And so go my days

Note: I started this post June 25, and was interrupted by a call from our worker asking us to take an emergency placement of two girls, thus the interruption of time. 🙂 Also, things are even more intense and chaotic right now, but we are getting it figured out.

I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to introduce you to Busy Boy as well as let you in to the complexity that is life in the Stubborn house right now, and I think what might be effective is to give you a daily breakdown. 🙂

7:00 AM – Bitty Babe wakes up. Depending on the kind of day it is, she is either cooing and playing in her crib, or screaming bloody murder. There is no in between. Also, depending on what kind of night it was, I am either well rested and ready to start the day, or am dragging my legs over the edge of the bed trying to explain to my screaming baby why it is taking me so long.

“Hold on, Honey!”

“I’m almost there, Baby Girl!”

“My eyes are having a little trouble opening, Darling. Be patient!”

God graciously made me a morning person, so as soon as my feet hit the floor and I start moving, I wake up very quickly and am ready to get things started. I pick up my precious baby girl and greet her with ‘good morning’s’ and lots and lots of kisses. I bring  her to the changing area on our living room floor and soak up the love as she coos and smiles at me as I change her butt. I then sit her down (‘cuz she can sit now!) with a couple of toys while I take care of some….ahem…personal business. 🙂 Then it’s time to get her morning bottle made as well as dose up her morning med. Update: When I originally wrote this, Bitty was not crawling yet. This has since changed in a big way. There is no more sitting her on the floor while she contentedly plays with a toy, because she has figured out very quickly how to climb our sunken living room’s stairs to follow me where ever I go, so now she goes into the bathroom with me and plays with a roll of toilet paper. :)

Feeding Bitty is one of my favorite things. I love how she gazes up at my face and strokes my hair. She still needs to be swaddled to eat effectively most of the time, but she usually works her right arm out, and it goes straight to my hair and face. She has this thing about scratching too, so I really have to stay on top of her nails.

8:00 AM – Busy Boy wakes up. I usually know this because he either knocks on his door, which he can’t open yet, or he cries, which stops as soon as I open the door. He greets me with a smiley “Hi!” and gives me a hug around the legs. I melt. He carries his sippy cup of water and his blanket out with him, but he usually drops them somewhere between his bedroom and the living room. I always give him kisses as soon as I see him, and I ask him how he rested, which he usually replies to in his own lovely little language.

Busy Boy, at 29 months of age, has the language skills of an 15-18 month-old, but he makes up for his lack of words with his expressiveness in his own language. He wants to make himself known so much, and we are determined to give him the tools to do that, so the day he moved in I began using sign language with him. He picked it up so quickly those first couple of days that I was convinced that his guardians had been using sign with him, which I found out was not the case. He already knows more than 20 signs, learns new ones instantly, and signs 3 word sentences. He even makes up his own signs to make himself understood. For example, at lunch one day he pointed to the grilled cheese sandwich I had on the stove and he signed “hot cheese.” What I love about the use of sign language with speech-delayed kids is that it gives them a chance to build vocabulary and confidence as they learn to speak. More on that another time.

After Busy Boy gets up, I get his butt changed and then wait to see what kind of morning it will be. Sometimes Busy Boy is ready to go right away and immediately wants to go to his high chair and eat breakfast. Other mornings he needs some time to play before he realizes he is hungry.

8:15 AM – Breakfast. I have been enjoying breakfast time so much! This used to be a hard time of the morning for me before Busy Boy came. Most mornings I would spend the first hour sitting on the couch with the babe watching TLC’s morning lineup. Because of Bitty Babe’s high needs, it was just easier to not have any morning expectations. Now that Busy Boy is here, I don’t have a choice. I have to feed the child! I definitely think it helps that Bitty is old enough now that she is interested in playing with things, so she is not needing my constant attention and entertainment. Even though she’s not eating solid food yet, I’ve been putting her in her high chair with some of her favorite toys, or a graham cracker to gnaw on, so she can join us in the breakfast fun.

I know I haven’t been writing much about it recently, but I love to cook, and I’ve always thought that cold cereal was more of a snack food than a breakfast food, which leads me to the conclusion that I should make hot breakfast as often as possible. This is actually a very practical thing with two little ones because they eat in the kitchen, and I want to be with them, so cooking for them makes my time well spent. Lately I’ve been making Busy Boy blueberry pancakes and a simple cheese omelette. They are quick, nutritious dishes, and Busy Boy gobbles them up. While I’m making the hot items, I give him him his choice of fruit, which he uses his new found sign language skills to communicate. Busy Boy is a big eater, which is wonderful, because he will try just about anything, but he is also a slow eater, which means that breakfast takes up a good 45 minutes of our morning.

9:00 AM – New butt and play time. This is when I am really glad that Bitty is getting so independent and will play on her own, because this allows me time to get some morning chores done. During this time, Busy Boy is exploring. He is such a thinker. He loves finding out how objects might work together, especially in combinations I would never have thought of, like plastic stacking rings strung onto a wagon handle.

10:00 AM – Snack time for Busy Boy, nap time for Bitty. Yes, you read that right, Bitty is actually going down for regular morning naps! This started about a month ago, and I am loving it! Depending on how she’s feeling, she will sleep anywhere from 1-3 hours. It’s wonderful! Snack time is another time of the day that I am so thankful for my ASL background, because Busy Boy is able to let me know when he is hungry and exactly what he wants. It’s incredible. I seriously almost cried the day when instead of whining and grunting for his hat that he saw in his diaper bag, he signed “hat please.” Amazing.

10:30 AM – More play time. Since Bitty is usually asleep at this time, I try to take this time to spend some good one-on-one time with Busy Boy and work on more specific skills. It’s pretty obvious that Busy Boy was never really read to, as he has no idea what to do with a book, and cannot identify objects in pictures…like any. So this is something I am really trying to work with him on. It’s hard sometimes, because he is so active he doesn’t really want to sit still with me. Now, don’t get me wrong, he is a very cuddly kid, and loves to be rocked and snuggled, but right now reading seems like a waste of good play time to him. So I am trying to read AROUND him a lot, and catch him during his few quiet times. I’ve been collecting children’s books for years, so I am super excited to share these wonderful books with my kiddos. We’ll get there. Update: Since I wrote this, Busy Boy is now choosing to get books off the bookshelf and look at them independently! He has been pointing to pictures and telling me about them, such as pointing to a picture of Elmo taking a bath and signing and saying “bath time,” or “night nights” for Ernie in bed.

11:30 AM – Lunch. More good food. Enough said. 🙂

12:15 PM – Busy Boy goes down for his nap. The first few days were rough simply because we had no idea what kind of schedule he was on. Now that we know, and we know how routine oriented he is, nap time is a breeze. After I get him cleaned up from lunch, I change his butt and tell him it’s time for night nights. He grabs his bunny blanket and his sippy cup (with water) and heads to his room. He’s usually fussing as he walks, but it’s so fake it’s hilarious. He puts himself into bed, I give him a kiss, say good night, go out, and shut the door. DONE!

Time for Mama ( Äiti) to get busy! This is when I try to get caught up on dishes and laundry. If Bitty is awake, I work in our bedroom putting clothes away, which is my LEAST favorite chore. If Bitty is asleep, I work somewhere else in the house, maybe even getting some deeper sorting and organizing done. If Bitty is really sleeping, I might even lie down for a while, although she has this Äiti radar and has an annoying habit of waking up within minutes of me lying down.

3:00 PM – Busy Boy is up and ready for a new butt and a snack. He always wakes up in good spirits, so I am excited to see him when he wakes up from his nap. Then it’s play time, hopefully including some outside time, especially now that Bitty can sit in the grass and play as well. Our physical therapist blessed us with a playskool turtle sandbox, complete with sand, so Busy Boy has been thoroughly enjoying that along with the inexpensive water table I found earlier this summer. Bitty usually naps at this time too.

5:00 PM – More snack as I start dinner, ‘cuz we always end up eating late.

6:00 PM – Hubby gets home from work and helps with the littles as I try to finish dinner. I love, LOVE, love seeing Hubby in his amazing role as Isä. He and Busy Boy are bonding incredibly well. It helps that Busy Boy is such an easy going, funny, interesting kid of coarse, but he has taken to Hubby in a huge way.

7:00 PM – Dinner. It’s fun eating as a family again.

8:00 PM – Bath time. Busy Boy loves to sit and play in his little tub. He also likes it when Bitty Babe comes to join him. He enjoys helping to wash her and he likes to tickle her belly and her toes. After his bath I rub him down with coconut oil infused with lavender and eucalyptus oils. I started this when Bitty Babe had RSV this past winter, but it’s a great way to get more touch opportunities, as well as check for booboos, and nourish their skin. One of my favorite heart-warming moments included this little ritual. As I rub the oil into his skin, I sing Busy Boy a song, “This is the way we rub the oil, rub the oil, rub the oil, this is the way we rub the oil right before bed time.” One night, Busy Boy got his fingers into the jar and took out a little too much oil, so I asked him if he would rub it on my arm. As he lovingly rubbed the oil in, he sang the song to me in his beautiful little way. It was a great little reward from heaven. 🙂

8:15 PM – Bed time for Busy Boy! Just like nap time, Busy Boy gets his blankets and his sippy cup of water, gives Isä kisses, and heads to bed. After I close his curtains, I sit with him on the floor and rock him as I sing my favorite lullaby from Psalty to him. Then I pray over him, thanking God for putting this amazing child in my life.  I put him back into his bed, kiss him good night, tell him I love him and leave the room. He might fuss a little, but is usually out before I get to the living room.

8:30 PM – Chill time with Hubby. I might get some dinner clean-up done, but I usually do most of my dishes the next morning during breakfast. I need this time with my sweet husband. Plus, Bitty doesn’t go down until at least 9, and is extra needy in those evening hours.

11:30 PM – Night night! I take the dog out, brush my teeth, crawl between the sheets, read my Bible, turn my music on, and am out!

4:00 AM – Bitty usually wakes up declaring that she is starving to death, so I stumble out of bed, use the facilities as fast as possible, make her a bottle, and try not to fall asleep on my child as I give her the sustenance she so desperately desires. Then back to sleep for as long as possible.

Gabe came to visit last weekend, and he commented multiple times how funny it was to see all the baby stuff around the house. He loves it though, and is so glad to have the opportunity to be big brother to Busy Boy and Bitty.

God is good. He restores. He renews.

More on that later.

Blessings!

Hannah