One day in the life of an active Grandma

I wrote this to my sister yesterday when she asked me how things were going? My daughter-in-law is on full bedrest as we await the arrival of identical twins and I am so thrilled and blessed that she has asked me to help her ( and her Mom) with her life while she has to stay in bed. She is a highly competent mom, a pediatrician, an athlete and gorgeous too – I adore her. Here is what I wrote my sister – and friends – and they convinced me to share it with you! So here goes – unedited – a day in the life of a VERY active Grandma – me!

I slept over at my son and daughter – in- law’s home again last night – was up at 6.15 with the two boys this morning – change diapers, clean teeth make breakfast for them, help my son and daughter in law – get dressed pack snacks/lunches for school get change of clothes for boys and school stuff ( the little one wanted to take his Halloween things with him) into bags, jump into car, drive to school drop them off at 9, rush to Whole Foods , do major shopping, rush back to school by 10 for Mommy’s day – crawl through huts, jungle gym, go on obstacle race, play instruments, make playdough pumpkins, paint, read, have snack ie do the day that they do, rush upstairs to the other classroom to get the two year old, get both kids bags, rush ( rush is a relative term when dealing with Four and Two year olds – you moms and grandma’s out there know what I mean) to car, drive to Rubios, order lunch, deal with peepee in underwear for two year old who is being toilet trained, change his clothes, wash up, deal with temper tantrum of two year old, feed kids, fill up juice with refills, break up fight over something silly, propel kids to car, wait interminably for four year old to do up his car seat ( has to do it himself) two year old learning to do it – so help him (hands off – he wants to do it himself) drive four minutes to house – another peepee in new clothes, arrive at house, make up lunch for mommy in bed, try to put two year old to sleep, deal with screaming fit again, finally get him into diaper, and onto bed, tell story till he falls asleep, jump back into car with four year old , back to shops – Target this time to buy Halloween stuff, come home, stuff bags with Halloween treats that have to be delivered to three homes in their hood or their house will be tp’d, make more food for mommy, fill up her water and juice bottles (every hour this has to be done – she is amazing BTW – amazing – so energetic and has followed instructions to stay in bed TOTALLY – I am so very proud of her and love her more each day for how she is handling all this), make beef curry in crockpot with rice and make up salad,  two year old wakes up in bad mood crying because I didn’t cook with him, make up a salad with him so he feels I cooked with him; housekeeper has personal problem and has to leave to do something with her child, chat with mom for a bit to catch up on plans for next few days, read books to children, play ‘teach me’ on Ipad and iphone- each child wants one – stop kids from bouncing on Mom’s bed too much, make up snacks for both boys which turns into dinner because they are hungry again. Run bath for little one – make up stories to get him to do it; help older one make fruit dessert – simply cut fruit with cut up string cheese and a little mango smoothie – his recipe btw, for mommy (since he loves to cook too). Then he needs to poop – sit with him while other one is in the bath

Are you tired yet?

Then wait for my son to come home – as he comes in – I leave to get into the car to join a webinar about my new website and how to create an app for iphone/Android for it and that lasts while I drive home for two hours -traffic is awful and they are repairing the freeway everywhere just to frustrate rush hour drivers! Then come home, husband is hungry – I made him dinner before I left home but I make him more when I get here – talk with him for a while – we haven’t seen each other for a few days since I have been staying with kids….

Ready for bed – are you surprised? But no time – I have two hundred emails, want to check that orders were shipped for those wonderful folks who bought product on RockinGrandmaMusic today and also review documents for a board meeting tomorrow. Oh did I mention? Tomorrow morning I have to be up at 4 am for a board meeting in Boston that I could not physically get to – since I didn’t think it was right for me to leave the west coast this week. Am on call to go back to the kid’s house certainly will see them Saturday when I will go at 7am to pick the boys up to come to the farm ( good exercise digging and planting, picking up snails for the chickens, and cutting roses for the goats) maybe to stay for the weekend…. not sure playing it by ear.

Also have to make cheese here tomorrow – have thirty gallons of milk – and also Sapote jam- the crop ( and about 40lbs of it sitting on kitchen counter) requires it be done soon. Living on an urban farm – its fun and work too!

Would I change any of this? NOT FOR A MOMENT!! It makes me feel alive, loved and happy ( and exhausted – yes I do admit I sleep VERY soundly at night). And when you look at the two little guys holding hands ( their idea not mine) it’s all worth it isn’t it?