Captain Parent
A modern family Brady-Bunch-ing it up with chaos and style.
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A Day in the Life

4/29/2013

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Since I can't really find a good place to start... I'll just start with today:
A normal Monday:

8:15 get up {late} scream at kids to get dressed. 
8:16 Oil my brand-spankin-new-tattoo as it is burny and unhappy
8:19 Send them back to their dressers for clothes that match
8:30 breakfast, pack lunch, fill out camp forms for Ramona
8:57 leave for Ramona drop off
9:32 started making this blog, interrupted by Baby a dozen times as she proudly wielded her new baby sign for "milk" and nursed for appx 33.4 seconds each time.
10:13 Baby Pooped! {a celebratory occasion for the constipated lil thing}
10:15 Baby Nap! {must've been a tough poo}
10:16 returned to blog, only to be distracted by Facebook {Funny memes!}
11:30 Oil tattoo again. Owie.
11:45 Leave to go get Hulk from preschool
12:20 return home and started this blog post
*** what the rest of the day will look like:
soonish- Make lunch
after that- Baby Nap!
During baby nap- clean the kitchen, living room, and do laundry
3:15 leave to go get Ramona
4:00ish Matt home
4:01ish Kate jumps in shower 
5:00 dinner prep
5:45 leave to visit new birth client
5:46 forget my wallet, run back inside
6:00 Matt shovels dinner in the kids
7:15 Girls' dad comes to get them 
7:20 Matt takes Hulk and baby back to his apartment 
8:00 Kate returns home to Matt's apartment because we stay there during the days the older girls are with their dad. 

Mondays are bittersweet... I kiss the girls goodbye for 3 nights and I have to pack up all my stuff to re-home the baby and I at Matt's place. We are easing the children into what a blended family will feel like. This means baby steps:
- Hulk began attending the same preschool as Princess and he is with me in the afternoons now. 
- The three nights per week that Ramona and Princess are with their dad, Baby and I stay with Matt and Hulk. This is so Hulk can get used to seeing me in the mornings as well as giving him more exposure to the willfull destruction tactics of a spunky one year old. 
- Hulk has begun to stay the night at my house randomly. We let him stay here at his request for a "sleepover" a few times per month. He has his own bed here (in the same place his bed will be located in September when they move into this house) and so far, this has gone swimmingly!
- Matt has stayed over once now, and the girls were excited to see him here in the morning. 

We are working towards easing the kids into a blended family. For the most part, we follow their lead and when we notice that one (or some) of them is acting out or tells us that they need more time with just their parent, we oblige. We are taking it day by day and sometimes, hour by hour!  All of the children have their own set of changes happening in their life and in their developmental stage so being aware and observant is our number one priority. 

And with that, I need to go make lunch! Baby is eating half a chocolate bunny and I'm not sure where she got it... ew!
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Happy Anniversary

4/26/2013

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How does a couple celebrating six months together find a moment to breathe (and maybe even sneak a kiss!) when they are at a gigantic indoor water park surrounded by swimsuit-clad children screeching for "ONE MORE TIME!" down the Crazy Rapids Slide and waving MagicQuest wands at each other/the walls/their own foreheads/my coffee?

The answer:  Whenever you can. Part of making any relationship that involves children survivable is making sure you take time for yourselves as a couple. Everyone knows that, but it's much easier said than done. 

We snuck a lovely few moments of peace during breakfast in our hotel room on the first day. The kids were happy playing and eating inside so we snuck to the balcony with our Starbucks and a pile of bacon and fruit while we listened to the soft rushing of the interstate through the trees just past the parking lot... we pretended it was a meadow and the interstate was a river. It totally worked. 

Being that Friday was our 6month-aversary, we decided to steal some "us" time Thursday evening after bedtime. Ahhh... bedtime... that blissful moment when the children are quiet, and the adults can collapse on the stupid-small hotel room couch and steal a moment. So here we sat: pruny-fingered, smelling of chlorine and exhausted yet so blissfully happy that we had found a moment. We flicked on the hotel room fireplace, popped the bottle of overpriced {and sadly disgusting} "Great Wolf Lodge" private label red wine and curled up on the floor. I dug out the 70% dark chocolate bar I'd snagged at Whole Foods in an attempt to be romantic AND Paleo.  

We toasted us, we toasted happiness and what a gift it is that we found each other at the moment in our life that we did. We never talk of "oh I wish I'd found you sooner" because we firmly believe in wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuffs and wouldn't dream of messing with the time streams our lives have followed thus far. We are grateful to be where we are and thankful for all we've learned. Six months in... and a lifetime ahead. 
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    Picture

    The Captains

    Matt- 
    Project manager, guitar playing, iOS lover, Catholic, paleo-eating, crossfit-doing rockstar daddy.

    Kate-
    Birth Doula, childbirth educator, sings in the shower, liberal, Catholic-ish, Android lover, cupcake baker, toddler-park-chaser, super mommy.

    The Crew:

    Picture
    "Boozer"
    (the nickname she's had since she was a baby)
    Kate's eldest, an avid reader, appendectomy-survivor, vegetable loving wonder-child. She will let you know amazing things about life if you can spare a few minutes to listen.

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    "Bean"
    (His baby name, "Mean Bean" depending on his mood...)
    Matt's little man, Aptly defined as "Boy. (n); a noise with dirt on it" As well as a smile as bright as an exloding star and giggles more infectious than MRSA. He's like a dirty-noisy-MRSA-star. 

    Picture
    "Bucket" 
    (the nickname she's had since she was a toddler, since it sounds like one of my favorite literary characters when proceeded by her name "_____ Bucket")
    Kate's Middle Girl, a tomboy in princess gear who is rougher, tougher and dirtier than the other three combined. She's also a Jedi. 

    Picture
    "Bit"
    (also "Little Bit")
    Kate's baby girl. I think she has an actual name but being the youngest, it (and she) is often forgotten. We normally find her on top of tables and chairs and fireplaces and swingsets. Often wearing a diaper. occasionally not. She is brilliant and cute and scares the everlovin' shite out of us. 

    Picture
    "Bear"
    (aka "_____ Bear")
    The "glue baby" who holds all of us together... the only genetic child Matt and Kate have together, Elijah is a joyful little man who has blessed our family in many many ways in his short time here so far...

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