Tuesday: The Hour-by-Hour Breakdown

5:30: Awakened by a very happy Jack Henry, who apparently believes that this is an appropriate time to wake up in the morning. He wants to play. I don’t. I’m able to pseudo-entertain him while still half asleep. Jack suffers his first tiny injury by crawling right into the corner of a shelf we have in our room.

7:00 hour: Big boys wake up too. I drag myself out of bed…It’s time for breakfast.

8:00 hour: Jack goes down for an early nap, as he’s ready, and he’s got an appointment at 9am. Keep the big boys busy while I clean up the kitchen and get the laundry started.

9:00 hour: Wake a soundly-sleeping Jack Henry, which goes against everything I stand for. Jack Henry has his InfantSEE appointment, and everything is fine. I decide that a quick trip to Kohl’s would work, as I have needed to return 3 things there for about 3 weeks. Because I have no common sense or self-control, I also decide that I could just real quick try on 2 pairs of capris (hideous) and 2 sundresses, hoping I really liked one of them to wear to Matt’s class reunion next month. Not only did I not like them, but I had to try to corral Luke and Bennett, who were complete monkeys in the dressing room. I buy nothing.

10:00 hour (actually, a little before) through 11:00 hour: Home. It’s such a beautiful morning that I want to plant some of the hostas I bought last weekend (at a garage sale…can you believe that? This woman had about a million hostas in her yard, so she divided them up and stuck them in pots and sold them for $4 a piece. They’re huge, and they look great). The boys have to help with their little shovels, which is cute for a while, and then just kind of in the way. About that time, they start dragging out all of their toys from the garage, which was fine with me because they stayed busy while I worked. Jack Henry hung out in his stroller, just watching and perfectly happy. I planted 4 hostas around the mailbox. Project Outside Beautification is coming along OK (I’ll take pictures of some of the stuff later).

12:00 hour: Lunchtime! Both boys are famished from a lack of snack + outside playtime. They eat huge plates of food. I freak out thinking about feeding 3 teenaged boys someday. Jack Henry goes down for a nap at the end of the hour.

1:00 hour: Haircuts for the boys are in order. Really, only Luke needs one, but Bennett hates to be left out of the “fun,” so I trim the back part of his hair, too. This is followed by showers for the boys, and naptime for them as well, since we’re going to the Cardinal game tonight.

2:00 hour: Quiet, as Jack and Bennett are sleeping (that sound you hear is angels singing). I want to fall asleep, but instead start blogging this post between loads of laundry.

3:00 hour: Shower and get ready for the game.

4:00 hour: Get everything ready for the game…we have a tradition where the boys eat apple slices and drink milk on the way to the stadium, and then I don’t care that they have nachos and Sprite and whatever else for dinner. Pack up Jack’s bag and pack-n-play because…

5:00 hour: … we have to take Jack Henry to his sitters’ place. Raise your hand if you can think of a less-fun outing with children than one that involves holding a fat, sweaty baby on your lap. I can’t think of one either. A sweet couple from our young marrieds group volunteered to keep him for us…HUGE THANKS to the Shepards. Now, we can have a good time with the two older boys

6:00 hour: Leave Jack Henry with the Shepards. He doesn’t freak out, thankfully, or mama’s heart might’ve broken. Meet Matt at the Stan the Man statue, which is a totally original idea that no one else has ever thought of (I did mention this fact to Matt before going to the game, for the record…but we had no trouble spotting him). Walk nearly the entire perimeter of the stadium.

7:00 hour: Eat lots of junk food, and root for our Cards! Spend an entire inning convincing Bennett that Adam Kennedy is not playing this game. Shoot Matt a look that says, “Thank God Jack Henry isn’t here” as there is a crying baby behind us.

8:00 hour: Luke is STILL EATING. It took him like half an hour, but he finished an entire pretzel himself after eating half a thing of nachos. Bennett is starting to do his “crazy laugh,” a sure sign that we don’t have much time left. I attempt to explain the idiocy of the designated hitter to Luke, who is very confused about National League/American League/the minors to begin with. (The only reason this even came up was that he noticed that the pitcher’s stats were all zeros when he came up to bat the first time…the kid doesn’t miss a beat where baseball stats are concerned.)

9:00 hour: Leave the ballpark, with the game tied. Shortly after, KC scores and ends up winning 2-1. Go back to the Shepards’ to get Jack Henry, who is sound asleep. Totally crack up at Erin asking me, “Does he have a thing for cords?” because he. is. obsessed. He can find any cord, anywhere. Thankfully, it sounds like he was a good boy for them!

10:00 hour: Listen to incessant talking from the boys on the way home, on totally random subjects. Nearly lose my mind…this is a good reminder as to why we put them to bed by 8pm most nights. Finally get everyone in bed around 10:30, and tell them that tomorrow, it won’t be morning until 9am.

11:00 hour: Crawl to bed, thankful for a full day.