One day in my life

I am a stay-at-home mom with two children (Aiden, 3 years old and Evan 11 months old) and I also babysit. It's pretty crazy around my house. Here is how my day went today:

I woke up at 5:23 am because Evan was hungry. I crawled over my snoring husband and out of bed. As I made my way into the boys' room I tripped over a toy, causing me to hop around cursing silently. I got Evan out of bed and walked to the kitchen, made him a bottle, and sat down on the couch. I turned on Netflix and began watching Season 4 of Weeds as I fed Evan. At 5:58 am I put the sleeping baby back into bed and began to clean.

The house was a mess! I washed dishes, swept and mopped the floors, put a load of laundry on to wash, and cleaned out the highchairs. Then I lit a candle and started making breakfast...strawberry cheesecake muffins! It was now 7:26 and Stephanie just arrived with her two little darling daughters, Jaidyn (2 years old) and Tailyn (6 months old). Jaidyn threw a tiny fit when her Mommy left, but quickly got over it.

Aiden soon woke up and walked into the living room. He looked at Jaidyn and said "Good god! You woke me up. Be quiet!" This made Jaidyn mad and she started yelling back at him. They squabbled at each other for about 5 minutes, until Evan woke up. By now my muffins were done cooking and had already cooled off. I put Evan in his highchair and put Jai and Aiden in their chairs at the table. We all enjoyed out muffins until Aiden spilled his milk on Jaidyn and she started crying. I got them away from the table and cleaned them off. All this was done with Tailyn strapped to my chest in a "baby vest." Then the chaos began...

Aiden had to go potty and he left the bathroom door open. Evan walked in the bathroom and threw his toy in the toilet. Jaidyn wanted milk, took two sips of it and said she wanted Kool-aid. I was out of Kool-aid so I had to make more. Tailyn knocked over the sugar and while I was sweeping it up, Evan was chasing me around the kitchen trying to lick the broom. I poured them all a glass of freshly made Kool-aid and turned on Toy Story 3. They watched the movie for about 20 minutes and then began running around like wild turkeys. As I was feeding Tailyn, Jaidyn said she needed to go potty and I had a repeat of the previous activities; get Evan out of the bathroom, fish the toys out of the toilet...

Evan got jealous of Tailyn and started trying to pull her out of my arms. I picked him up and walked around with both of them until Evan hit Tailyn in the head. Aiden and Jaidyn pulled out half of my baby wipes trying to turn their toys into ghosts. I needed some sort of break, so I sat them all at the table for an early lunch. I made the mistake of giving them sugar cookies for desert and they were now covered in orange frosting. Evan walked into the coffee table and now has a huge bump on his head. Tailyn is hungry again and Jaidyn and Aiden wont stop screaming.

Finally, they are quiet enough for me to put Tailyn to sleep. I get them to lay down on the couch for nap time. Jaidyn passed clean out in less than 5 minutes. Aiden, however, wont lay still. He keeps kicking his feet and flinging his hands around. I somehow rock Evan to sleep and put him in bed. Aiden fell asleep and is now drooling on my pillow. I sit down on the couch and sigh...It's 11:11 am and I still have 2 hours before Stephanie gets here to pick up her girls.

How I manage to do this every day is a miracle. And today was actually a lot calmer than normal. I love my "job" and wouldn't have it any other way! Next week I start babysitting Kyleigh who is 2 months older than Aiden. This should be interesting...