A day in the life...

Saturday, September 16, 2006...a day in the life of the Clark family.

12:00 a.m. - everyone is sleeping soundly

2:30 a.m. - Anthony wakes up to nurse for a few minutes, then returns to sleep easily; me too

5:15 a.m. - Anthony's awake for the day; I take him to bed to try to convince him to sleep a while longer, but to no avail. He lays between us and takes turns patting us on the cheeks, talking to us, naming our various body parts...nose, eyes, ears, mouth, as he pokes each of them.

6:00 a.m. - I give up and get up with Anthony, taking him to the living room and put on cartoons to try to let Darrell sleep a while longer. I put on a pot of coffee while Anthony watches Dora the Explorer. I sit on the couch and sip my coffee, trying to read another chapter in "Dying Well" by Ira Byock, a book about hospice patients. I've been trying to get through it since I started my job in March, but I've only made it to the third or fourth chapter. I was able to actually finish a chapter, but then felt sad because of the story, so put it back down.

7:00 a.m. - Anthony has gotten bored with cartoons and went back into the bedroom to convince Darrell to get up. He does, and gets busy finishing the laundry. Then he headed to the garage and worked on sorting out some things to take to the homeless shelter, and put away the camping gear from our trip Labor Day weekend. Anthony went out with him, and I stayed on the couch and tried to read a bit more while I nibble on a peanut butter granola bar.

7:30 a.m. - Anthony's hungry, eats some cereal and has some milk in his sippy cup. He continues to go in and out from the garage. I talk to my dad on the phone for a bit. He complained that it's getting cold in New Hampshire - all the way down to the 40's at night. Wahhh...cry me a river.

8:30 a.m. - Anthony's getting very cranky - go figure, he got up over 3 hours ago! I put him down for a nap while I chat on the phone with my sister Karen for almost an hour. She catches me up on Emma's latest tricks while I listen to Emma crying in the background.

9:30 a.m. - My friend Deanna calls and asks if I want to meet her at It's a Grind (coffee shop) for coffee (we do this several times a week). I decline, since I'm already a bit shaky from the two cups I've had, plus we have plans to get together later in the day. Darrell gets ready to take the stuff over to the homeless shelter, and leaves to do so. He returns in about half an hour. Meanwhile, my mom calls and I chat with her for about half an hour. She can't wait to see Anthony at Thanksgiving.

10:00 a.m. - I get on the computer and read some email. Anthony wakes up and joins me at the kitchen table. Then I start working on some online classes I have to take for work, so that I don't get stuck sitting in the office this week trying to get them done. I spend close to two hours doing this. Anthony thinks he's so big sitting in the chair next to me, snacking on some goldfish and drinking his ice water.

11:00 a.m. - Anthony plays with his puzzle for a while, and follows Darrell around while he works on the laundry. I take a break and we have a late breakfast - totally defeat my workout from last night by eating a bacon sandwich.

12:00 p.m. - I stop on the computer to get ready to meet Deanna. Anthony runs in and out of the bathroom the entire time I'm getting ready, saying "Hot, hot," regarding my hair straightener that he wants so badly to touch but which he's been warned a hundred times not to! He's getting cranky again, so I put him down for another nap right before I leave. Darrell looked like he was going to take a nap too.

12:50 p.m. - I meet Deanna at her house, and ride with her to Michael's craft store, where we watch a demonstration of a new scrapbooking tool (the Cricut) that we both desperately want (but which, at $300, is out of both of our price ranges right now). She has baby Taylor (4 months old) with her, and she was a real trooper. We spend about an hour in Michael's.

2:00 p.m. - I have no idea what went on at home while I was gone, but I had fun hanging out with Deanna. We went next to The Coffee Bean and got some...coffee, of course. I notice my abs are getting progessively more painful from my Pilates workout last night. Then on to Target, where we spend another hour browsing. I, remarkably, only spend $4, although I was shoving things in Deanna's face for her to buy for Taylor the entire time. Bad friend, bad friend.

3:30 p.m. - We arrive at the Scrapbook Co., our very favorite store. I get a message on my cell phone from, not MY husband, but Deanna's husband, asking her to call home. She forgot her phone. Deanna said we were going to run right in to the store and just grab a couple Angels things so she could scrapbook her trip to the Angels game last week. Of course, they had gotten a lot of new merchandise in just the last couple weeks, so we spent another hour in there drooling over all the very cool things we could not afford to buy!

4:30 p.m. - We head to Costco, where I stay in the car with Taylor while Deanna runs in and picks up some photos she had printed of her recent trip home to Canada. I call home and let Darrell know that I'm still alive, and tell him we can have steak for dinner.

5:00 p.m. - We make it back to Deanna's house, where her husband amusingly watches me walk in loaded down with all the cool stuff Deanna bought. I brag that I only spent $4, and Deanna rats me out for being a bad influence on her and getting her to spend lots of money!

5:15 p.m. - I finally make it home, where Darrell and Anthony are sitting together in the living room watching t.v., alternating between a movie and college football. Is that channel switching just a guy thing? It drives me crazy - I'll sit down and just start to get into a movie, then he has to switch the channel. Darrell had started the grill, so I cooked some potatoes and onions and cut up some tomatoes and avocados to go with the steaks. Meanwhile, Anthony is very cranky and wants one of us to hold him.

5:45 p.m. - Anthony's crankiness culminates with him vomiting all over the kitchen floor while I'm trying to fix dinner. Ugh, here we go again. His temp immediately starts climbing. I put a towel on the couch and lay him down on it while Darrell finishes grilling the steaks and I finish the other stuff. He's very lethargic and moaning.

6:00 p.m. - We sit down to try to eat, and Anthony starts begging for bites. I refuse to give him any, b/c he just threw up, and Darrell tells me to give him some potato, which I do to avoid an argument.

6:15 p.m. - Big surprise, Anthony throws up again. I insist that he only get water at this point. He starts getting hot, but I don't want to give him anything until his stomach calms down. Guess I should have bought those Tylenol suppositories I saw at Walgreens last week.

6:45 p.m. - I clean up the kitchen while Darrell holds Anthony and watches football. He is getting hotter, but he's kept water down for half an hour, so I give him some chewable tylenol, which he loves.

7:15 p.m. - I join them in the living room and take over the cuddling. Anthony is very solemn and rests his head in my lap, laying on the couch with a towel under him. I start to get a bit worried. He has a few goosebumps from the fever.

7:45 p.m. - Wow, that Tylenol did the trick. Anthony is clearly feeling better and gets up to start playing with his puzzle again. When he correctly gets a piece in place, he claps and tells himself, "Good job!" It's very cute. We finish watching the movie, End Days.

8:00 p.m. - Darrell heads to bed with Anthony. I decide not to nurse him, in case his stomach isn't ready yet, so they lay down together and I got on the computer. I intended to work some more on my online classes for work, but instead chatted online with my friend Cheri for a bit, and now got going on my blog. And here we are...