Clean!

Just some late night rambling...a lot of it was typed one handed...you've been warned...

All I wanted to do today was clean the bathrooms.  Ironically, I was cleaning them because we have guest coming in this weekend, and they are coming to help and do things like, oh, clean.  But the bathroom were toxic.  They hadn't been cleaned since we last had help in town, so I thought I would at least remove the outermost layer of ick and make sure they didn't smell.  The hardest part of the process is scrubbing the tub in the master bathroom.  We have a garden tub (love it!  People always say you will never use it, but when all is well, I'm sitting in that tub at least once a week.  It is what got me through this last pregnancy.), and it is a pain to clean.  Partly because I am short, and it is really hard for me to stand on the bathroom floor, reach across the tub, and clean the bathroom.  It's also a pain because it's one of those one-piece things instead of tile (very technical terms here), and it's made of some weird plastic that dirt and mold cling too.  You have to SCRUB it to get everything off.  But I had already cleaned that last week, so the hard part was done.  This actually seemed like a chore that could be accomplished.

For most of day, I really didn't think it would happen.  Looking back, I have no idea what we really did today.  The kids did all get haircuts.  Jeff decided to take a turn at trying to cut Michael's hair.  Michael has a lot of hair.  That is all there is to it.  And he actually sat pretty still for Jeff, so he got a lollipop at the end of his haircut.  After that, Leon and Ree, of course, demanded haircuts so they could get lollipops.  Leon's was funny.  I had just cut his hair a couple of weeks ago, so all I could do was cut off his curls.  When we were done the floor was covered in little circles and "C"s of hair.  Ree got a much-needed trim on the back.  One of these years the side that she cut herself last fall should finally catch up with the hair in the back.

After the haircuts, I gave Michael a bath since he was COVERED in hair trimmings. While he was in the tub, I started cleaning the bathroom.  Before long, he had a potty emergency.  The good news is that he recognized he had to go and was able to hold it.  The bad news was that he didn't want to use the potty, so I had to stop cleaning and hurry up and wash him so we could get a diaper on before he had an accident.  (Michael is definitely a candidate for the cold turkey, throw away the diapers and just wear underwear method of potty training.)

I thought I would quickly finish cleaning that bathroom after his bath, but I realized it was already 12:15, and the kids usually eat lunch by 11:30 on the days when I'm making food.  (Oddly, they don't eat until at least 12:30 or 1:00 on daddy days.)  I did finish cleaning that bathroom while the kids ate. 

By the time I was ready to sit down and eat lunch while the kids finished, Natalia was ready to eat.  Actually, now I know what I did most of the day.  I fed Natalia.  Same thing I've done all day every day this week.  I've been told babies have growth spurts on the "3's and 6's" meaning the growth spurts occur at 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months.  Apparently she got the memo, since she turned 6 weeks today.  The days are running together now, so I'm not sure when it happened, but after two nights of sleeping well, she got hungry.  That third night she ate on and off all evening, with more time on than off.  Then she ate from 8:00 - 10:00 p.m.  Continuously.  I went to make some breadsticks because I was a bit exhausted from all that life sustaining.  Before the things came out of the oven (and they only baked for 10 minutes!) she was up again, and she ate for another hour and a half.  Got up twice during the night to eat too, and was up for the day at eating at 7:15. 

Today was more of the same.  As a result, baths were late, and instead of getting everyone tucked in by 8:00 or 8:30 at the latest, it was 9:10 when I finally got Ree to bed.  Went to clean our bathroom, but Natalia needed to eat again, despite Jeff having just given her a bottle while I helped Ree get ready for bed.  While I was feeding her, totally zoned out and watched Million Dollar Listing on Bravo.  What a worthless show, but it gave me the motivation I needed to clean.  Finished feeding Natalia, tucked her into the swing (yes, she too has become a swing sleeper), and gave the bathroom a 5-minute cleaning.  The day was a success.