Saturday, May 14, 2011

Photo Every Hour (ish)- May 11, 2011.


 5:30. Steven says goodbye and heads for the door. Meazi wakes and I say, "Hurry and catch daddy before he goes." I go back to bed, and then find Meazi here. 6:00.


Himself trundles out of the bedroom, having already removed his silky sleep cap.


We have breakfast, cheesy eggs and chocolate croissants. I eat mine and Melese's, down three cups of coffee and three advil. Cramps.


7:00. We leave for school, Melese surveys the damage from what will now be referred to as, "The Great Chair Debacle of 2011". Don't ask. He is insisting on wearing his "Beeswax" which are light up antennae from the dollar depot. It's P.E. day so Meazi gets to wear sweats.

 I only get exasperated with Meazi once, as we frantically go back in the house to search for a book she needs to return to her school library. It was in her bag the whole time. We get into the car and hear the incredible voice of this woman. Steven got me this cd for my birthday. Meazi says, "Mom, why do you want those kids in the new school to learn English?" And so it begins, the big questions right away. And why do I want them to learn English anyway? I say, "Well Meazi, I want them to learn Amharic too. The more languages they know, the more opportunities they will have." She says, "So they will know Kembatissa, Amharic, and English?" I say, "I hope so." She says, "Mom, I think we should have another fundraiser to build another school in another village and the kids can learn Kembatissa, Amharic, English, and Spanish, and maybe French too!" I tell her that I think it is a fine idea. Then we have a long conversation about coat tail riding and that guy that always sings on AK's albums and how he is really lucky that AK gives him work. We agree that we don't like his voice and we skip right over his tracks. Melese yells, "Make it YOUDER mamma!" I turn it up and we pull into the school parking lot.

We wait with her until the last possible second. I walk Melese to the Kindergarten door so he can, take a yittle peek. We drive home. He says he'd like a yittle walk.


8:00.

We are having a lovely time visiting the neighborhood dogs, picking flowers, etc until Melese becomes startled by a neighbor and falls apart, making me think again about this powerful post that Julie wrote yesterday, and some suspicions I have about my beautiful son. We go in and I make us some decaf, chai tea with lots of milk and sugar.


He feels better. We sing a few songs on the rocker and watch the fish.

9:00.
He asks for some dried cherries, and his playdoh.

  He makes me an ice cream cone, while I answer a couple of e-mails, and attempt to finally finish my thank you notes for the fundraiser.

10. 11. More of the same. More dried fruit. Lots of dried fruit. Some singing, some trucks, and some more playdoh. I search online for airline tickets for what will now be referred to as our upcoming, Summer of Love tour. Two weddings. Four trips. Trains, planes, and boats. Papa's boat.

12:00. He tells me he is ready for his nap. I'd love to say that we now just kiss each other 'Good nap!' and off he goes, but, well, I still lie down with him until he falls asleep. I know two years. He also still has a sippy cup of milk (rotting his teeth and impeding his speech I am sure). I turn on the space heater, and put his three favorite lullabies in a loop on my I-Phone. I lie next to him. He grabs my hand. We both fall asleep.


12:15. The mailman wakes me up. I receive the Rosemary oil I ordered for their hair but can't remember what exactly I am supposed to do with it. I eat some salty items, some chocolatey items, and have a mini ugly cry. Ah hormones.

1: something. He wakes up. I change his sweaty clothes. He gives me a look that seems familiar, but I think Nah, I haven't changed a poopy diaper in months. I will spare you the rest of this hour but just remember these two words: dried fruit.

I make him some pasta. He eats a little and then goes back in for more playdoh fun. He hasn't played with it for months, so I am surprised that he continues.

2:20. At long last. His favorite part of the whole day...


We drive off to get Meazi, our konji.


I bring our library books. Meazi has a star chart and every seven stars she gets a treat of her choice. Melese had been talking about Pinkberry all day, and I knew Meazi wouldn't need much persuading for a Pinkberry, park, library trifecta, celebrating her good behavior. (I am not thrilled with this reward system that we have going, besides the fact that I am getting fat, I don't want to keep this much longer. Does anyone else do reward chart sorts of things? Any better ideas? Oh, I know, I know, she should just listen and do whatever I want her to do. That doesn't really work in our house).

3:ish.
 4:ish.

Melese keeps getting youder and youder so we have to leave.

5:ish.

6-ish. I defrost some processed foodstuffs for dinner, and have a chat with my good friend, Fess Parker.

 They eat. Melese only gets up three times, which is pretty good, and I only have to utter this mothering gem once, "Melese, this is it. After dinner the kitchen is closed and you will get NO MORE FOOD." He replies, "The kitchen doesn't have a door mamma," and walks off.

Ted wants to know where his dinner is.


7:ish. Homework.

Hugging.


Imaginative play. Melese wearing Meazi's school shoes and mumbling about kindergarten.


7:ish. Miraculously, Meazi spends a great deal of time helping me tidy up the house. She tells me a long involved story about the Holy Family, and how Mary is everyone's mother. I scan the calendar to see just how many days of Catholic instruction she has left. Then she says, "I'd like to get some flowers for Mary's statue momma. Can we do that?" If you had seen her sweet little face, you would have said yes too, atheist or not.

The wee Gobez is now ready for slumber.



8:ish.

8:30 ish. Steven arrives home, takes our photo.


Bonne nuit.

10:52 pm. I am up again. Steven is out back pouring our honey harvest into bear jars, I just uploaded all the photos and ate 75 Easter jelly beans. Ahhh, hormones.

Here is last year's post.

Here's the year before that (when I forgot to take my medicine).

24 comments:

  1. Joy and exhaustion just from reading it. If it's any consolation, Oa is still using a sippy, and he'll turn 3 in August. Crapnanigans.

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  2. What a beautiful full day. Makes me wish I were at home with my kids.

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  3. Just read the post on ptsd. Yeah, wow. I'm bringing this up at our next therapist appointment. Thanks a million.

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  4. Such fun reading this!! And I can't believe how calm and relaxed your whole day was (and with the hormones!) geez what am I doing wrong? Love you all!!

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  5. Beautiful day! I need to do one of these post. Maybe tomorrow...

    You are such a wonderful mother. I love the pictures of you sleeping with your kids. Just lovely.

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  6. LOVE this. And I love that you reward your kids. Thanks for your honesty. I am considering buying all my children their own pony if they can remember to pick up their own sock. I've had it with the dam* socks! I'm taking photos today and will post mine tonight.

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  7. Love your family too. AND, by the way, I still lay down with J when he goes to sleep at night. And usually go to sleep with him. And then wake up at 3am in a twin bed with a 90lb kid and a dog .

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  8. My favorite time of year when I get a glimpse into the day of some of most favorite peeps.

    Couple notes: Your kids are crazy bright. And cute. Your day is crazy full. It's quite understandable why your sleeping at 8ish. I would like to see weekly installments of this.

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  9. While I was reading this I kept thinking back to the one you did eons ago pre kiddlets , you were on the couch most of the day, now I bet you didn't sit down until they were both asleep;)

    I read that post that Julie wrote too, I think there's quite a few of us that it really hit home with.

    This mothering gig sure is exhausting isn't it?

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  10. Wow - what a day of fullness - full of busyness, full of emotion, full of work.

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  11. Love this kind of a post. So real and intimate and full of exhausting stuff and beautiful moments. Need to do one of these myself. Just made our first appointment with an attachment therapist and so appreciated the link to the post about PTSD. As far as reward systems go (which I think many of us despise and yet many of us use), I posted about our latest attempt recently (the blog is private, but you have access): http://kucikfamily.blogspot.com (It's the post about bead jars, and I think it's the most recent I did since I don't manage to post as often as I develop posts only in my own mind and then never get around to writing).

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  12. Thanks for a glimpse into your crazy day ;) I still rock my 2 year old to sleep for nap and the night, so don't feel bad about laying down with M.

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  13. Steven leaves THAT early and doesn't come home until THAT late!!Oh I'd be toast by 2pm unless I was on speed or dumptruck of coffee. How is it he has time for honey after such a long day? And those habesha kids, so flippin cute!

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  14. I loved seeing your day! We use a reward chart, too, but we change it every time Zinashi earns the reward. Right now she needs to get twelve stickers to earn the pillow pet we got at TJMaxx. Next time, who knows? If it's a toy we've bought, I charge one sticker per dollar of toy cost. For other treats, it might just be one good nap (we are in the middle of a sleep regression, so I will pay big for a little bit of peace).

    Honestly, I don't know many kids who just do what they're told without some sort of reward system, with a complementary consequence system. I was a nanny for eleventy kajillion years before I was a mom, and trust me, it's rare to find a kid who will just do what they're told. Even the compliant ones do better with the promise of something they'll enjoy. Don't we all?

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  15. Did you have to type it all out again? I love your day, of course. I love how you fall asleep with them, all in a pile. Steven, he has lots of energy, that one. These posts are so priceless for me.

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  16. I'm so dang annoyed that blogger ate all your comments!

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  17. Damn, woman, I want to eat breakfast at your house! Elia and Little M have the same play dough contraption. Your life is lovely!

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  18. Oh my. Beautiful mama with beautiful family. I love each and every photo. and love love love the video. Oh to hear his voice.

    Don't stop napping with him ever. Thing is he will stop taking a nap and you will be heart broken. I know because with Q at 8 years old I would give anything to have him lay down and fall asleep while I hold him.

    OK, off to go look at him while he's sleeping.

    Oh, and cheesy eggs and chocolate croissants? Loveliness.

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  19. phew, I am exhausted just reading that day! ;)
    What a great glimpse into your world! I may have to try this someday. Take care!

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  20. We had cheesy eggs this morning because of this post.

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  21. I reward with books. Carter does have books here, but he always wants to go to the bookstore to look for a magazine or something. So I use Barnes & Noble as his reward. He and I are such picky eaters that food is hardly a reward for him.

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  22. The video was my favorite too - I still think of Melese as a baby, but in that video he clearly is NOT one anymore! Talking so clearly, oh my!

    I struggle with discipline too...feels like I'm constantly doling out consequences and I'm not very good at rewards. I find myself wondering how in the world my parents got six kids - the first four of us within five years - to do what we were told. I know my mother would roll her eyes at the mere mention of a sticker chart!

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  23. Thank God someone else is also still giving a sippy of milk at naptime. I weighed tooth rot vs. screaming instead of napping and opted for tooth rot. At least it is an informed decision!

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  24. In the time to pick up Meazi video, "Wavelength" is playing in the background and I havent heard it for 100 years and I'm so glad you reminded me. Same with dweller on the threshhold - thank God I didn't listen to that while I was waiting. I forgot that it existed. Thanks for the remiders. Cupcakes, lollipops and tapioca are the most effective motivators in our house these days. Every day. It's bad.

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