A Day in the Life....

A Day in the Life of the Petts ... where we homeschool, golf, work, are potty-training, bake cookies, play soccer and snuggle, but more importantly are all healthy and happy.

That's the summary version so if you're a light reader no need to go any further - but if you want the chronicled, slice of life version continue reading. I did this a year ago for this post and promised myself I'd try to do every so often - apparently at this rate, it's once a year.

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7:00 – Gabriel wakes and comes in to snuggle with us. It's a little chilly outside so we warm him up under the covers. This is one of my favorite parts of the day. Gabriel tells me he had a dream about the show "MythBusters" - I'm not surprised. So I figured now was a good time to let him know the new series began this week (every Wed at 9 pm) and I recorded it for him.

7:30 – I don't have to go to work today (I'm off every other Friday), but do have to get a proposal done and sent out so I get up and take a hot shower and feel so thankful. I was sick with a virus last week along with the kids - we're all so happy to be feeling better.

7:45 – I'm sitting in front of my computer with a quick check on facebook and my work emails and begin finishing up a proposal for a company who needs branding, identity, naming and a website. Jimmy brings me up some homemade beignets, but I have to send them and the kids (Giselle is now awake) downstairs with him so I can concentrate and get this done.

8:30 – BREAKFAST: I'm finished with the proposal and sent it off to my colleague for a final review and send off to the prospective client. Meanwhile, I hear Gabriel downstairs complaining about his eczema. Jim puts on some Triamcinolone to help clear it up. Jimmy made pancakes too so we all sit down to eat together.

8:45 – All Giselle wants me to do is to hold her. She wants to be held in the mornings for a bit - and Jim and I are chasing Gabriel around saying "Ching" (our version of the Claw if you've seen the movie "Liar, Liar" with Jim Carey). He is so ticklish. We call a truce and I cut Jimmy's hair. This is our way of saving $20 at the barber and I've become quite good at cutting his hair over the years. While I'm cutting, I send Gabriel upstairs to finish his morning routine which is: potty, brush his teeth, make his bed, get dressed and turn off his light and air cleaner. He had *forgotten* to make his bed and turn off the light ;)

9:15 – We normally start our school by 9 am, but due to the haircut we're running fifteen minutes behind. We don't stick to a strict schedule anyway (it's more of a routine). I had Gabriel do a worksheet on reading comprehension about fireflies (he asks me if I did that because we live on Fire Fly Court) and answer questions on the story while I got Giselle dressed and tried to find his helmet. Today was going to be "ride your bike day" with his homeschool group. We're always multi-tasking it seems, and that's exactly what I'm doing as I try to sneak in some one-on-one, quality time with Giselle to introduce her to the potty, and as we read her favorite book. It's pictures of dogs and babies.

10:00 – I created a review test for him with double digit addition and subtraction, multiplication for 2's and 5's, telling time, greater than/less than and a spelling test. He did really well and I'm so proud at how well he is learning. Guess daddy is doing a good job teaching and working with him during the week. Giselle joins us at the table and pretends to be working too.

10:30 – I'm desperately trying to find her shoes, pack snacks, get everything into the car and out the door for our NEACH homeschool group at the park. Why is this so difficult? Regardless, I ultimately always leave something behind that I wish I had?

11:15 – We arrive at Lucky Shoals park and see everyone with their bikes and gear. Gabriel rode for a little bit, but didn't want to ride the trail (I think he wants a bike with training wheels rather than his glider) and ended up playing with Emma.

Giselle is my fearless daughter who went up and down the slides about 20 times and then later fell off the playset. I was standing right there but on the opposite side of where she fell so I couldn't catch her. She's ok, but landed on her face/side. I'm still a little blue over this. I know as a parent your toddler (and children) are bound to have bumps and bruises, but it's so difficult to see them get hurt.

1:00 – LUNCH: Back home, made some macaroni and cheese. This is dad's "world famous" that he has pre-made as part of his way of still taking care of us from the golf course, and all we have to do is warm it up on the stove with a little water on low heat.

1:30 – Giselle is down for her nap. She chatters a bit before falling asleep. I worry a little about her and will keep an extra eye on her today. I notice she has some cuts on her face from her fall that weren't there before so I'm hoping her fall wasn't worse than I thought.

2:00 – It's break time!! Gabriel is down stairs playing his computer games for 30 minutes while I check work emails and call a client who wants to start a new project. The day is only half over and I'm completely exhausted already!!! I really want a nap, but I work instead. I'm thankful I get to take every other Friday off from work so it's the least I can do.

2:30 – Gabriel and I reviewed some old School House Rock videos on YouTube about prepositions, pronouns, and conjunctions, then went to this site to begin typing skills and a fun geographical map, and visited our recently favorite and resourceful Khan Academy math website with thousands of videos.

4:00 – SNACK: Giselle wakes up and appears to be doing just fine. Instead of doing our normal crackers and cheese for snack time, I hustled to get Gabriel in his soccer gear and out the door early so we could swing by Chick-fil-A - my favorite fast food spot. (I seriously should own stock in Target and Chick-fil-A with as often as I frequent those companies).

4:45 – It's already forty-five minutes later by the time I change my second poopy diaper of the day, get her bundled in warm clothing, find his soccer ball, shin guards and water bottle. On the way, Gabriel asks to turn some music on and I opt for my Carrie Underwood CD. It's the second of the three I own. Playing track 7, it's an intense, very grown-up, melancholy song and Gabriel says "I really like this song." I really like it too, but I'm surprised because he normally just likes either rock or pop songs for which he can dance fast.

5:30 – We're munching on some chicken nuggets still - Gabriel is kindly sharing with his sister – as we pull up to the Gwinnett Soccer Association (GSA) fields and realize the gates are closed. All the other soccer moms are pulling up next to me and we're trying to figure out what to do from here. We decide to go to Mountain Park Park (yes, there are two parks in the name, it's not accidentally redundant). We end up only getting in 15 minutes worth of practice since it gets dark so early now after Day Light Savings. There is a playground nearby and Gabriel comes running up to me after they announced they are done to ask if he can play. I say, "sure, for five minutes" and off he runs. Another mom mentions to me, "my son didn't ask me." I feel proud for a moment. Being a parent is hard and he just made me look good at this instance - I'm sure there are plenty of other times exactly the opposite is true.

6:00 – DINNER: Jimmy called and we meet him at Pizza Cafe for a large, pepperoni pizza. This has been our favorite pizza joint this year every since Gabriel's last soccer coach (Coach Adam) introduced us to it. You have to get a pie though, slices aren't anything to write home about. Giselle must have had more nuggets than I thought because she barely eats and just wants to head over to the games to pretend drive.

7:15 – We arrive back home, it's dark, cold and the kids are rambunctious so I let them play for a little bit with their toys in the family room.

7:30 – I announce it's bath time! The kids both love to take baths so they both run to the bottom of the stairs where Gabriel opens the gate for Giselle and I follow them up into the bathroom. I pour some bubbles and baby soap into the tub along with their toys and they excitedly get undressed. Gabriel pretends the bubbles are burger patties which I have to pretend to eat and Giselle just loves playing in the water (pour out, pour in, pour out, pour in, ....).

8:00 – I get Giselle out first to dry her off and get her into warm p.j.'s. I put her on my bed while she plays with daddy while I get the boy out, dried, dressed in his p.j.'s. At this point, I'm really tired myself, and now secretly thankful it's nearing their bedtime. Daddy puts more lotion on Gabriel for his eczema. I have Gabriel read to me one page out of his book, Giselle has some milk and we say time for bed. Sometimes we let Gabriel stay up a half hour later than her, but tonight we say "that's not one of those nights and both to bed."

8:30 – We all go into their room (they share a bedroom), turn out the lights, look at the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling and sing soft worship songs. Gabriel sings with us (this is new) and Giselle is swaying, clapping and snuggling.

9:00 – We're free!! Strangely Gabriel didn't come back out of his room tonight asking to snuggle. He must have been tired and went straight to sleep. Jim and I do a light work out routine. Then I take a shower, then we lay in bed and do a little talking, praying and sailing (yes, that means what you think).

10:15 – Jim is snoring and I'm typing in my blog post for today and thinking how incredibly boring this all must sound. Our lives used to be gymnastics, swing dancing, college...we're parents now and our day proves it. After the day I've had with the kids, schooling, driving around to here and there, I'm thinking Jim is some kind of Super Dad. I'm really unsure how he does this every day and does everything else like pay the bills, grocery shop, cook, dishes, clean, laundry and work on the home? I'm sure he'll get a kick out of me telling him that in the morning ... or... I could just keep it our little secret ;)

11:00 – The kids are sound asleep - and that's where I'm headed now. I bid thee adieu.

A Day in the Life - Sunday, Aug 9, 2009

My mom asked what the kids do each day so I decided to pick a typical day and chronicle all that we do. Apologize in advance for the length and if it puts you right to sleep ...

2:30 am – Gabriel wakes up yelling "Mommy, Mommy!" I go in to see what is wrong and he tells me he has had a bad dream about a snake trying to get him at Chuck E Cheese. I lay down with him for a few minutes and he goes back to sleep.

5:15 am – Giselle wakes up to nurse - this only takes about 15 minutes and we're both back to sleep by 5:30 am.

8:45 – Normally Gabriel is in our bed with us at 7:45 am snuggling and chattering away but this morning I wake up and hear him downstairs playing and Giselle's movements in her crib which is parked right next to my bed. I get up to see what each is doing - Gabriel is playing with his new toy Bakugan's that I got him the day before (has new curb appeal) and Giselle smiles at me and sucks her thumb.

9:00 – I nurse Giselle while sitting on my bed. By this time Gabriel is there with me and kisses her feet. This is distracting to her because she loves her big brother so I ask him to stop until I'm done feeding his sister.

9:15 – I ask Gabriel to get dressed and I do the same so we can go downstairs to make breakfast. Jimmy always has a hard time sleeping so he mumbles from the bed something about "there's eggs in the fridge." Gabriel says "I'm allergic to eggs." I asked him what else he is allergic to in order to have him learn of things he can and can not eat. He says "Peanut butter and also germs." I laughed and said I think everyone is allergic to germs.

9:30 – Gabriel has his toys at the breakfast table and we've told him he is not allowed to have toys at the table so I take them and put them away until later. I serve Gabriel hot toast with Smart Balance butter, bananas and Rice milk. He says the bananas are "too mushy with brown spots" so I mush them even more and give about four spoonfuls to Giselle. I put her in the purple Bumbo seat and she is grabbing things now -- she grabs Gabriel's milk and it spills. Gabriel worried Daddy will think it's him that made a mess says "We need to tell Daddy the truth." He finishes eating his toast sans the crust which he politely gives to me. I'm full from eating his other piece of toast that he didn't want so they go into the compost pile.

9:45 – I have Gabriel read two books to me (Bisquit and I like Bugs) -- this is my way to have him earn his Bakugan toys back for having them at the breakfast table. Jim wakes up and joins us in the kitchen. Gabriel informs everyone he has to go poopy and exclaims that he will wipe his own bottom. I'm thrilled because he will be five this month and think he is old enough to do a good job at wiping his own butt. :) He comes running out -- I still of course have to remind him to wash his hands afterwards. ugh...

10:00 – I put Giselle down for a nap and have Gabriel clean up his room while Jim and I work in the kitchen. Jim is making scrambles eggs and I start to clean. Gabriel is yelling upstairs trying to tell me something. I think he is going to wake the baby so I go up there to tell him to stop yelling and I end up helping him clean his room. He had made some progress but thought it would go much faster if I helped. (I secretly like cleaning up his room out of all the rooms of the house, but know it's important for him to clean up his own areas as a way of being part of the family). Gabriel is in a really good mood and does the cleaning very enthusiastically.

10:20 – We both clean the toy/play area/ "family room" together. Gabriel says to me "I'm gonna talk to God." I said "Oh yea?" he says "Yes, I want to ask him to heal my boo-boo." I look down and see blood on his leg. He must have scratched it so hard that he made himself bleed. Gabriel proceeds almost in a whisper without hesitating "God, please heal my boo-boo. In Jesus name." Then he looks at me and says "Wow! That really works!" Then continues to bounce around the house (and off the walls) as he always does. I get out the vacuum cleaner and asked if Gabriel wanted to vacuum since he loves to help out. He said "No thanks, I want to play vacuum cleaner tag." I learned that means I do all the vacuuming and he runs around the room trying not to get "tagged" by the vacuum. I, of course, make sure to find him a few times. :)

11:15 – Giselle wakes up and the only way we knew it was because Jim peeked into her crib -- she was just looking around. When she saw him she smiles. She is always happy to go down forher naps and easily wakes up happy. I change her diaper and place her in the exersaucer so I can have a potty break. Gabriel decides to ride his bike around the house since it's clean and there is room now.

11:30 – I change Giselle into clean and dry clothes (she's a slobber-goose) and make sure they are pretty since we're going to pick up Aunti Michelle at the airport.

11:35 – She's in her car seat carrier, Gabriel has his shoes on, my purse in on shoulder but we can't leave because Jim can't find his keys and cell phone. After a few minutes of looking Gabriel finally pipes up and says "Oh, I know where they are" -- he points Jim to the kitchen island where Gabriel had placed them earlier in a drawer. Mental note to ask Gabriel when you can't find something - he loves sticking things in interesting places.

11:41 – We are all buckled in and off we go -- but wait, we're stopped so Jim can pull his cell phone out of pocket so he can charge his phone.

11:55 – Giselle is cranky and it's time to nurse. Jim pulls off into a parking lot so I can nurse her.

12:05 PM – On the interstate now with happy baby and happy little boy who is still playing with his Bakugan's and etch-a-sketch. Gabriel is excited to see his Aunti Michelle and he is also excited to be riding in the "diamond lane" (HOV lane).

12:25 – Giselle drifts off to sleep and we pull up to pick up Michelle. I put her in the back seat so she can see and spend time with the kids since our trip together is a short one. Might have been a mistake because Giselle startles awake and is in full crying. Jim pulls off on the shoulder of the highway so Michelle and I can do an indian fire drill. I go to the back so I can man the binky and try to settle her down.

1:00 PM – We arrive at Atlantic Station and eat at boneheads. Gabriel pours more and more ketchup for his french fries - more than he needs.

1:50 – We walk through the blazing hot weather through the market vendors back to the car and Michelle realizes she forgot her purse in the restaurant.

2:00 – We head over to Target so Michelle can buy Gabriel his birthday gift. She won't be here on his birthday and wants to give it to him now. Oops - nope, change of plans, we need to go to Jim's clients home, Nancy Wood, so he may put water on her grass. He has recently placed sod for her, she is out of town and he doesn't want it to dry up or die.

2:12 – Giselle nods off finally while Jim waters the lawn.
2:30 – At Wal-Mart looking for the Tonka Bounce Back Racer. This is the toy Gabriel has said he wanted for months now. He is very excited. Unfortunately, they do not have it. We all don't give up hope and I begin my journey on finding a Target that may have one.2:45 – We went back to Jim's client's home so he could turn off the watering system - meanwhile I call three other Targets to see if they have it. No luck!

3:10 – Jim thought to call Toys R Us (or Toys To Go as he refers to them) to see if they have one. After the long hold and anticipation, we learn they have 10 on the floor. We head on over to check it out. On the way Michelle asks if Giselle is awake - I say she is and Michelle is surprised. She comments on how Michael (her late son) would wake up crying and how Giselle isn't making a peep.3:30 – Success!! We found it - wasn't easy locating it in the store. Glad I had called ahead of time or we may have given up, but since we knew they had some we were tenacious. Bought it and a Googly ball that lights up and are heading back to our home now. Whew! We need to go home so I can nurse Giselle and get a good nap.3:50 – We're home and three adults are trying to open the packaging, finding batteries and unscrewing parts in order to get this toy to work. Let's see how long this takes! :0)4:05 – We have a Bounce Back Racer - and it only took 15 mintues to put together.

4:15 – I go upstairs to charge my phone and to nurse Giselle.

4:30 – We take pictures and then say our good-byes to Michelle. Jim takes her to Emory Hotel while I put Giselle down for a nap, Gabriel plays downstairs and I catch up on Facebook and blogging.

5:00 – Uncle Matt arrives and I hear Shawna in the shower. We didn't have church this morning like we normally do so we will probably have it when Jim gets back. Giselle is cackling in her crib - I hope she can work herself back to sleep. She sure needs it.


5:30 – We gather in the living room and begin praying together. We talk about how it's been a hard week and then begin worshipping the Lord. Gabriel is playing on the floor in front of us with, yep, you guessed it, his Bakugan's. He interrupts by saying "Mom" -- I'm curious as to what he is going to say next because he normally says Mama or Mommy. "I really need to go to Sean's house." This is his little friend up the street. I explain Sean is starting school tomorrow and is probably getting ready for the big day. We continue singing and then Jim ministers about "seeking God diligently" and has us read Hebrews 11:6. He says if I want to bring in a big account to sustain Point of Vision that I need to bombard the heavens expecting God to provide using that scripture as a contract. Gabriel keeps telling me he is hungry so I give him a few crackers and cheese to hold him over until dinner. We look up the definition to be "diligent" and it says to crave.

6:35 PM – We are all hungry so we wrap up prayer and discussion to go to Zucca in Decatur to get a pepperoni pizza. Yummy.

6:45 – It takes us 10 minutes to get out the door due to most of us needing to go tinkle. Jim and I drive in a peaceful car -- it's been another whirlwind day and we both enjoy the calm.

7:00 – I drop off Jim and the kids at the front door so he can go in and order while I park. This makes it much easier and faster.

7:10 – Jim and I dive into our Caesar salad we are sharing while Giselle looks at us with smiles from her car seat parked on the table and Gabriel plays with the menu.

7:10 – We all devour pepperoni pizza and water. Water is one way we can save money instead of buying soft drinks.

7:30 – I nurse Giselle who was watching us eat intently and smacking her lips. I don't have a blanket so Jim holds up a napkin so I can be somewhat discreet.

7:45 – We're done and we're trying pay, but Gabriel has gone to the table next to us since the T.V. is there and it has what he calls a "Grandma" movie on...it's A Shark's Tale and he watched it at Grandma's house before.










8:00 – We meet a family in the parking deck who seem really nice -- Dave, Jenny, Noah and Emma. He is opening a restaurant in Decatur and he and Jim exchange numbers so they can play golf. Gabriel does something super sweet and gives the three year old boy his new Bakugan toy. Jim and I are so proud of him.

8:30 – We drive home and Giselle is fussy. She normally has a jar of veggies by 8:00 and in bed by 8:30. Jim stops off the side of the road so I can jump into the back seat and feed her the jar that is in my purse. She was happy to have it. Our conversation in the car revolves around loving people and how sometimes that comes with a sacrifice - and in this instance to making bedtimes.

8:45 – We change Giselle for night-night and Jim puts Gabriel to bed by telling him as Gabriel says "Awesome make up stories" and we head off to our room for some peace and quiet. Normally I read him a book and Gabriel reads me a book and Jim is the "closer" but tonight since it's late we skip baths and go right to bed.










9:00 PM – I can now type up this blog posting - next I'll take a shower, do a little work (need to post a set of wireframes for the client) and then off to dream land.