All Before 8:00?
by
Laurie Larsen
You know
that Army saying -- "We do more before 8:00 than most people do all
day"? I'd be willing to place
a typical morning schedule in our household up against the Army's any day!
Take this
morning, for example:
3:30
AM : Jeffrey
crying. Laurie goes into his room,
he's standing in his crib. Bad
sign. If he weren't standing, he
may have been persuaded to go back to sleep.
3:35
AM: Laurie
begins the rocking/singing/back-rubbing routine.
3:50
AM: Jeffrey
still not asleep, Laurie gives in and brings Jeffrey into her bed.
Norm moves into the spare bed in Little Norm's room to make room for
Jeffrey.
4:20
AM: Jeffrey
finally falls asleep.
4:50
AM: Little
Norm wakes Norm up to tell him he wet his bed.
Norm takes Little Norm into
the bathroom and does a quick sponge bath, takes sheets off the bed and throws them down the laundry chute.
5:00
AM: Little
Norm gets into spare bed with Norm and goes back to sleep.
5:30
AM: Alarm
rings for Laurie. She gets Norm out
of the spare bed, he gets into the big bed with
Jeffrey. Laurie takes shower.
5:45
AM: Norm
remembers he was supposed to go to the store last night to get formula and
diapers, and didn't. He brings
Jeffrey into the bathroom with Laurie and leaves to go
to store.
6:00
AM: Laurie
is drying her hair and putting makeup on while trying to entertain a wet, hungry
and tired baby.
6:15
AM: Norm
is on his way to the second store, after finding out the first one doesn't open till
7:00 AM.
6:35
AM: Laurie
is done with hair and makeup. Norm
walks in with the fortifications.
6:40
AM: Jeffrey
is changed and happily sucking down a bottle.
Little Norm wakes up and
goes
downstairs to play. Norm goes to
the garage to change cat litter box and take garbage
out for Garbage Day.
6:45
AM: Little
Norm comes upstairs to go the bathroom.
6:50
AM: Norm
comes in from the garage, ready to take his shower.
He walks by the bathroom and notices Little
Norm has dumped a large quantity of toilet paper down the
toilet. Norm flushes and the
inevitable happens: the toilet
overflows. The
plunger is nowhere around, so Norm has
no choice but to plunge his hand down the
toilet and grab the offending paper out.
6:55
AM: Norm
yells for 5 minutes straight.
7:00
AM: Norm
gets bucket and mop and mops bathroom floor.
Laurie exits stage right and goes upstairs
to get dressed.
7:10
AM: Laurie
gets Little Norm dressed, and gets coats on.
Laurie starts load of laundry consisting of wet sheets, mattress pad and
wet, offending bathroom towels.
7:15
AM: Norm
is done mopping and goes upstairs to take a shower.
Laurie gets both kids in
the car and starts the drive to daycare.
7:25
AM: Enroute,
Little Norm threatens that he's going to throw up in the car.
Laurie drives faster.
7:30
AM: Laurie
arrives at daycare. Drops Jeffrey
off, takes his coat off, talks to his
teacher, gets him set up with a toy,
kisses him good-bye. Goes to Norm's
classroom.
Takes his coat off, gets him breakfast,
sits him down, kisses him good-bye.
7:45
AM: Back
in the car, Laurie drives to work.
7:50
AM: Laurie
arrives at work, ready to "start" the day.
7:55 AM: Norm arrives at work, ready to "start" the day.