Week In The Life 2012: Saturday

Saturday, April 28
It's the weekend (aka: dual parenting day!)


12:23am
Tory's awake and crying from her crib. What's up with this little girl waking up twice a night lately? Making up for lost calories after being sick last week? Growth spurt? Teething bout approaching? I listen to her fuss for a bit before getting up and making her a bottle. She drinks 5oz. and falls back asleep.

5:01am
Tory cries out again and I go into her nursery. Feed. Rock. Back to sleep.

6:30am
I force myself awake and into the shower. We have a nanny interview this morning at 8:00am and I think it's appropriate to shower and dress in something other than pajamas before she arrives. I also know Tory will likely wake up at 7:00am so I try to squeeze in a little time for myself to get ready for the day before she does.

I meant to snap a picture of what I'm wearing today, but I get distracted in knocking out chores before the nanny candidate arrives. Today I'm wearing a white tank, navy blue sweater cardigan, skinny jeans and my new gray slip-on shoes I scored at Target the other day.

7:00am
Tory's awake and Andi goes and gets her from her crib, changes her diaper and brings her back to our bedroom to play for a while. It's nice when he's home on the weekends and I can actually get ready for the day without a baby rolling around at my feet or fussing for my attention.

7:45am
Once I finish getting ready, Andi and I do the baby hand-off. He jumps in the shower and I bring her into the kitchen for breakfast. Today Tory's having 1/4 cup of rice cereal with plums and bananas mixed in. Just as I'm sitting down to feed her, the nanny candidate arrives (10 minutes early - nice!) so I invite her in and ask her to join me at the table while I feed Tory breakfast.

I've already spoken to this girl on the phone several times and by email so I'm fairly certain of her skills and qualifications. At this point, it's just a formality to meet her and determine whether I jive with her personality.

8:00am
Andi joins us in the kitchen and begins to ask her the "tough interview questions." He's such a boss-man. You can tell he manages a workforce of people on a daily basis. We find out our new nanny candidate loves to travel just as much as we do and also learn about her family background. Both Andi and I click with her and he gives me the "yes" sign by dropping our code word phrase.

8:30am
The nanny leaves and Tory's ready for a nap. I make a bottle and rock her to sleep in her nursery while Andi makes breakfast.

9:00am
Coffee and breakfast with my husband. It's quiet and peaceful in our house for the first time this morning. Andi's made us some sort of egg scramble with broccoli, cheese and bacon. He's the best at just throwing together whatever we have in our fridge and it always comes out delicious.

I eat my eggs wrapped in toast. Anyone else love their eggs this way?

9:30am
Andi even cleans up breakfast when we're finished. What a husband! I ask him if he's showing off for my Week In The Life posts and wants to be featured in a positive light. Ha! He tell me no, and that he feels guilty for leaving on another work trip tomorrow. Trying to help out where he can, he says.

9:45am
Andi invites me to sit downstairs with him while he packs his suitcase. I bring my laptop and write my Friday blog post while he organizes his clothes. Sometimes I think he's the lucky one who gets to jet off to some glamorous photo shoot while I stay home and live a mundane life. But as I'm watching him pack, I'm realizing I'm the one who's got it good. Packed in Andi's suitcase: two pairs of rain gear, heavy-duty work boots, wool socks, wet wipes, zip ties, electrical tape and ear plugs. It doesn't exactly seem like he's going to be living it up with cocktails and luxurious group dinners!

While I'm downstairs, I change the laundry so Andi has all the clothes he wants to bring with him on his trip. Just as I'm starting another load of laundry, I hear Tory crying from upstairs. She's awake - that wasn't a very long nap!

10:00am
I go upstairs to get Tory from her crib and bring her out to the living room to play toys. Meanwhile, Andi finishes packing his bags for tomorrow's trip.

10:30am
Andi's friend Jill arrives and they leave for our cabin in Wisconsin. Andi is selling our wakeboard boat today and is driving to the cabin and back to meet the buyer and finalize the deal. I'm super bummed he's going to be gone all day as it's the last day I'll see him before he leaves for his work trip, but it's the only day he can take care of the boat deal. I'd ride along too but we decided not to subject Tory to five hours in the car and I was already planning to attend Andi's cousin's baby shower taking place later today.

11:00am
Overall, I'm feeling really bummed today. In addition to missing out on a weekend day with Andi, my sister's bridal shower is also taking place today in Nebraska. The party was thrown together last minute and unfortunately flights were crazy-expensive to go back home. Since I couldn't swing going home for both the bridal shower and the wedding next month, I had to miss out on the celebration today. My mom is sweet enough, however, to FaceTime me into the party. She calls Tory and I on her iPad and sets it on her lap so I can see the shower taking place. It's almost like I'm there ... and definitely better than nothing!

11:30am
I sign off on FaceTime as Tory's getting fussy and ready to eat lunch. I warm her up some vegetable purees, then make her a bottle and rock her to sleep for her afternoon nap.

12:00pm
Once Tory's asleep, I hurry downstairs to the office and call my mom back on FaceTime to catch the rest of the party. I chat with my aunt Cheri, cousin Jen and my sister Ashley (the start of the party!) before signing off again. This is the part that STINKS about living so far away from my family. Sigh.

1:45pm
Tory wakes up from her nap and I start to pull our things together for Andi's cousin's baby shower this afternoon. I dress Tory in a cute little pink dress with white tights and silver shoes. She looks so grown up sitting on the floor playing in the diaper bag as I make her a bottle and load the car.

2:30pm
Tory and I drive across town to Andi's grandma's house for the baby shower. Meanwhile, my mom calls me on her way home from my sister's bridal shower and gives me the play-by-play of their party. I'm so sorry I missed it! It sounds like everyone had a really nice time celebrating my sister.

3:00pm
Tory and I arrive at the baby shower and we chat with all of Andi's aunts and cousins. There were three babies born in his family in the last eight months -- Tory in August (8 months), Connor in October (6 months) and Jaxen in January (4 months). It's actually Jaxen's baby shower but he was born prematurely so we had to wait a few months until he was strong enough to celebrate him.

Toward the end of the party, we decided to get a picture of all the babies together. We set them all on the couch and started taking photos. I've mentioned before how "bossy" Tory is when it comes to her cousin Connor. She paws all over him whenever she gets the chance! As we were snapping photos, Tory started to pull on Connor's shirt, then touch his face, before full-on jumping up on her knees and smothering him as she tried to kiss (ok, bite) his face! Everyone was dying laughing as we kept pulling her off him and re-positioning her on couch. Finally, Connor was getting scared of Tory and started to cry when he saw her. Poor guy, Tory was obsessed! I've never seen her move as quickly as she did to get to Connor.

6:00pm
Tory and I left the party and drove back to the 'burbs. She was in such good spirits at the party today and allowed everyone to hold and play with her. We had a really fun time spending the day with all the girls of the family!

6:30pm
We pull into the drive-way at exactly the same time Andi returns home from the cabin. He helps me unload the car, then he plays with Tory for a few minutes before it's time for bedtime.

7:00pm
I put Tory to bed while Andi runs to Walgreens and to grab dinner for us. We're both starving and neither of us are in the mood to cook.

7:30pm
Andi returned home with Pad Thai, fried rice and cream cheese wontons. He dished up our plates and we headed downstairs to swap stories about our days and watch another episode of Gossip Girl.

8:30pm
We head upstairs to bed and I'm feeling anxiety set in. I have a heavy heart about Andi leaving for his work trip tomorrow. I'm feeling deprived of quality time with my husband; frustrated we didn't get to spend enough time together over the weekend. Sometimes I think it's harder when I have a good week of him being home. It makes me miss him all the more when he's gone again.