Monday Monday

After re-reading what I wrote last week about how, "I'm not really the type to do activities with the kids, crafts or whatever," I decided I better redeem myself a little bit by giving a sample of what actually goes on all day here. Yesterday was a pretty typical Monday, so here's a list of what we did:

7am- woke up and ate breakfast, did the dishes, cleaned up

8am- kissed Daddy goodbye and played in the playroom... this has been tougher lately because there are 2 things that Chase really loves:

1. playing board games
2. building things (like train tracks, mega bloks or his construction set)
But of course, Siena wants to be a part of everything so she tends to inadvertently knock down whatever Chase is building or grabs game pieces from the board. Poor Chase! And poor Siena, and poor mommy for that matter! It's been tough to keep everybody happy these days!

9am- put Siena down for a morning nap and played Memory with Chase twice, then turned on the TV so he could watch a show (Backyardigans) while I took a shower.

10am- checked my email, did some laundry, Chase played with some toys

10:30am- Siena woke up from her nap, we loaded up the car and drove to the library... checked out 9 books: 7 for Chase starting with the letters J, K, L, M, N, O, and P, and 2 for me: a cookbook and The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith, which I've always wanted to read, but had forgotten about until I saw an ad for the HBO miniseries!

11:30am- stopped by Publix which is a very rare thing for me... I usually insist on going to the grocery store just once a week! But they had Vitamin Water on sale for $.99, plus I had a coupon for "buy 10, get 5 free" and of course, when I went during my usual time on Sunday they were sold out. So I had to go back, there was no way around it. Eric and I consume ridiculous amounts of the stuff... it's our electrolyte beverage of choice for triathlon training and racing. I also bought an onion and some nectarines, but no cookies.

noon- back at home and got lunch ready for everyone: PB&J sandwiches for Chase and Siena, and leftover pasta for me. Afterwards, Chase and Siena went into the playroom to play while I got stuff ready for dinner. It was really early for that, but I had a bike tech class that night so I wanted to get something in the crockpot. I chopped up eggplant, the onion, and carrots and mixed it with a bunch of other stuff for some delicious Chicken Tagine. Right in the middle of splitting apart some chicken thighs, Chase decided to run back into the kitchen and spill his cup of "green juice" (Bolthouse Green Goodness smoothie) EVERYwhere! No worries, Berkeley licked it all up!

1pm- put Siena down for a nap and went back to the kitchen to do a page of Chase's "Alphabet Book" with him. We did the letter "L" yesterday. (I guess I do sometimes do activities with them!) He just cuts a piece of construction paper to fit his notebook (this is by far his favorite part!), punches holes in it, finds "L" stickers from his group of alphabet stickers to add to the paper, practices drawing the letter, and then we talk about what sound the letter makes and what words start with it.

1:30pm- put Chase down for a nap... but first we read "Is your Mama a Llama?" This wasn't the "L" book we got from the library (and can you tell we're behind anyways? Chase insisted on getting J and K books too, even though we already did those letters). But I just love that little book!

2pm-3:30pm- nap time!!! I did some major dishes, cleaned the kitchen floor because it was all sticky from the green juice, called our lawn care company and sat on hold FOREVER, checked some email, started reading my book and took a little 10 minute power nap!

3:30pm- Chase and Siena woke up. Chase decided he wanted to go outside and ride his bike... I was hesitant because it is so stinkin' hot but I felt bad because we hadn't played outside all day. So I called Julie and Cooper to see if they wanted to meet us outside.

3:45pm- Stood outside on the driveway waiting for Cooper to come out (they said "maybe" they would)... and Chase didn't want to ride his bike alone. Finally I convinced him to do something... we played "stomp rocket" for a while (= best toy EVER), colored on the driveway with chalk, and then sat in the shade on the grass for a while... and pretended that there was a huge river in front of us (the sidewalk) and took turns crossing it with an imaginary rope! We lasted outside for, oh, about 37 minutes and then we were so hot we had to go back in! Julie and Cooper never did come outside... smart!!

4:22pm- Back inside, in the playroom! I cut up an apple for all of us to share for a snack. Chase and I built a big tunnel with his Mega Bloks and somehow kept Siena from destroying it. We played "tickle monster" with Siena. Played "Find My Goat" which is a cute little board game from Chase's latest High Five magazine that he gets in the mail every month (thanks G-ma)!

5:30pm- Eric came home... YAY!!! And I made some rice to go with our dinner. Ate dinner.

6:15pm- Left home for my bike tech class at the local bike shop where I learned how to change a flat on a road bike and other fun stuff! Eric took care of the dishes and baths and bedtime (what an awesome dad he is!!!) And that's about it...

What a day!