the Kane County Cougars

Father's Day weekend, the Kane County Cougars hosted "Princess Night" as a Daddy-Daughter event at the ball park.  We ordered fancy new princess dresses for the girls, dressed them up, and took them out for their first baseball game!

Before we left, the girls talked me into putting on my "princess dress" too.  It was good fun, but way too fancy and hot to wear to the ball park, so I changed back before we left.

When we arrived, there was a princess parade.  The girls were all invited to walk around the ball park with their parents and show off their finery. Matilda dressed as Jasmine and Evelyn wore a Rapunzel wedding gown.  She was a little unsure about the ball players, but Matilda was REALLY excited--especially when she saw the emcee was dressed as Prince Charming.  She continues to ask me if she can marry the "king" from the baseball game.

They were really surprised to see one if their friends from school, Anika, at the game.  They were given sparkly crowns, tried their hand at shelling peanuts and had plenty of water and skittles.  Our seats were right in the sun, but the park wasn't full so we moved over to the 3rd base side for some shade.  The girls got a little restless, especially since they don't understand baseball, so we left in the 8th.  Maybe next time we'll be able to stay for the post-game fireworks!  I can't remember who we played or who was winning when we left, but I do remember how delighted Matilda and Evelyn were to be showing off their gowns and attending this special event.  Matilda is even more excited about going to a football game with Daddy this fall and they both keep asking to go back to the baseball park.  It might be a while before we do it again, but I think the glitter in our car will be there forever to remind us of that night!

Door County June 2012

In June, we took Adelaide and the big girls up to Wisconsin for her first Door County visit!  We all had a great time, relaxing, enjoying the views, and escaping the heat.  The girls played hard all day, every day.  The big girls took a long hike through the woods and spent hours playing on the beach.  And, of course the swing set, and loved spending time with Grandma and Grandpa.  Mommy and Daddy enjoyed the opportunity to go out on some fun dates and we'll be going back up for a longer visit in August!

 Matilda is so tall that she's just STANDING there, not afraid at all!

Adelaide's first swim

Evelyn and Matilda "helping" to make pancakes

Oh, Grandma, we so appreciate the lovely rooms
and comfy beds you've made up for us upstairs,
but we think maybe we'll just crash on the dog bed, instead.  Ok?

Matilda Turns Four!

It's hard to believe how much she's grown!  She's no longer my baby or my toddler; she's a big girl now!  She's imaginative and smart.  She's learning to draw recognizable pictures, she counts and picks out patterns.  Her vocabulary is amazing.  She's a little actress.  She loves to dance and sing.  She just tried swimming and loved it!  She's so tall!  She's a little mama to her baby sister and a best friend to Evelyn.  She can speak some words in French, Spanish and Chinese.  She will go to pre-school 4 days a week this fall.  She sings in the choir and loves Sunday school.  She makes up stories all day long and loves to be read to. She adores My Little Pony, Peppa Pig, and princesses.  Her current favorite movie is Madagascar, but she watches any new movie that she likes repeatedly--to the exclusion of all others--until she has it virtually memorized and, only then, will rotate other old favorites back into the mix.  She  is friendly and curious and loves her family and her routines.  She likes to cook and helps make scrambled eggs nearly every morning--she especially loves to make baked goods with Mommy.  She likes to run and dance and has become more brave.  She's potty trained.  She hates to brush her hair.  She loves to take a bath.  She still sleeps with a lovey and a pacifier.  She wears size 5 clothes and size 11 shoes.  Her favorite color is pink.  She says prayers before dinner and before bed.  She asks brilliant questions and makes up funny jokes.  She remembers everything.  She is a joy and I'm so lucky to be her mother.

To start her birthday off right, we put a bouquet of gerber daisies in her room before she woke up and dressed up her door with colored crepe streamers.  She LOVED the flowers and decorations.  It was her very first bouquet.  She toted them around for a while, touching and smelling them.  Then she threw them up in the air, expecting them to cascade down around her.  They were bound with a rubber band so they just landed with a thud on the floor and we put them in a vase on display.  We also decorated downstairs with balloons and streamers and decorated one of the "big chairs" as a birthday throne for her to sit in.

Grandma and Grandpa and Shanti and Laura and baby Ruth all came over for a lunch time birthday party.  Matilda was happy to have her guests and has indicated that she's starting to think about parties with friends her own age--maybe in a year or two!

She received so many generous gifts!  The Kirady's gave her barbie clothes and a My Little Pony with a train that she loves.  Aunt Natalie, Uncle Chase, and Boston sent her a My Little Pony with a little farm and she slept with it that night!  Grandma and Grandpa Gustafson brought her all sorts of wonderful presents--Prince Charming, a beautiful blue dress, a pretty night gown, a movie--all great!  Shanti and Laura brought her a polka-dot dress and brought cute clothes for Evelyn and Adelaide too so no one was left out.  My grandmother sent her a cute castle card in the mail and we got her two prince dolls and a bunch of ponies.  Evelyn was dying to unwrap something and Grandma had to keep hiding packages that Evelyn was starting to tear into and trying to distract her.  Matilda was absolutely delighted!

I'm really proud of how her cake turned out this year.  Twilight Sparkle is her favorite pony.  I tried a new decorating technique called a frozen buttercream transfer to decorate the cake and it turned out really well!  I will certainly do it again, but I'll be a little more aggressive with smoothing the frosting before freezing it next time, I had to do my best to iron out the squiggly fill lines with the tip of a knife after placing the transfer this time, but I still think it came out great--especially for a first try!
In addition to the FBT on top, I decorated with a rim of sparkly pink sugar crystals and a border of stars on top and around the base of the cake.  On the sides, I piped stars and placed a color coordinated nonpareil on the center of each star.  The inside was a vanilla cake dyed pink and purple to match Twilight Sparkle.  If you're interested, this is the image I was trying to recreate on top of the cake.

Matilda blew out all 4 candles on her own for the first time this year.  She wished to "go to the wild!"  Evelyn ate only frosting.  Adelaide loved her first tastes of cake and Matilda was delighted to have a little taste of cake and frosting and eat a little strawberry ice cream.  She requested Kraft macaroni and cheese for her birthday lunch so she had that with grapes and milk.  The grown ups had grilled fillet mignons that Ed butchered himself from a tenderloin primal.  We served thyme and garlic seasoned grilled sweet potato medallions and grilled onions on the side and had 2 bottles of red white and blue stripped Chandon "champagne" to toast our big girl turning FOUR!  

Gustafson Girly Gourmet

 The girls really love to cook now.  We make eggs together nearly every morning.  Matilda knows just how to stir them up for the scrambled eggs and she's even learning how to crack the eggs herself.

She also likes to help make sandwiches and put fruit on the plate for lunch and is eager to pitch in however she can with preparing dinner! As the experts promised, she's more willing to eat things she helped make too, so it's been working out well.  A little messy, but completely worth it.

Since the house is on the market, we've been baking more often too, to create that welcoming, homey scent.  Evelyn and Matilda have adorable aprons my friend Molly made for them that came in their easter baskets.  And they love making anything they can PINK!  We've had pink chocolate chip cookies and a variety of pink pancakes, cakes, muffins, cupcakes, and breads.  They love anything "Pinkalicious!"
 

 This unassuming loaf of buttermilk honey sandwich bread hides a surprise inside...

Pinkalicious Panda Bread!  It didn't turn out as well as we expected, things rose a little side-ways (I think our dough is just too soft to really make this work properly) but the girls thought it was darling.  If you look closely, you can kind of make out the white panda face, with dark eyes and ears surrounded in pink.  We were hoping for something more like this, but the girls were happy with the effort and it tasted great.

First Bikes

We went to the Mill Race Cyclery on Sunday to pick out big girl bikes for Matilda and Evelyn.  They chose matching hot pink "Lil' Puddin'" bikes.  Matilda picked a pink and purple helmet and Evelyn picked a white helmet with dinosaurs.  Then, since we had a showing going on at home, we went over to grandma's house to ride the bikes on her nice long flat driveway.
They mostly just sit on the bikes and ring the bells right now.  Matilda likes to be pushed around, but I bet by the end of the summer they'll have it down!

Matilda Updates April 2012

Practicing a little song.

Matilda, Matilda, Matilda...

What is new with Matilda?  

Well, she's still "singing" in the church choir (although she doesn't seem to like to actually SING at the services, more just stand there and hopefully leave her dress and her nose alone!) Regardless of whether or not she is sharing her singing talents, she seems to have won over the congregation as we frequently receive compliments about how charming and sweet and funny and smart and cute Matilda is.  She will be starting pre-school at the church in the Fall and is excited to join her choir and Sunday school friends.
She will certainly miss her friends at Kids Play World though!  She has made her first "best friend" outside the family.  Her name is Anabella.  She is the smallest, youngest girl in Matilda's class.  According to her teacher, Matilda took Anabella under her wing and was looking out for her and it's evolved into playing princesses together every day they are at school and Matilda talks about her best friend at home and wonders if she has to eat her dinner, take a bath and go to bed too.  She also has enjoyed playing with some girls from the neighborhood--Jordyn, Jadyn and Hannah.

She is becoming more helpful in the kitchen and want to make scrambled eggs all the time.  She helps with cookies and bread too.  She's usually very good about throwing away trash for me or doing other little chores to help with the baby and is starting to show an interest in helping me clean up the house.  She wants to hold Adelaide but isn't quite strong enough, so I have to remind her not to pick the baby up without a grown up, but mostly she's a great helper and a cute little mommy.
She's also recently discovered both My Little Pony and Strawberry Shortcake, and loves those shows.  She and Evelyn are acting out little stories with their dolls all day long.  She's demonstrating more interest in drawing now and writing and wants to know what every sign she sees says.  She also is becoming very independent wanting to do everything "by myself!" or "just like Mommy."  She can put her own shoes on, go potty, help get dressed, help make her bed and get into her own car seat now!  She also has mastered using her utensils, sitting at the table like a big girl and does a great job drinking out of cups without lids.  

Finally, she's been working on learning French!  She loves to look at the french vocabulary books with me and she's learning two french songs now.  I hope that she'll be able to say a few things when the Kiradys come to visit in August!

Getting pretty with make up, just like Mommy.

Adelaide is 6 months old today!

Beannachtai na Feile Padraig

kiss kiss!

Here comes the airplaine!

The big girls are showing more of an interest in breakfast foods now--scrambled eggs, pancakes, french toast, fruit salad, yogurt and bacon have been recent hits!

Here they are enjoying some blueberry pancakes and bananas together this morning.

By the way, if you're looking for a great pancake recipe, I think the girls and I have pretty much perfected ours:

Gustafson Girls Griddle Cakes
1 C flour
1/2 C corn meal
1 1/4 C butter milk (or whole milk soured with 1 tbs vinegar or lemon juice)
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
3 TBS sugar
2 1/2 TBS melted butter
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
Optional: 1-1 1/2 c fruit tossed with 1 TBS flour (blueberries, raspberries, chopped apples, cherries, bananas, etc. or chocolate chips)

Mix dry ingredients
Create a well in dry ingredients and pour in wet ingredients
Stir just to combine
Add 1-1 1/2 C fruit tossed with 1 TBS flour if you choose at this time

Heat a pan over med-high heat
Grease lightly with butter or bacon grease
Spoon batter onto griddle, flip when surface is bubbly and edges are just beginning to look dry.
Serve warm with topping of your choice