Day in the Life

Every six months, I like to document a day in my life. It's so much fun to look back and see how quickly routines change. This was my Monday, as a stay-at-home mom to 2.5 year old and 1 year old little girls.

 

5:40 - Hear Maggie crying from the pack-n-play in the guest room. Adam brings her to our bed, I nurse her back to sleep, and then Adam brings her back to the guest room.

 

6:10 - And she's up for good. I check my phone and try to will myself out of bed.
 

6:20 - Finally get up. Take Maggie into the playroom to change her diaper.

6:30 - Adam joins us in the playroom. We say morning prayer together in front of our family altar.

6:35 - Adam keeps Maggie occupied while I make breakfast. We're out of bread and granola, but we have some leftover egg whites in the fridge, so the Pioneer Woman's waffles it is. I microwave some bacon to go with them and empty the dishwasher while the waffle iron's going.

7:00 - Adam and Maggie wake up Claire. Her first thought upon seeing me in the kitchen is that she wants to help with breakfast. She pulls up her stool and is disappointed to learn that I'm done with the waffles, but she's cheered up by the prospect of helping set the table.

7:15 - We all sit down for breakfast.

7:40 - All the girls are done (Adam's always the last person to finish because he eats so much more than the rest of us!) so I get the children down and start cleaning up.

 

7:50 - I do my hair and make-up, get dressed, and make the bed. Adam makes his lunch and gets ready too. We let Claire watch ten minutes of Peppa Pig and Frozen videos on the computer. Maggie mostly crawls around whining and getting into stuff. At some point, Adam gets her a baby carrot to munch on, which pacifies her for a while.

8:30 - After picking out the girls' clothes, I carry our shoes and coats into the playroom. Adam leaves for work, while I start summoning the courage to get them dressed.

8:50 - Claire asked me to read three stories, during which Maggie just crawled all over me and cried. I read her a few board books to cheer her up and then starting the dressing process.

 

9:15 - We're all in the car ready to go.

 

9:25 - We arrive at Trader Joe's. We pick out some cupcakes for Maggie's baptism day (they don't have our favorite chocolate peanut butter ones, boo!) and can't resist the $4.99 roses. It's not very crowded, so we take our time looking at all the special Christmas items, but we resist the myriad temptations for today.

10:00 - We're back in the car, headed to our little outdoor mall.

 

10:05 - We still have some time to kill before music class, so we look for a pair of dress shoes in Maggie's size. The shoes Claire wore at that age got lost in the dark at the Easter Vigil. We strike out at Gymboree but find a pair on sale at Baby Gap that actually have a velcro closure, as opposed to the ones with just a piece of elastic that never stay on baby feet.

10:30 - Time for music class. Both Claire and Maggie love, love, love this hour of the week. We stay talking to friends for a while afterwards. Claire and her friend, Lilly, always insist on walking back to the car holding hands.

11:40 - We're headed home.

 

11:50 -  Of course Maggie fell asleep on the ten minute drive. I wake her up, take off all our outerwear, and buckle the girls into their seats for lunch. They typically have a "snack plate" of cheese, ham, crackers, grapes, pickles, and pistachios. Today we substitute the crackers for a bit of leftover bagel with cream cheese. While they're eating, I take out the recycling and compost and then put the roses in a vase.

12:30 - I change Maggie's diaper, read her three stories, nurse her, and put her to bed in the guest room. She doesn't exactly seem tired.

12:45 - I read Claire three stories, change her diaper, and put her to bed. She also doesn't seem tired, although that's not very surprising.

1:05 - I'm cold, so I boil water for tea and waste time on my phone while I'm waiting.

 

1:20 - I eat my lunch, chicken salad, in front of the computer.

1:30 - Maggie falls asleep. I send some emails for the parish mom's group and put some new books for Claire on hold at the library.

 

2:20 - Just as I've decided that I'll make a quick grocery list and then let her out, Claire falls asleep. I use my unexpected extra free time to work on a blog post and take Maggie's baptism present out of the packaging.

3:15 - They're both awake. I turn on an episode of Daniel Tiger and get them both settled with milk. There's not much to prep for dinner tonight. Adam and I are having leftover beef stew, but there's not enough for the girls (who weren't the biggest fans anyway) so they're having hotdogs. I put the stew and a loaf of bread in the oven. I get some Brussels sprouts and hotdogs ready to go on the stove. That leaves me with just enough time to grab a gift bag for Maggie's present and spray the cloth diapers before the show ends.

3:45 - We sit down at the table for our favorite snack of apples, pretzels, and cookie butter. Once I get the girls down, they head straight for the playroom.

 

4:05 - While I'm loading the dishes from lunch and snack into the dishwasher, I debate going for walk before it gets dark outside. The sun is already setting!

 

4:15 - The children are playing happily, so I attempt to put laundry away.  

4:25 - Surprisingly, I'm done with laundry and the children are still happy, so I sit on the couch and read a book on my phone.

4:40 - And they've found me. I notice they both have poopy diapers and start psyching myself up to change them. In the meantime, they do laps around coffee table, which is hilarious, of course.

 

4:45 - I change their diapers and start cleaning up the playroom, so I'll be ready to vacuum after dinner.

5:10 - They're busy playing again, so I sneak away to start making dinner. I turn on the oven and the stove, then cut up some pears and carrots for the girls.

 

5:20 - I hold a whiny Maggie while sautéing the Brussels sprouts with a little olive oil, lemon, and garlic.

5:30 - Adam's home! He immediately takes over baby-holding duties while I finish serving the food.

 

5:40 - We sit down to dinner, although it feels like Adam and I are constantly getting up and down to fulfill various requests.

6:00 - We sing "Happy Baptism Day" to Maggie, light her candle, and eat cupcakes.

6:15 - We give Maggie her baptism present - a Corolle baby doll that she's absolutely thrilled with. We gave Claire a similar doll when she came to meet Maggie in the hospital for the first time.


 

6:30 - Adam gives the girls a bath, while I vacuum and mop.

7:00 - The girls play in the nursery while Adam and I load the dishwasher and wipe down the table and counters.

 

7:10 - I read Maggie a couple stories, nurse her, and put her to bed in the nursery.

7:30 - We do a "thankful leaf" with Claire.  

7:45 - Adam reads her stories, while I wash the dishes and start the cloth diapers.

8:00 - Claire is in bed and very surprisingly goes straight to sleep. Adam talks to Lowes about our oven,  while I respond to some more emails about mom's group.

 

8:20 - We say evening prayer and talk for a while about our small group meeting the following evening.

 

8:45 - While Adam finishes up some work, I scrape stickers off a balance bike we found at Goodwill.

9:45 - Can't believe I just spent an hour of my life painstakingly removing stickers. Hang up the cloth diapers. We both shower.

10:15 - As soon as we're done, we hear Maggie waking up. I feed her and then just put her back down in the guest room.

 

10:30 - We watch the latest episode of Brooklyn 99 and have a snack of clementines and pistachios. Maggie is still awake. Halfway through the show, Adam changes her diaper and sings to her.

10:50 - I feed Maggie again. She's finally back down. Adam starts the dishwasher. We brush our teeth and head to bed.  

 

Maggie's late night wake-up was unusual, but besides that this was pretty much a typical day! As you can see, I'm far from perfect. I know you're not really supposed to buckle kids into their car seats with bulky coats on, but it's so annoying otherwise and we were only in the car for ten minute increments. I also know you're not supposed to let one-year-olds watch television but that twenty minutes of educational programming just makes the day so much smoother. We're all doing our best, right?