Our morning

5:00 am: My alarm starts beeping. And beeping. And beeping.

5:04 am: I finally snooze the alarm.

5:19 am: My alarm starts beeping. Again. And gets snoozed. Again. And again and again.

5:57 am: I'm poked by Tom and told that it's time to get up or we'll be late, so I literally roll out of bed and hobble over to plug in the iron before hopping in the shower.

6:10 am: My shower is finished, the iron is ready for steaming, and I'm ready to crawl back in bed. Instead I make the bed, pick out my clothes, and brush my teeth.

6:20 am: The ironing of the clothes begins. I iron a shirt and pair of pants for Tom and then whatever I plan on wearing for the day, which is usually either a dress or a skirt and shirt during the summer. Tom shaves and finishes getting ready for the day while I'm ironing.

6:30 am: I throw my gym clothes together while Tom pads down the hall to start the Stasa wake up process, which involves opening her curtains and blinds, turning on her bedroom light, and turning on the playroom television. She manages to recover her entire self with her quilt and promptly goes back to sleep.

6:32 am: Tom goes downstairs to pack our bags and breakfast and lunch. I go in to wake up the Lexifer. If she’s already awake, she’s usually sitting her crib and talking to her baby. If not, she wakes up pretty easily and stretches, yawns and raises her arms to be picked up. I let her run around for a bit before getting her changed and dressed for the day. Plus she usually runs straight to Stasa’s room and climbs into bed with her and that always gets Stasa up and out of bed.

6:35 am: I start brushing out my hair, which almost always gets thrown into a messy bun or slicked back into a ponytail. Then it’s on to makeup and by then one or both of the girls are standing with me and rifling through my stuff.

6:45 am: I finally start the process of getting the girls ready. Lexi’s easy – I just pick out an outfit, change her diaper and throw her clothes on. She either gets pigtails or one giant ponytail on top of her head. Stasa’s a bit harder. She’s quite opinionated about what she wears each day. I pick out her outfit and get her dressed while she’s watching tv.

6:50 am: Stasa takes off all of her clothes and declares that she CAN’T WEAR THIS TO SCHOOL. She picks out a new outfit, which almost never matches, and gets dressed on her own.

6:53 am: Stasa takes off all of her clothes again, this time to go to the bathroom.

6:56 am: Stasa is finally dressed for good. The girls brush their teeth with Tom.

6:58 am: Tom and I both get dressed and start herding the girls to go downstairs.

7:00 am: The girls sit on the bottom stair to put on their socks and shoes.

7:02 am: Stasa starts throwing a fit because she doesn’t like her Spongebob socks and needs to wear her Hello Kitty socks. I explain that her kitty socks are dirty, but that we can wash them after school.

7:10 am: Stasa is now in time-out for refusing to listen. Lexi has migrated to the kitchen carrying a new pair of shoes and is struggling to change her shoes.

7:20 am: Stasa is still in time-out because she refuses to sit in the time-out spot and is spitting her tongue out at Tom. I help Lexi change her shoes while Tom calmly tells Stasa to sit in time-out.

7:34 am: Stasa is STILL in time-out, this time because she still won’t sit down AND she tried to hit Tom. Tom is still calmly talking to Stasa, though at this point her new princess figurines are also in time-out. Lexi is happily rifling through our shoes and brings me my flip flops.

7:45 am: Stasa is FINALLY out of time-out. Tom talks to her about why she was in time-out, we tell her that we love her and we need her to be a good listener.

7:50 am: We’re now all in the car and are finally on the way to daycare and work.

8:02 am: Both girls walk into daycare and both have immediate meltdowns. Lexi falls to the floor, kicking her legs and crying. Stasa clings to us and begs us not to leave. We calm Stasa down and get her in her seat for breakfast, give hugs and kisses and say goodbye.

8:05 am: Lexi has stopped her freak out and happily walks to her room. As soon as she gets to her morning room she takes off without looking back. Not even a hug, kiss or wave goodbye. It’s breakfast time and that girl takes her meal times seriously.

8:07 am: We walk back to Stasa’s room to give her an extra hug. She’s in tears and keeps saying “come back for me.” I explain that we’re going to work and that we’ll be back as soon as work is over. I also point out all of her friends who are there and ready to play. She doesn’t care and clings to me, repeating “come back for me” over and over. We finally kiss her and hug her and tell her goodbye and as we walk away she bursts into tears.

8:10 am: My heart breaks.

8:11 am: I wish I could skip work, scoop up my little girl and spend the day with her. I can’t so I hop in the car with Tom and we drive off to work. It’s just past 8:00 am and I’m already exhausted from the morning’s events.