On this particular afternoon in early April Jeanine (who had recently shaved her head in support of her friend, Anne) was busy assembling a new carseat for her middle daughter (age 3). She mentions that while it’s assembled today, it probably won’t be installed until tomorrow because with 3 little ones you float from one task to the next, depending on what is of highest priority at the moment. Task management is a little like whack-a-mole in that sense. You are always attacking the next thing but rarely does anything ever get followed through to completion, at least not on the same day.
Once the car seat is take out to her truck it waits to be properly placed, installed, and inspected. Jeanine comes back in to the house and tends to the baby (5 months) who’s just woken from a nap. The baby hasn’t been sleeping well at night, so on advice of their pediatrician, Jeanine offers her some rice cereal to fill her belly and encourage her to sleep longer at night. It does not go well and Jeanine promptly makes up a bottle of formula instead.
While settling in a moment to burp the baby post meal, Jeanine referees a board game between her eldest two children and once the game is finished all 4 head upstairs to make her son’s (age 6) bed. The kids talk about all their new bedding, which was recently purchased from Toy’s R Us while their merchandise was being liquidated. Jeanine also mentions that the Star Wars teddy bear from Build A Bear workshop was a special gift when her husband left on this deployment. She explains that she’s never been a big fan of the “daddy dolls” but building a bear was something her husband and kids could create together, making it a bit more special. She quickly follows up by saying that, although she’s not fond the daddy dolls, she’s been considering getting one for the baby as her husband left so shortly after her birth. She figures it would be a good way for her baby to at least get to know her father’s face before he comes back home.
Shortly after explaining all this the baby, who had been in tummy time position on the floor, rolls over for the very first time.
