Every morning, DanPar and Crash wake up, usually between 5 and 6, and sneak downstairs while we're still snuggled up in bed, either with Echo or still snoozing from a night dealing with Echo. They come down to find a small breakfast, normally a couple peanut butter jelly sandwiches with fruit and water. They'll make a mess of things, but it's worth the extra hour of sleep. Then they'll run over to the living room, dump out ALL of the Duplos, and start playing with them. Sometimes they'll get into little fights, but they handle themselves all right.
Inevitably, however, I'll need to come down, round them up, change them out of their wet diapers, and make sure they did a good job with breakfast. Then it's me time. Coffee, bathroom, clothes. In that order. Coffee, man. Really clears away the cobwebs.
When Jessi comes down, it's usually the time when the boys and I are heading out the door to do some shopping or something. The boys tend to get antsy after being stuck at home, and so I do what I can to try and encourage Jessi to get up and moving without being pushy. (Although I tend to be a little pushy.)
Because the boys go to bed around noon, we end up doing a very short shopping trip or going to a storytime at the library, and then coming home soon afterwards for lunch. After lunch, the boys head upstairs for a nap, which usually means playing around for an hour or so, getting a talking-to, and finally nodding off.
Jessi and I tend to busy ourselves with projects. Cleaning, putting away laundry (SO MUCH LAUNDRY), and I've got three books I'm currently editing! Also, I'm working on a story-by-mail with a few other people, called The Consul's Destiny. It's a lot of fun, because it's the sort of thing that I can enjoy imagining about when my head hits the pillow. If you ask me, everyone should have a thing to daydream about. And personally, I like planning out these daydreams.
When the boys wake up from their nap, we've got just enough time to play at home, but it doesn't work well with going shopping or running errands, so we spend good quality time reading, and playing together, much more than in the morning, when my priorities are more on getting my bearings. The boys love to play, love to laugh, and love to have fun.
Dinner comes, and we usually have something ordinary and less-than-homemade. We make rice sometimes, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, the sort of things that are very low-effort to cook. Honestly, we need to start getting into a better rhythm, but it's tricky. Jessi's picky, DanPar's picky, Crash Boy likes to make messes, and I tend to not eat. (Part of my Sad Woody Diet.)
The sun goes down, the boys go upstairs to play/sleep, and Jessi and I move onto more quiet projects. Some putting things away, writing, and, when we're all done, we're tired, Echo's awake, and we watch Call The Midwife on Netflix. We're in a pattern where we tend to go to sleep late, because when Echo falls asleep around 9, it's so nice to spend that time awake and doing things, and every day feels like a weekend to me, because Jessi doesn't work the next day!
It's been a lot of fun, and it doesn't seem all that hard, these three boys. I'm sure I'm wrong, but I'm happy right now!
