A day in the life, Irene style.

4:27 am- Little feet come sneaking into my bedroom. The rain is picking up. Malone snuggles in and falls back asleep.

6:03 am- Malone wakes up demanding applesauce. Today is my day to sleep in (Mike gets to sleep in on Saturday). Mike gets up with him.

7:59 am- I smell bacon!

8:03 am- Malone comes in. He's ready for me to be up. Good thing that I'm ready to also be up.

8:30 am- It's raining, but not bad.

9:00 am- Malone asks to go buh byes. This is going to be a long day. I pray Dinosaur Train will distract him for a while. It works for about ten minutes. The rain has picked up.

10:10 am- Malone has my coffee cup and the Splenda. When asked what he's doing he replies "makin my coffee, mama!"

10:15 am- Malone and I have finished cleaning up the great Splenda Blizzard of 2011.

10:30. Time to make cookies.




11:00 am- Cookies are done. It is a bit windy, but not too bad. Malone and I set off to check in on our elderly neighbors, Paul and Judy, with cookies in hand.

11:03 am- We sit on the front porch of Paul and Judy's house watching the wind and the rain. Malone snuggles in to Judy. My heart sings at the mutual affection. They have grandchildren and great grandchildren but do not get to see them often.

11:30 am- Time to go home for some lunch. The storm is now in CT and headed our way. Grilled cheese and soup sounds like the perfect hurricane lunch.

12:00 pm- The wind has picked up, the rain is a bit harder, but there is nothing really exciting going on.

12:15 pm- We've played cars and trains. We've played kitchen. We've done art. Behold, thy cardboard box.

1:00 pm- Malone is getting cranky. It's time for a nap.

1:20 pm- Malone has made it really clear that there will be no napping today. He happily snuggles next to me and we read several books.

1:45 pm- Quiet time is over. We order Rio on demand. News reports state that there is major flooding happening. I see facebook updates with downed tree limbs.

2:00 pm- I take advantage of movie time by sorting through hand me downs. It turns out that I have more than I need of pajamas and causal pants. Malone comes in to help. My piles get mixed together but I don't mind. He tells me that "we're doing it together mama, teamwork!". We've been talking about teamwork and helping a lot lately, but this is the first time he's used the phrase on his own.

2:10 pm- Dinosaur costume found!

2:20 pm- Dinosaur escape attempt. I don't like you being cooped up all day any more than you do buddy....


2:23 pm- Daddy and Malone get involved in the movie some more. I resume going through hand me downs.

3:30 pm- The rain has slowed. The sun is trying to peak out. The worst is passed. We are lucky, but a lot of our neighboring towns are flooding. Daddy and Malone decide to go for a walk to check out the neighborhood.

4:30 pm- They are back. I've used the last hour to finish sorting clothes, catch up on the news, and clean my office.

5:00 pm- Malone is hungry. He goes to the fridge and tries to open it. "I can't do it, so I've gotta use my muscles!". Dinner is served. We keep it classy with left over pizza and peanut butter and jelly. Malone is clearly tired.

5:08 pm-We've always heard about this happening, but it never has for us. Malone has fallen asleep while eating dinner. He's out cold. I brainstorm how to clean him up without waking him up.



5:11 pm- I have successfully gotten Malone semi cleaned up and in bed without him waking up. Irene left lots of nasty gifts as she made her way up the coast today, but she gave me the gift of a free and easy toddler bedtime. I wonder what to do with myself for the next five hours before I go to bed.

Eye of the storm....

Hurricane Irene is projected to still be a hurricane and not a tropical storm when it reaches Massachusetts. Its eye is projected to fall somewhere between Wocester and Boston. We live an hour and a half west of Boston and 45 minutes west of Wocester.
My friend Tara wrote an excellent list yesterday that included tips such as hitting up the ATM for cash, making sure you have enough drinking water, and filling up your bath tub with water.

In addition to her list here are also the things we're doing today to get ready.

1. Baking cookies. Everything, including hurricanes, is better with cookies.

2. Laundry. All of it will get done today. Typically, I only wash Malone's daycare linens on the weekend as Monday is "laundry" day.

3. Making extra coffee and storing it in the fridge. You know, because no power = no coffee maker. Not a great combo when Malone is up at the crack of dawn most days. I will hit up Trader Joes for their shelf stable milk as Malone likes to take those in his lunch anyway.

4. Resisting the temptation to go out and buy 100 cans of xyz food. We don't typically eat a lot of canned food. Instead, I plan on getting fruit and veggies, cereal, bread, cheese, hummus, crackers, and some lunch meat from the deli. The lunch meat, hummus, and cheese can hang out in the cooler if things get bad. And if not, those are all things we'll eat anyway.

5. Writing down important phone numbers on pen and paper. I don't have many numbers memorized anymore. We both have iphones and if worse comes to worse, I can use my work cell phone to make a few calls.

6. Backing up pictures and videos onto our photo sharing site.

7. We live on the 2nd floor, so we don't have to worry about flooding (I hope). However, our washer and dryer are in the basement. I'll make sure to get their model number and serial number in case I need them for insurance purposes.

8. Speaking of which, if you haven't done it already take photographs the content items in your house. An overall picture of each rooms and a close up of high value or sentimental items will help in case you have an emergency. Store them away from your home (upload them to the Internet or store at a family or friend's house). Hopefully someday you won't have to thank me.

9. Charging cell phones and our laptops.

10.Brainstorming ideas to keep Malone from going stir crazy. He's the kind of kid that HAS to get out and about everyday. He likes to go, see, and do. Usually, we don't do art projects at home outside of coloring because he gets art 5 days a week at daycare. I'm going to pick up some finger paints, poster board, and shaving cream. Our water table will also come inside from outside. If I need to, I'll fill it with grains (we've got rice, quinoa, oatmeal, and unpopped natural popcorn. He'll dig using the water table like a sensory box. I've also got a few really sweet Christmas presents that I thrifted last weekend at a garage sale. I'm not opposed to pulling a few of those out now. New to him toys are always exciting (I've got a wooden parking garage, wooden firehouse, and two really cool wooden cars).

11. Everyone will shower this afternoon.

12. We're going to pick up our farm share this morning. We usually go on Tuesdays.

13. I've already worked out my backup plan with work. No power or Internet means working from home can't happen. If our sister office has power, I'll go there. If not, I'll let my boss know. If MA is still under a state of emergency Monday, Mike doesn't have to go to work. Which is good, because Malone won't have daycare either.

Bottom line, we've got a lot to do today. But we're ready to weather the storm.