Yes, I am actually updating my blog! It is 9:13pm and I am awake! This may have something to do with the fact that my mom just sent a big care package complete with Hershey Minatures and York Peppermint Patties amongst a plethora of other "comfort" food. I feel like a kid at Halloween or Templeton the Rat from Charollette's Web when he goes to the carnival. Anyhow needless to say I am enjoy the treats! Although I am trying to pace myself.
Anyway, over the past month or so I have been surprised to find out how many people read my blog and are actually interested in it. I have received most of the comments not on here, but in my personal e-mail. Lately the biggest request is that people want to know what a typical day is for me. So here it goes, I hope I don't bore you!
I am up anywhere between 3:30am and 7:30am depending on how the twins are sleeping. Sometimes I get lucky and go back to sleep somewhere in between there. Usually I am up around 6:00am and if I am lucky I can check my e-mail before I start getting everyone ready so that I can take S to gan. Gan starts at 8:00am, but I have until 9:00am to get him there. I usually get there around 9:10am. It usually takes around 2 hours to get everyone dressed, fed and organized. Then I come home and the immediate goal is to get the twins down for a nap. Y has been a shoe-in lately and is deseperate for a nap around 9:00am, so he is usually easy. Then on a good day he sleeps until about 11:30a or noon. This leaves me and M. If she is cooperating she just hangs out with me while I get chores done. If not, then I spend a majority of the morning holding and nursing her and just trying to get her down. On a good day we hang out and I do dishes, laundry and general housekeeping and chores. On an unproductive day, we just hang out until Y. wakes up and it is time to get S. from gan. Gan ends at 1:20pm. We start getting ready to leave at 1:00pm as it takes me 20min. to get everyone organized and out the door. In warmer weather it doesn't take so long, but with winter it means bundling everyone in hats and coats and socks and slippers........When we get home from gan it is movie time. I usually pop in S's favorite movie of the week and I get the twins settled down and maybe finish some chores or I just hang out with S and watch the movie. He likes it when I do that. After the movie we play, read or whatever, then by 4:00pm I am starting dinner, we eat around 4:30p-5:00p and then by the time dinner is done, it is time to start getting ready for bed and everyone is in bed between 6:30-7:00pm. This includes mommy a lot! It is not often I am up past my kids anymore and I have frequently woken up to find messages on my answering machine because I did not hear the phone ring as I was already asleep!
Although it seems I don't do much with my day, it goes fast! Or really long depending on what kind of a mood everyone is in! Tues. are long in the morning but fast in the evening. Tues. D. comes home at 3:30pm so I spend the morning counting down until he gets home and reinforcements arrive and then it seems as soon as he is home the night is already gone!
Wednesdays are also good days as I get help from 4:00-6:00p from 2 neighbor girls that help me out for free. They voluntarily come and help clean up the house or watch the kids or run errands for me. This is really amazing and I am grateful to them every week for showing up and doing something so kind for absolutely nothing in return. I hope to find a good way to thank them at the end of the year for all their help.
One thing I should add to my schedule is that D. spends Sun night-Tues. in Jerusalem and then Wed. night there too, so the majority of the week I am a single parent. I see him Thurs. 10:00pm-Sun. 6:45am and Tues. 3:30p-Wed. 6:45am. So our time together goes fast and I am in bed early a lot as 1) I am wiped out and 2) I don't have the incentive to stay up since it is just me. Although every now and then I do stay up late, like tonight and do my blog, etc. or I will put in a movie that David doesn't want to see. Although even that is hard to stay awake for!
So that is what a day in the life of the Jensens is like. Not very exciting or exotic. Just life.
Although I am getting very excited as in a week my mom and my Aunt E. will be here for just under 2 weeks! Hurray! Not only do I get help, but this will be a vacation for me as well as we will be staying 1 night up North and 3 nights in Jerusalem. This means, I get free baby sitting and no cooking or cleaning while we are gone! Hurray! The last time I got a vacation is when my mom and dad came same time last year. I am really excited also for my mom to see how big the twins have gotten since she has not seen them since theywere new borns and I am excited for my Aunt E. to see the twins as this will be her first time. And also it has been a year and a half since she saw S. and he has of course changed a lot. I love having everyone come and visit of course because then I don't feel so far away, but then it is hard when everyone leaves as it makes me very home sick. I get used to being away from everyone and just knowing that I am not near them, then I see everyone and it is really hard to be away again. But it is the "nature of the beast" so to speak and part of our choice of living all the way over here in Israel instead of down the street from family. I don't regret our choice to live here, it is just that everything has an upside and a downside, and being away from friends and family is the downside. Especially like two weeks ago when I got really sick and D. had to take time off to run the house while I was sick with the flu and bronchial infection. When my sister was sick she could send A. to grandma and grandpa so he wouldn't get it and she could recover. When I am sick D. takes time off work and we hope no else gets sick. That is another moment in time when I am really sorry we don't live near family.
Since I have not updated things in a while I give quick milestones on the kids and then I am off to bed. It really is past my bed time!
Y. is crawling/scooting and comes to look for me if I am not in the room. He is also quite the little butterball and can where 12mo. clothes, although some are still a bit big on him. He loves food, except oatmeal. But his favorites are cookie biscuits, french fries and bread. He has 2 bottom teeth and is ticklish and loves to watch S.
M. is not crawling or sitting up yet, but she does scoot, mostly backwards and tends to back herself into a corner, literaly and then I have to come rescue her. She is starting to laugh and be ticklish. She also has 2 bottom teeth. And although it is not the same she does like watching S. too. She is getting into food some, her favorites are pudding, yogurt and cookie biscuits. She does eat oatmeal though unlike Y. Although she is hitting most of the same benchmarks as Y. her biggest difference is she is not aggresive in her actions and is more content to watch everything. She is not in a hurry to do things or get anywhere. She is more content to wait for you to come to her. It is interesting seeing the differences in the kids. Male vs. female and just the fact that even though they are the same age, they have very different personalities and capabilities.
S. is learning more hebrew and is starting to speak it at home more. I am still way behind in that dept. The gannenet has finally quit giving us a list of all his faults. I think it helped that we spoke with one of the psychologists in the Education dept. who happens to be our neighbor. Although she is not the person we would normaly speak with, they chose her as she is American and speaks fluent hebrew and english. I think she was able to explain to S.'s gannenet that he is fine for his age and that some of the things she thought were going on weren't. Basically cleared up some miscommunication due to poor language skills on both parts. I think also it was explained to her that he is one of the youngest in his class, so his skills were different then where she thought they should be. Over all everyone is much happier these days and we don't cringe when we have to pick him up from gan now. Much better. In other things, S. loves his siblings and gets concerned when they cry and is excited when they do something new. He is so excited to come and get me when Y. is standing or crawling or doing something else new. He loves to dance for Y. and get a reaction out of him too. He will also pick things up for them if they drop cups, etc. from their chair, etc. He really loves them and it is great to see. He is getting to be such a little man over all it is fun to watch. But exhausting too as he is too smart for his own good, trying to get things out of the oven or cook hotdogs on the stove! We are grateful he has not figured out how to turn the stove on! Although he can light matches. We have them hidden high up now!
OK I am being paged gotta run.
Have a good day!
Alina
1 comment:
A, Well done article. It explains your family's operation well. I suppose it will seem, not so long from now, everything will have calmed down to the point where you have time to miss the rush. Thanks for writing and keeping us all in the loop. Take care and best wishes to everyone!
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