Day in the Life

I haven’t done a DITL post in nearly 9 months! Here’s what life looked like on Thursday, July 7.

(Also: previous day in the life posts.)

6:53 I’ve been semi-awake for about 10 minutes now since Emma came running into the room as per usual, so I get up, brush my teeth, and put in my contacts. (I got new glasses recently! I’m still getting used to what I look like with the thick dark frames, but I like them.)

6:58 Our mornings have morphed from Emma just coming in early to her coming in early and wanting to play games that involve hiding under the covers and pretending to be a bear, monster, tiger, etc. This morning it’s pirates, so we pretend to be pirates hiding under the covers for a few minutes.

7:07 Charlotte is still asleep in her crib. While Jose takes Emma to get ready, I get in the shower.

7:30 I’m dressed and sitting at the counter eating a bowl of cereal while Emma watches iPad and Jose, who has gotten Charlotte up and dressed, feeds her a bottle.

7:47 Charlotte is showing off her latest skill — pulling up on everything in sight — but it’s time to get on the road! I help Emma with her shoes and fix her hair while Jose puts Charlotte in the infant seat. (She barely fits anymore, and we really need to move her to a convertible seat.)

7:59 The girls and I are in the car. Emma is pouting because I didn’t let her get in on Charlotte’s side of the back seat. She likes to climb in on that side and crawl across to her car seat, but she didn’t ask until after I’d already heaved Charlotte into place, so I told her she couldn’t today. After a few minutes, Emma stops pouting and says she feels better. Good!

8:18 We arrive at daycare.

8:20 As I’m getting Emma settled in the cafeteria for breakfast and holding Charlotte against my side, I smell it. Charlotte has had a POOP DISASTER. Lately she has been using the ride to daycare as her morning poop time and something — the diapers? her positioning? — is just not working. More often than not, it escapes out one side and this morning it has gotten not only on her, but on my pants and my shirt.

8:25 I leave poopy Charlotte in the hands of Ms. Wanda (a saint) and clean myself up with a baby wipe. I momentarily consider whether I am now clean enough to just roll with it, but I don’t think that’s going to fly because of the smell. I have no choice but to drive back home and change clothes. There have been a lot of poop incidents in my life in the last 4 years, but this is the first time I’ve ever had to go all the way back home to change. I am very annoyed.

8:45 I’m home, where I throw my clothes into laundry basket, put on a new outfit, and stomp out. At the same time, I dial into a meeting that I was supposed to be at in person.

8:56 Jose calls me. He was still at home and informs me that I left my work badge (which I had taken off to change clothes) sitting on the counter. ARGH!!!

9:06 I go back home again and since Jose’s ready to go, we just ride together. I’m driving, but I’m also still dialed into and somewhat participating in my meeting which probably wasn’t the best idea.

9:33 After dropping Jose off, I’m finally at my desk and still dialed in to the meeting, which is wrapping up.

10:28 My morning has finally calmed down now that I’m at work. I’ve spent the last hour finishing the meeting, reviewing emails and sending a few followups on the Soyuz launch that happened the night before, and getting on with my day.

11:43 I email someone to confirm that we’re still on for a meeting this afternoon. I’m supposed to give her group a “101” style presentation and lead discussion about a flight readiness topic. We agreed to do it on July 7, but that was several weeks ago. I’m glad I doubled checked, because it turned out that several people weren’t available, so we decide to reschedule. I start thinking about lunch.

12:00 The siren outside our building starts blaring: “Attention…this…is…a…test…” The JSC emergency warning system gets tested at noon on the first Thursday of every month. It’s loud, but I suppose that’s comforting since it means if we ever have an air raid (right?) I’d definitely hear the warning.

12:14 My stomach is growling, which means it’s past time to heat up lunch. I also need to figure out what to tackle this afternoon since that my one meeting got canceled.

12:17 The breakroom TV is on Fox News of course. My little subversion isn’t very effective. Today it’s showing a hearing in which some Congressmen are apparently grilling the FBI director on why Hillary Clinton wasn’t charged by the FBI for the whole email thing? I dunno. (Yes, that was exactly it, as it turned out.)

12:27 Back at my desk and there’s a deer outside my window! There are a lot of deer that live at our worksite since there are several open areas for them to roam, but it’s a little unusual to see one wandering around in the middle of the day so close to a building.

1:45 My division chief and our division administrative assistant come by looking for any equipment people have hanging around that isn’t being used and should be excessed. I give them a pair of computer speakers and a standing desk floor mat, both of which are still in the box and taking up space at my desk.

2:29 I continue to work on little things, but this workday is really crawling by. After a very busy May and June, July is starting off a lot slower. Busy is stressful, but slow is kind of bad in its own way too. I’d rather have a day with a couple things on my schedule — a review or tagup or something — than nothing.

3:11 Ok, this day is officially dragggging. I haven’t had a day this slow in months.

3:55 I take a break for a bit of non-work-related talk with a coworker about car seats. She had a couple recommendations on harnessed booster seats, which was helpful. But since I’m trying to avoid extraneous spending this month, I think we may just move the convertible seat from the Camry into the Highlander and just have one car for kid-chauffeuring for a bit.

4:45 Time to go at last! Jose picks me up and we head over to the daycare. I collect Charlotte and sign the girls out for the day while Jose goes to Emma’s classroom. They don’t reappear by the time I have Charlotte, so we go back and find Emma wrapping up an art project while Jose watches. I love daycare pickup time because it always gives me a little glimpse into their day — and because the other kids usually say funny things too.

4:55 The whole family is back in the car and on our way to swimming class!

5:04 As Jose and I chat in the front, Emma is making Charlotte laugh in the back by making faces and random sounds. She’s being pretty loud, but I don’t shush her because Charlotte is loving it and laughing hysterically, and I can’t help but smile.

5:32 Swimming time! Charlotte’s still enjoying her class and getting better at putting her face in the water, and Emma’s doing great. (If you look in the background of the photo above, that’s Emma closest to the wall and looking at the steps.)

6:12 After a hectic round of get-everybody-dried-and-dressed-again, we’re back in the car. The swimming place, while great, is not air conditioned. I’m usually ok stuck in the small changing room because I’ve just been in the pool, but Jose is dying in the heat.

6:24 We arrive home and I go into the bedroom to change clothes. We change the girls at the pool to avoid getting their car seats all wet, but I usually just wrap a towel around my waist and ride home like that rather than change back into my work clothes. I go back into the kitchen and throw a load of clothes into the washer.

6:36 I start cooking dinner. We always have something quick and easy on swimming nights — well, even quicker and easy than our usual quick and easy. Tonight it’s breakfast for dinner so I put some Pillsbury biscuits in the oven and cook frozen hashbrowns on the stove top. I scramble some eggs right at the end.

6:58 Dinner is served! Breakfast for dinner is a popular meal with both kids now. The fact that Charlotte can eat every component of this one is an added bonus.

7:40 After dinner, Emma and I started playing hide-and-seek. Let’s get real for a minute — playing hide-and-seek with a not quite 4-year-old basically consists of either her telling me where to hide or her telling me where she’s going to hide. It’s not exactly the most challenging game, but she loves it. Emma and I play for a bit while Jose makes Charlotte’s bottles, and then they join us. In the photo above, I was the seeker and they were “hiding” behind the bed in the guest room.

7:49 Play time is over and it’s bath time, which makes Emma very grumpy. This has been an ongoing problem lately, but I find that if I can just stay patient and firm, things go more smoothly than if I get frustrated and upset. So I do my best, and Emma complies with my orders to get in the tub after some grumbling.

8:03 Emma is bathed and dressed. When we come out into the living room, Jose has just finished giving Charlotte her bottle and they are watching track and field on TV. It’s the Olympic trials I think. We all watch a couple heats of women’s 400m hurdles, and Emma runs to her room to retrieve her “Clifford’s Sports Day” book to show us that the hurdles on TV are just like the ones that Clifford jumps over. Cute!

8:15 Emma stops to say goodnight to Charlotte.

8:22 Emma and I read books before bed. The second picture is what I was trying to capture with a self-timer app. The first picture is what I got for the first several takes. My kid is such a ham. (Also, she asked to see these pictures and then said “aw, so cute!”)

8:35 After books and a couple songs, I’m done with kid duty for the night! Jose is still trying to get Charlotte to sleep. It’s definitely not usually this much of a challenge. Either she took a late nap at school…or she’s just not used to Jose putting her to bed. For months, he’s handled Emma while I take Charlotte plus do the dishes, but with all the flack Emma’s been giving at bathtime and bedtime, we decided to switch things up.

8:54 I’ve been sitting in the kitchen for the last 20 minutes scrolling Instagram and Facebook, so I guess I should decide what to do with my evening.

9:04 I’ve settled in upstairs at my computer with a hard cider in hand to work on this blog post.

10:30 After doing blog stuff, looking at our finances, and other assorted computer tasks, I finally head back downstairs. I move the load of clothes from the washer to the dryer, load a couple straggling cups into the dishwasher and start it, and pack Charlotte’s bottles for tomorrow.

10:46 I head to the bathroom to brush my teeth, wash my face and take out my contacts.

11:16 After reading for about 20 minutes, I’m officially pooped. Good night!

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