Day in the Life

In these early years of parenthood, things are constantly changing. I like to document a day in the life about every six months and have lots of fun looking back and seeing how fast routines change. This was my Tuesday, as a stay-at-home mom with a two-year old and a six-month old.

6:55 - I hear Maggie stirring in her pack-n-play in the guest room. Claire is getting her two-year molars, so we didn't even try putting them in the same room the night before. I get out of bed to feed and change her. 

7:10 - After pressing snooze twice, Adam gets up. He starts emptying the dishwasher and making breakfast. 

7:20 - In the playroom, I fold laundry while Maggie plays.

7:45 - Maggie gets bored just as I finish up folding. Adam holds her while he finishes the dishwasher. I start making Claire a chocolate-peanut butter-banana-spinach smoothie for breakfast. With those molars popping through, she hardly ate anything yesterday. I'm hoping today will go better.

7:50 - Hear Claire talking in her crib. We all go to get her up. Adam stays with the girls while I go back to making breakfast.

7:58 - Adam tells me to "Come here, they're being cute." They're both sitting in Claire's crib and giggling.

8:01 - The fun ends when Maggie spits up on Claire's sheets.

8:02 - Use the promise of a smoothie to get Claire out of bed and change her diaper.

8:10 - We all sit down to breakfast. Maggie's having banana, Claire's having the aforementioned smoothie, and we're having granola with fruit.

8:30 - Everyone is done but Claire. I go feed and dress Maggie. Adam makes his lunch and gets dressed. Claire listens to a few Robert Munsch stories while she finishes breakfast.

8:50 - I put Maggie down for a nap in the guest room. I get Claire down from the table and clean up the rather impressive mess she left behind. She makes a beeline for the dress-up clothes and requests that I turn on some "moo-keys" so she can dance. Adam leaves for work. Shortly afterwards, Claire bumps into a stool and says, "I sad. I broke my body."

9:15 - I get dressed and make the bed, while Claire watches ten minutes of Peppa Pig. Then I get Claire dressed and put her hair in pigtails in an effort to disguise all the smoothie that's now in her hair.

9:45 - Back in the playroom, I fold laundry while Claire plays. She rocks her baby, grabs the doll quilt, and puts her down for a nap in Maggie's crib in the nursery.

10:00 - Maggie's awake, so we rescue her from the pack-n-play. I change both of their diapers, get our shoes on, bribe Claire with a sucker to take a picture of their matching outfits, and right as we're about the leave, the oral surgeon who's taking my little brother's wisdom teeth out this summer calls to say his appointment will have to be rescheduled. I talk with the receptionist about other options and when would be the best time to contact my parents in China while Claire shouts, "park! park! park!" over and over in the background.

10:35 - We're finally in the car, ready to leave for Costco. There's a beautiful view of the mountains on the way there that never fails to make my heart skip a beat. I stop to get gas first, find a parking spot near a cart corral, and get the girls loaded into the cart.

10:50 - We walk into the store. After we stock up on groceries, we swing by the clothing section to pick up a few pairs of summer pajamas for Maggie. While waiting in the check-out line, a fellow customer comments on how juicy Maggie's thighs are and reminiscences about her own chubby babies. 

11:35 - We head to the snack bar for lunch, which is in a separate little restaurant at our Costco. The older gentleman in line behind us asks me if Claire and Maggie are twins, but corrects himself when he gets a better look. He tells me about his new twin granddaughters. We sit down at a table for lunch, which basically entails feeding Claire hot dog with one hand and Maggie applesauce with the other. At the table next to us, a fellow mom is sitting with her two and four year old daughters. I remark on how prepared she is, to have actually brought plates and a real knife, and file that away for the future.

12:00 - Finish lunch, get the girls back into the cart, load the groceries into the trunk, buckle the girls into their car seats, and head home.

12:10 - Pull into the garage, load Maggie into the Ergo and bring in the groceries, feed Maggie while Claire plays with her doctor kit, change their diapers, and settle into the couch for stories. Maggie gets a few Sandra Boynton books while Claire gets "Dragons Love Tacos" and "I Want my Hat Back."

1:05 - Both girls in bed. Neither girl is asleep. I put away the groceries and cut up some strawberries because I know I won't get around to it if I don't do it right away. I take out some frozen tomato soup (leftover from last week) for dinner.

1:30 - Maggie fell asleep a while ago, but Claire's still going strong. I tuck her in again and tell her to close her eyes. I get on the computer to buy a gray t-shirt from Everlane, peruse Craig's List for kids' bikes, and finally set up our donation to the Archdiocese's annual appeal, after forgetting to bring it with us the last two Sundays. I also eat a few too many dark chocolate caramel pretzel things that really shouldn't have found their way into my cart at Costco.

1:45 - Maggie wakes up. Nurse her back to sleep.

1:55 - Put Maggie down again and get back on computer, this time to work on a blog post. Claire's still awake, occupying her time by singing to herself.

2:30 - Maggie wakes up again and she's not happy about it. As we're walking out of her room, she arches her back and I accidentally bonk her head on the door frame. Tears ensue.

2:40 - Once I've got Maggie calmed down, we go get Claire. Maggie officially cheers up as soon as she sees her big sister. Claire says, "hey, I'm trying to sleep here!" While I change their diapers, I call Adam to keep him abreast of the (no) nap situation and weigh the options of playing in the backyard vs. driving to the park vs. walking to the park. At some point in the conversation, I forget to spell out p-a-r-k and Claire catches on. Park it is.

3:00 - Claire watches an episode of Daniel Tiger and Maggie hangs out in the exersaucer, while I prep some grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner and talk to my mom about the wisdom teeth situation. Our conversation comes to an abrupt end when Claire falls off the coffee table.

3:35 - We get our shoes on, grab Maggie's sun hat and a water bottle, and head to the park. I decide to walk in an effort to kill more time and perhaps burn off a few of those caramel chocolate pretzel things.

4:00 - We arrive at the park. It's a beautiful day, so I'm surprised to find the park actually not too crowded and some swings available. I guess above eighty degrees is just too hot for Seattle natives?

4:30 - We've had enough of the swings. Maggie and I watch Claire play in the sandbox. We live in a pretty international neighborhood, so all around us we hear snatches of Hindi, Chinese, and even Romanian.

4:50 - Leave park, without too many tears, thankfully. We stop to admire another mountain view on the way home.

5:15 - We get home at same time as Adam. The girls were mostly happy the entire walk home, but of course as soon as Adam approaches they both burst into tears for unknown reasons. Undermining me at every turn, those two. When we get inside, Adam changes their diapers while I heat up dinner. He tells Claire that he's going to change into shorts and she asks him if he's poopy. When he responds negatively, she says "Ohhhh, just wet."

5:30 - We sit down for dinner. Tomato soup and grilled cheese isn't entirely seasonally appropriate, but it was easy and it's one of Claire's favorites. Maggie munches on some sweet potato instead.

5:50 - I get up to nurse Maggie, while Claire and Adam finish eating.

6:10 - We tag-team changing the girls into pajamas and nighttime diapers.

6:25 - Adam puts Maggie to bed. We clean up the kitchen and all the toys strewn through out the house. Claire tells us she's going on a "venture." When we tell her it's time to read stories, she insists on reading one to her baby doll first. We're surprised that she has the words to Mo Willems' "That is Not a Good Idea!" mostly memorized, given that we just checked it out from the library over the weekend. 

7:25 - We read Claire stories, say prayers, and put her to bed. Both girls are asleep in the nursery. So far, that is. 

7:40 - Finally stop staring at our phones and get off the couch. I spray the cloth diapers and get those into the washer.

8:00 - I iron linens while watching a couple episodes of Mad Men. Once a month, I wash and iron the linens for church. I need to get them done tonight so I can drop them off while we're at church for play group tomorrow morning. Adam finishes up some work. Claire wakes up twice during this time, once requesting a diaper change and once asking for a drink of water.

9:45 - Just as I finish ironing a few articles of our own clothing, Maggie wakes up. I nurse her back to sleep and sneak her back into the nursery successfully. Adam hangs the cloth diapers up to dry.

10:00 - I read while Adam showers.

10:15 - We switch. Except he's currently reading Oliver Twist.



10:30 - We sit down on the couch to watch an episode of The Middle and indulge in a Magnum bar. I pump. Claire wakes up again, this time waking Maggie up in the process. Since I just pumped, Adam feeds her a bottle.

11:00 - I start the dishwasher, brush my teeth, and head to bed. Adam puts Maggie back down (this time in the guest room - we've officially surrendered) and heads to bed too.

This was actually a pretty good day. Not exactly typical, because Claire usually does take an afternoon nap and they don't usually wake up so often in the evening, but there were no tantrums, so I'd definitely call it a success!