12/5/06 Mom gets away with it.

[ Technical difficulties made it impossible to post last night...and it's still not working from IE today, but sort-of is with Firefox? Dunno. ]

My first full day as a single mom...I got away with it!

I got to sleep late this morning, until 7:30am. Wow! The boys were up before then of course, playing together. If I'd been awake, I'd have been alarmed by them counting down in unison: "10, 9, 8...!" (and indeed, they were making cars "fly".) Still, I got them dressed and fed by 8:10am. I got away with it!

This early start let me go to the Y and get in a good hour's workout. Katrina slept the whole time in the Childwatch. I got away with it!


At home, I managed to squeeze in a shower and breakfast while Julian played with a map-of-the-USA puzzle, which kept him busy for a long time. A shower, and food?! I got away with it!

He loves this puzzle, and likes to ask which each state is, and if we know anyone who lives there.

Usually he knows who lives in New York and Pennsylvania; I'm not sure why he forgot in this little clip:


Julian's geography

[ More technical difficulties: Blogger doesn't like the HTML that YouTube provides to embed this clip, though I never had problems when composing with IE. Something about cutting-and-pasting into Firefox, i guess ]

After picking up Gabriel from pre-K, I decided not to run an errand in Los Gatos, but instead to grocery-shop. With all 3! I had the boys carry canvas grocery bags, and despite an extremely inconvenient detour to a bathroom, it worked out without any major disasters. I got away with it!

At home, I was torn with the max 7 minutes I expected of Katrina's sleep after the grocery outing. Should I scarf lunch? Unpack groceries? Return phone calls? Work on Julian's nap? That was the most important, not easy since he and Gabriel got ensconced in something. But I managed to distract Julian enough to get him in the living room and read him a book and get him down for a nap without event. I got away with it!

Dinnertime didn't start off well, with the boys utterly ignoring me when I announced it was time to go pee (a new rule, as Julian ALWAYS has to interrupt dinner to go, and Gabriel ALWAYS wiggles his way through dinner) and wash hands before dinner.

So I tried something different. I got two plates and put four cookies on each one and showed them to the boys. All ears now. Then I told them that these were their cookies for after dinner -- but only if they listened to me, behaved themselves, and ate their dinner. Any time they disobeyed, I'd take away a cookie. Now go wash your hands. Gabriel started to resist, but as soon as I reached for his cookie plate, he cried, "NO!" and RAN to the bathroom. Julian lost a cookie during dinner for blowing bubbles in his milk (after 3 warnings to stop), but other than that, the visual incentive worked well.

I swore I'd never lie to my kids...but do lies of omission count? Gabriel asked what something was on his plate, and I told him it was a "filet." I left out the little detail that it was fish (breaded cod from Trader Joe's). Julian loved it and wanted more; Gabriel ate his only on threat of not getting his cookies, but he didn't complain. They ate fish -- I got away with it!

Katrina woke up during the boys' bath, but I was able to hold her until she got fussy, then put her down again. Then she woke up right as I was done putting them to bed, which was complete by 8:10pm. I got away with it!

As I type, Katrina's still not down for the count; waking up crying and not nursing, not needing to be changed, not being distracted by entertainment -- not needing anything that I can find, except to go back to sleep. Still, I managed to get this far in this message....I got away with it!

12/5/06