Day 1

Here was my first morning all alone with two kids:

9:14 am frantically wake up and realize that it is late and no little people have woken me up. are they alive? juliet is snoozing soundly. abigail, however, is sitting in the middle of her bed reading chrysanthemum and informs me plantively "hungry, mommy!"

9:16 am begin the process of transforming abigail from a fuzzy-headed hooligan into a child ready for the day

9:25 am abigail is refusing to eat breakfast in her high chair. she wants "snacks on the couch and readie books!" so i collect cereal for both of us, water in a sippy cup for her and a water bottle for me, diaper-changing paraphenalia for juliet, a change of clothes for juliet, extra blankets, and juliet herself and we proceed to the couch, abigail with chrysanthemum firmly in hand

9:50 am all of us are more or less fed and more or less clean. some of us (me) are less than clean, but i will shower later when both girls are down for a nap. right now, i feel that it would be tempting fate to step into the shower when abigail is awake and juliet is so temptingly accessible.

9:55 am various diapers are suddenly unclean

10:05 am diapers are now clean again. how long will this last?

10:06 am out of necessity rather than ambition, some laundry must be done. even though i have done a load every day since i came home from the hospital. laundry is particularly made a necessity today due to the fact that juliet threw up all over my bed at 6 am this morning.

10:10 am in a burst of high spirits, i decide to take the girls for a walk.

10:20 am having spent quite some time collecting all necessary walk paraphenalia, i proceed to the garage. the stroller is in the car, so i muscle it out and unfold it. i put juliet in first, then buckle abigail into the front, then go back into the house to grab abigail's sunglasses.

10:21 am i put on abigail's sunglasses and open the garage door. excited by this, abigail lunges forward in her seat and the stroller folds up on both girls. juliet flops forward and is trapped between the two sections of the stroller; abigail hits the floor of the garage as the stroller tips forward. fortunately she's strapped in, but juliet isn't and begins to slide towards the bottom of the stroller. i am seized by greater terror than i have ever experienced in my entire life. somehow i manage to unfold the stroller again and retrieve juliet, but it immediately collapses again and abigail begins to shriek in terror.

10:23 am i have no idea how, but i somehow manage to unfold the stroller and calm abigail down. i am shaking so hard i can barely dial neil's work number as i tell him that i think i may have permanently injured juliet (who has gone back to sleep, which i interpret as a sign of some serious damage). neil tells me that she is probably fine and tries to calm me down. he also tells me that unlike our other stroller which locks automatically, this one must be manually locked into place so that it doesn't fold up. juliet begins to snore and kicks out rapturously with both feet, which reassures me that she is not maimed for life.

10:30 am still a little shaky, we set out on our walk. abigail insists as we walk that we go "say hi elise and andrea!" so we eventually head over there. abigail and elise end up playing while andrea and i chat. very nice to spend some time talking with her, since it's been a hectic week without any of that type of down time previously.

11:50 am we arrive back home. i change over the laundry, listen to a host of messages on the answering machine from wonderful people offering to bring us dinner or watch abigail--amazing friends!!--put juliet down for the rest of her nap, and feed abigail lunch.

11:54 am while abigail eats lunch, i clean up the house of all the detritus of the morning--toys, books, baby blankets, dishes, etc. it's nice to see it look decent again. my house is always clean twice a day: at lunch and at bedtime.

12:25 pm abigail has finished lunch and gone down for her nap. i begin eating my own lunch and writing down my to-do list.

12:45 pm all done! i begin to think longingly about a shower.

12:46 pm juliet wakes up.