24 Hours In Texas

So Em posted a very fun post on her blog. She posted pictures and a little "24 hours with the cutest baby ever" for all of us to spend a day with them. I love, love, loved it. It was such a great way to document a typical day of parenthood, and will be a great memory for Carsen later on. Em, you should really do that every 3 or 4 months - you'll love it!
So I decided to take some inspiration from Em and do a little post for the girls to see someday.

I'm doing a 7pm to 7pm day. 7pm is bedtime in our house, so I thought it would be a good jumping-off point. Note that some of the pictres were taken from my cell-phone, so they're a little grainy.

7pm - Monday night: Molly heads to bed and Daddy and Lucy settle in for some Candyland.

Mommy chooses to ignore the dinner dishes and settles in to watch The Bachelorette.

7:30pm - Bedtime for Lucy!

9pm - The Bachelorette is over and rather than my taking that bath I was hoping for, Andrew and I settle in for PBS Documentary fun and catch a special on The Donner Party. Riveting. We eat homemade popsicles on the couch and snuggle while we learn about desperate cannibalism.

10:30 - We head to bed after the Sippy Cup Roundup. Andrew passes out quickly while I check on babies, check on Facebook and check to make sure the doors are locked.

2am - Lucy is up, wondering if it's "Good Morning time." Umm...no.

4:45 am - Lucy comes to bed with us and snoozes for another couple of hours.

6:45am - Lucy is up for the day and asking for her waffle and milk.

7am: Cookie-packing time. If we want to get it all packed safely, it has to be while Molly is sleeping!  You'll notice last night's outfit still in the highchair. The Donner party was just that interesting.

These particular cookies are for a surprise 40th birthday party in Kentucky. Whee!

7:30am: Check on the interwebz before Molly wakes up. This always consists of talking with Nina first thing and saying good morning to Facebook.

8am: The Jester is up and ready to rumble. I head in to take pictures before she's fully conscious. Always strike when defenses are down, right? Molly always sleeps straight through the night, no messing around.

Molly always grabs the closest music-making toy in her bed to bring with her into the day. So cute.

As soon as she's more awake, she's asking for Lucy and a waffle of her own.

8:30am: Lucy is playing on Playhouse Disney - Molly observes while she munches. Breakfast time is a very casual thing at Cooke House. It almost always consists of a waffle straight out of the toaster, a banana straight out of the peel or cereal straight out of the box. I hate wiping hands before 9am...

While Molly is distracted, I heat up some breakfast for myself. A Muffin Melt and leftover Ranch potatoes from last night's dinner. A perfect way to start my morning.

While I eat, Molly enjoys Second Breakfast. 

8:45am: Molly and I head to the shower while Lucy plays on the computer. No pictures. Tee hee. 

9am: We're out the door QUICK. I throw the girls into their clothes and plan to do my makeup at stoplights. 

Molly has found the rest of her waffle and takes it for the road.

9:05am - We swing into the Post Office to send the cookies to Kentucky.

9:30am: We stop at a friend's house for a meeting with our new babysitting co-op.

11:30am - We leave the meeting/playdate right at lunchtime. I decide this is a perfect time to shop for a purse. Naturally.

We go to Sam Moon. My first time. Whaaaaaaat?!?!? This place is wild. Hair bows, fake hairs, costume jewelry and knockoff handbags everywhere. Molly freaks. She screams like a banshee through the entire store. I pretend I don't know her.
When we get back to the car, I stop the sobbing with lollipops.

Molly passes out, lollipop in hand. Lucy then begs me to take them out for lunch. Naturally. Her reasons? "I want to eat good food, not at home, in a chair." I remember my free lunch coupon for Quiznos and we stop in.

12:15pm: I wake the baby and we head in for lunch.

Molly eats most of my salad and insists on her own cup of Raspberry Lemonade. Too cute. Lucy eats like a champ. I wonder to myself, "Would they last through a Kohl's trip?" I give Lucy the option. She opts for an early nap. We're home by 12:45 and everyone hops into bed.

3:30pm: Lucy shuffles out of her room and we decide that Mommy should not skip Spin class tonight. So we decide to get gym clothes on and be ready to head out when Molly wakes up. I throw together a chicken and cheese quesadilla for the girls to share, wherever we may be at dinner time.

4pm: Molly is finally up from her nap. We jump back into the car and head to Kohl's. I can't decide between two bags. I text this pic to Katherine.

She says yellow. It does look yellow in the picture, but it's actually camel brown. I pick that one and it's 50% off, so I grab two breezy looking shirts off a rack without trying them on. I'll let you know how that goes.

New bag is roomy and cute.

4:45pm: We head to the gym, about 5 minutes away from Kohl's.

Yay for healthy living!

6:45pm: We're back in the car and headed home. We swing by the bank to pay a bill and pull into the driveway at 6:55. The girls have an official dinner when we arrive home.

Lucy throws a tantrum over Daddy's unwillingness to play Hi-Ho Cheerio. They play the game while they watch a documentary on gorillas. 

And that, my friends, is 24 hours at Cooke House.


(I should note here, publicly, that my children don't usually eat this chaotically or to such an unhealthy degree. Save for  Tuesdays and Thursdays, we eat at home as a family and we almost always have lunch at home. Tuesdays and Thursdays are our "crazy" days and we tend to eat whatever crosses our path, as time is crunched and everyone is rushed.)