A normal day here is.... well, not quite normal!

To fully appreciate the life we lead, let's recap the last, oh, 18 hours in the Carlson House.

4 pm- William gets off work (HOORAY for early days!) and comes home, knowing he is about to turn around and go set-up his mom's computers in Granbury.  Before he goes, I request that he take Gage potty in attempts to get him to poop (a much dreaded task to the busy boy). We've just watched Dinosaur Train about dinosaurs pooping 7 times in a row, so I'm thinking that this task might be a little easier than usual. Doesn't every 3 year old boy want to be like a dinosaur? (BTW- Did you know that fossilized dinosaur poop is called "coprolite"? Now you do!)

4:45 pm- The child poops. Hooray.  His cranky pre-poop attitude will now take a hike, for another 3 days or so. Well, as soon as his disappointment about the fact that it wouldn't go down the toilet subsides.  Dad handles that issue....

5:00 pm- Daddy hits the road and it's back to me and Gage on our own. We're about to head out for a chick-fil-a adventure, the likes of which have never been seen, when I remember that we recently sold our electric lawn-mower on the district's craigslist type bulletin board and she's coming to get it at 6.  Hmmm.... scratch chick-fil-a. What might we have to eat in this house, that I don't have to cook of course. I don't cook, I burn.

6:00 pm- Still haven't found anything suitable to eat when lawn-mower lady arrives. (I know she has a name, but I can't for the life of me remember it).  I leave boogeyman inside watching Diego while I step out on the front porch to show her how it works and collect payment.  Perfect. She needs change. We don't keep cash in this house. We use our debit card. Never cash. I don't have change. I ask her if I can take her change and the cord, which I also couldn't put my finger on at the moment, the next day (which is today- I hope I don't forget!).  I re-enter the house to hear "Ummm... Mama, I teeteed in my underwear."  I hate pottytraining. He's usually very good at telling us he needs to go, just sometimes, its a little too late. :/ But of course, he doesn't want to go to the potty.  My creative (and probably lazy) inner parent says "Go for his competitive nature."  "Hey Gage, I bet I can beat you to the potty. On your mark, get set, GO!"  It works. He's on the potty and I didn't have to wrestle him. (Yes- I know I'm going to regret this strategy when/if we have more children!)

6:30pm- Found frozen fish sticks and mixed veggies and get started cooking them. Yup- we could have gotten fast food at this point, because we were no longer waiting for a visitor, but I forgot about that.

7:30- Bed time comes and goes.

7:50- Jammies and teeth brushing accomplished. Now to start the beloved breathing treatment... right. He hates breathing treatments. Can't say they're MY favorite either, but since breathing and sleep are sort of essential to life, I hold him down for 10 minutes and get MOST of it in.

8:00- We read our 3 bedtime books and I'm FREE! :)  Man, that sounds bad. I just mean my time is mine again.  And what will I do with this time? I spend 11 minutes thinking about that.....

8:11 pm- I get in bed. Yup, at 8:11 pm. Call me old. Call me boring. Call me tired.  William is still not home and at this point, I'm betting that when he gets done, he'll just stay there (somewhat hoping- I hate when he drives when he's sleepy!)

9:15 pm- I hear "MAMA- I'M NOT SLEEEEEEPING!" over the baby monitor.  His music has stopped. The child sleeps to a CD he's slept to since he was like 4 months old. It plays all night and when he wakes up in the middle of the night, it soothes him back to sleep so I don't have to.  I love it. It also drowns out whatever housecleaning noise might occur at the sink or laundry room while he's trying to go to sleep. But it's broken. Silence. Well.... aside from the screaming toddler.  I reason through the fast that I'm NOT going back in there because I'm NOT going to know what's wrong it much less be able to fix it. Quick prayer that he'll go to sleep without it and I roll over and close my eyes tight. Sure enough, he's out by 9:30 or so (or at least, I was out by 9:30 or so and so I HOPE he was too!).  Finally- sleep.

12:30 am- I wake up to the familiar sound of Gage coughing. Lovely. No hubby in my bed and the lamp in the living room is still on. Must mean he's still in Granbury.  I try not to worry, but worrying is just my nature. I wake up enough to call and he doesn't answer. Commence intense worry.  I call 7 times in a row, like if he didn't answer the 5th time, he just might the 7th. Dumb.  Ok- brain is fully awake now trying NOT to imagine him crashed somewhere between here and Granbury.  I call his mom's cell phone (hoping I don't wake them up.....) and William answers. Phew. He's not dead.  But I was right, he's staying in Granbury.  Ok- Gage has stopped coughing so, back to sleep it is!

4:15 am- Again, I wake up to coughing, but it's worse this time. And it's accompanied by screams and crying. Perfect. Up and at him with a breathing treatment. First intelligible thing Gage says is "I miss Daddy."  I tell him "Daddy will be home later. It's ok." when inside I'm thinking "Yeah, me too kid." We get another breathing treatment in and I try to get him to rest in our bed. It's not working.

4:45 am- We get up and just pretend it's 7.  I get started finding some breakfast and turn on some cartoons.  Yup- lame cartoons at 4:45, but I don't think Gage cared too much.

5:15 am- Waffles and blueberries for breakfast. MMMMmmmm. It was good. Gage only ate the blueberries, but hey- whatever, they're good for you. At least it wasn't "sugar donuts". :)

5:30 am- Breakfast is over. Time for him to chill on the couch (maybe fall asleep?!?! - yeah right.) and me to play on my laptop. Hello facebook. Good morning Etsy. Despite a few "Mama, I need some attention" requests and a breathing treatment, he rests pretty well and lets me play for a loooooong time!

8 am- Finally talk to the hubby, and he's getting up and headed home. Yay!  I ask him to pick up breakfast on his way, completely forgetting that I ate a waffle at 5 whatever time it was.

9 am- Hubby arrives with food, yay. I was really hungry already! weird!  Loved my biscuit from chick-fil-a even though he forgot my coke. :) Gage is happy to see Daddy- and Daddy's iPhone. Bring on the kid's science music videos during our second breakfast.

9:45 am- I deal with the massive amounts of stinky trash that have managed to escape the trash pick-up for like 2 weeks now.  Gross.  But I took it all out, and all by myself even. Go me.

10 am- Time for another breathing treatment, mucinex, claritin, nose spray and a steam treatment- for Gage. Time for a nap for me..... it'll have to wait till noon I suppose.

OK- so there's our life. Wow- it's long. Maybe I should have just recapped the last 5 hours or something.  Well- if you read that whole thing, kudos to you.  I promise the next entry will be shorter. :) Probably.