Our day

Today was just a day. My girl Catherine woke me up as usual at first light just before 7AM. Elisabeth was already up and hanging out in the living room, swinging quietly in their old broken-down duct-taped baby swing that they still use to watch TV. She seemed cold so I gave her some warm milk and put her back in bed and she slept another couple hours.

Catherine and I did our usual morning routine - she watched her favorite PBS Kids shows (Curious George, Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood), while I drank a ton of coffee and caught up on email.

When Elisabeth woke up we had breakfast of scrambled (or "crumbled", as Catherine calls them) eggs and bananas and grapes and yogurt. Elisabeth was cranky and ate little. She grumpily shook her head "no" when I asked her if she wanted to go to school.

We went anyway, and she was all happy when the teacher arrived to take her to class. Catherine and I went to Walmart and bought big things of paper towels and toilet paper and diapers and two cheap plastic flutes (fun for Catherine, therapeutic for Elisabeth). Then we split an order at "Old McDonald's" and saved some fries for Elisabeth. We had extra time and the day was warming up so Catherine got a half hour to play on the school playground. I watched her laugh and run in the late winter sunshine and wished I could remember it forever. The big kids came out to play and scared her a little, but our time was almost up anyway. We picked up Elisabeth and she was all smiles and playful laughter coming out of school. Elisabeth tried to sing along with the CD in the car on the way home, while Catherine knows most of the words but sings them off-key and half a stanza late.

We drove home and the babysitter arrived soon after and I was able to go out for a nice slow jog 5K run, my slowest of the year (38:12) which is just fine for this taper week before my half marathon on Sunday. I caught come glimpses of the swans floating peacefully in the river in the golden late afternoon sun. I finished up and returned, paid the babysitter, gave the girls dinner (partly reheated french fries), had them brush their teeth (which surprisingly didn't result in too many complaints today) and read them stories ("Guess How Much I Love You" and "The Big Red Barn") and they jumped on their beds and defied sleep for a half an hour before they finally succumbed.

After they quieted down at last, I indulged in a glass of limoncello and soda and watched a fabulous cycling movie, Hollentour (Hell on Wheels). Great way to cap off the day.

Today was just like a lot of my days. A quiet, normal, sane, peaceful, drama-free, perfectly wonderful day.