Woah what a day! Not that it was a bad day but reflecting back it was a crazy, hectic, fun-filled, busy work day here at the McNeal household. Gardening, laughing, crying, singing, shopping, cleaning, napping....
It all started around 2 am when Julia decided to wake up and stay awake for 30 minutes. After settling her down, she woke up again around 5am then up at 8am. I got up, fed her, played with her and managed to get some major internet items checked off my to-do list. Then she was down for a nap at 10:00:-)
Nap times are the time of the day where I can get things done! Some days I choose to work in overdrive (ok, most days) and some days I treat myself to vegging out on the sofa watching Grey's Anatomy or Desperate Housewives. Today was an overdrive day. I cleaned the upstairs bathroom and then I worked outback putting a garden border of plant cover around our new deck. I hoed the dirt, shoveled the dirt, dug in the dirt, planted and mulched. However, I needed more plants and some type of edging. Home Depot was added to our errand list. I came inside with about five minutes to spare and made some business emails and organized files for updating tomorrow.
Around 11:00 Julia woke from her nap. I changed her, put her gardening overalls on her, and fed her. Then off to errands we went! Our first stop - the E.Nashville Post Office. I threw Julia in the Bjorn and dashed in to drop off prints for two of my clients, paperwork for my lawyer for my b.s. lawsuit and Jarred's shoes for return. Julia of course was adored by all in the post office - rattle throwing and all. Back to the car and next stop - gas.
I'm horrible for putting off getting gas until the only place to stop is some crappy hole in the wall. So the first place didn't take debit cards at the pump....ummm I'm not dragging 20 lbs of Julia out to pay so back in the car and off to the next hole in the wall gas station. After a quick swing through the double arches, I stopped at the gas station and pumped. Then off we were for more gardening supplies!!!
This summer I have evolved into a lil' gardener. I shop for flowers at the farmer's market and actually talk about which plants will work and take suggestions. Today was landscaping I guess you could say. So off to Home Depot. Love that place! I had to pick up some more ground cover and edging. Julia as always rode in the cart with her little sun hat on taking in all the sights and touching what she can. She's learning how to garden along with me. So after a 20 minute shopping trip we were back in the car and headed home.
On the way home I even got to talk to Crystal. By the time we got home, Julia was asleep and I was ready to finish my project...yeah, that's an alien concept - finishing a project in one day while keeping up with an engergetic wild 9 month old. I unloaded the car and she woke up. Attempted to put her down for the rest of her nap but unsuccessful:-( We came in, I got her fed and we had an impromptu photo shoot outside in her pettiskirt. Back inside we came and I changed her into her gardening pants so she could crawl around.
We returned outside and she played in the dirt while I gardened. She was a mess! Yes dirt was consumed and mulch was pulled from it's nice new bed by her tiny little curious hands. She's so curious about everything and nothing ever scares her. She goes into any situation with full curiousity and no reservations. I rarely see her get scared of anything - she pets the vacuum. She's a unique little girl with such energy and joy. Once her face, stomach, feet and hands were covered in dirt I took her in the bathe her.
Bath time was quick. She was everywhere! Usually bath time is the pre-bedtime ritual however today was not the case since it was so early. After her bath we jammed out to Dave Matthews upstairs. This sent her into crazy little girl mode. She was grabbing the baby gate shaking it as if she was in jail. However, she was laughing the whole time. She was crawling around the upstairs laughing so hard her eyes started to water. I've never seen a baby laugh like that but she was in a super happy mood. All I could do was laugh with her. She even played hide and seek....sort of. I love when she gets like that where the simplest sound can send her into giggle overdrive. After our giggle fest, we returned downstairs for her dinner of raviolli and a bottle. She then decided she was not ready for bed but instead adventuring. She adventured for 15 minutes, laughing the whole time, while I straightened the house and did a load of laundry. We attempted sleep again and after 15 minutes of attempting realized that it wasn't happening.
Finally around 7 Jarred came home. Phillip, a co-worker/friend that was in town due to the flood came over to visit Julia for the first time. I ordered pizza, finished my project (exluding 2 feet of edging I have to pick up tomorrow) and then finished off the task of putting Julia down after she cried for five minutes. I returned downstairs to eat dinner with the boys, chat it up and then took a shower. Now I'm here updating this blog so Julia will know who I was when she was this age. Plus after being told that I can't handle it all, I wanted to write it down (okay type it out) to really say hey, I did all of this today and I'm going to bed with a smile. I think I can handle it.
