Ask and you shall receive. Some of y’all said you wanted to see a day in the life post. Be prepared to be wowed. Or not. Probably more not. Turns out I am super bad at this. I tried snapping pictures with my iPhone throughout the day. Turns out I got a lot of dark and blurry photos. Whoops!
Quinn is usually the first one up. He feels the need to wake up at the crack of dawn. Why? He always comes straight into our room, usually asks to snuggle and then talks way too much for 6 am. And even though all I want to do is sleep, I love this more than anything. I will miss the days that snuggling and chatting away to us isn’t a priority. Eventually Ross gets up, because he has to get ready for work, and he will set Quinn up. In my expert opinion, any T.V. watched before 8 a.m. doesn’t count. Don’t judge me. What else are you going to do at 6 a.m.? So Ross throws Quinn in front of some PBS Kids or Nick Jr., gives him a cup of milk and some dry cereal to snack on. Now there are no pictures of this, because mommy is sleeping…remember? If it is the weekend both mommy and daddy keep sleeping.
This “day in the life” happens to be a school day. Normally I would wait until I hear Eleanor to get up. Roughly around 8:00. Ross leaves for work around 7:30. Because it is a “school day” I drag myself out of bed before E is up. I wake up to this light fixture every morning. I hate it. Someday I will replace it. The piles of laundry and other disaster that surrounds me should be a more pressing concern.
I go check on Quinn and find him like this.
Watching this.
On this particular morning I decided to make my self presentable. I don’t always get a shower, but I didn’t want to scare the other mom’s away at drop off.
Our tub is one of the things we replaced (along with the blue toilet) in this awful bathroom. Someday we’ll tackle the floor and vanity. So I quickly shower. This isn’t a spa day folks. I throw on some clothes and decide to throw Quinn in the shower too. I figure the ink smeared all over his arms and various food residue makes me look like a bad mom. Time to keep up appearances ;). Quinn is a super good little boy and scrubs his body and washes his hair with no fuss. Thank god.
I have Quinn in a towel and then I hear E. So I run and get her, change her diaper get her dressed and throw her in the high chair (safe place) with a waffle.
Now I am “free” to get Quinn dressed. He sits down at the table to eat some yogurt. Of course this means Eleanor wants yogurt too. You know how it goes. So while they are eating I decided it is time to finish beautifying myself.
Moments like this make me REALLY miss my ponytail. Short hair has to be done! I blow dry/straighten my hair and throw on some makeup all in view of the kids. One perk to a small house, I guess.
Now it is the finishing touches. Make sure Quinn goes to the bathroom, find shoes, grab backpack, diaper bag, cup for E, things for errands, etc….All well trying to keep the kiddos under control.
Time to drop Quinn off at school. Keep in mind it isn’t even 9:00 yet and I’m already exhausted. Quinn loves school and is always excited to go.
Monday and Wednesday are school days. So our Monday and Wednesday mornings look pretty much like this. On Thursdays I try to get the kids to story time at Barnes & Noble in the morning. Tuesday and Friday mornings are up in the air. For the most part, we try to have a morning outing, pick Ross up for lunch and then spend the afternoon at home. After lunch it is nap time and then we kind of just hang out until dad gets home. Back to today.
After I load E in the car and start driving I realize I am starving. I meant to grab a yogurt and forgot. I often forget to feed myself. I grab a yogurt parfait of the $1 menu at McD’s. Okay, okay! In all honesty, I also got a Nonfat Sugar Free Vanilla Latte.
Then it was off to get some prints made, mailed, return something at Home Depot and pick up socks for the kids at Target. After months in sandals, the sudden drop in temperature made me realize my children no longer have socks that fit them.
Since Ross had just turned 30 it was time to stop by the world’s best bakery and pick up some birthday treats, which I then kindly dropped off.
Now I promised myself that my time with Eleanor, while Quinn was in school, would not just be about errands. I promised I would make time to be with her and be in the moment. You know? So we decided to go to the park.
She is obsessed with going up and down stairs. Over and over and over again. And don’t even think about holding her hand or helping her, because she will not have it. Little stinker is just like her mommy. After the park, we were on our way to pick up Quinn and I realized I had about 20 minutes to spare. My grandparents house is on the way so I decided to stop by and let Eleanor visit with Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. Then it was off to pick Quinn up. After Quinn it was daddy’s turn to be picked up. We have one car, so we do a lot of picking up and dropping off.
While dad is home on lunch I work him. No joke. This isn’t a free pass. So while Ross was whipping up lunch I was attacking the floors with the vacuum. I figured while the kids are contained and before they are napping I better get this vacuuming done. I even attacked the couch.
Ross took the car back to work and I was on a mission to get the kiddos down for an early nap since I had a 2:00 Dr. Appt. Of course, when you want them to nap or nap early, they have other ideas. Quinn actually went down no problem.
I thought E was down, and started mopping and scrubbing the floors.
Turns out Eleanor had no intention of sleeping. At least she let me finish mopping before she started yelling from her crib.
So E is up and I am trying to get the joint back in order. Clearly she is tired. I bust out the Pledge and dust too. I’m obviously showing off for your guys.
Once again, I forgot to feed myself. I break for some yogurt. Apparently that is all I eat. Haha.
Normally the kids nap. Normally I don’t have to wake them up for a 2:00 Doctor appointment. When they nap I try to get work done around the house or blog or craft. Sometimes I just nap too. Like right now, this cold is kicking my butt, if the kids are napping, I am too! Two o’clock comes way too soon and I have to wake this guy up.
We head to the doctor.
Gotta love doctor office decor. The appointment went quick and we were back home with lots of the afternoon to spare. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t conducive to anything fun so we were stuck in the house.
At this point our colds are just starting and we are all feeling a little under the weather. Snuggly T.V. time it is! We like to play in the backyard or turn the T.V. off and hang out with blocks, etc.
Then Ross gets home. If the weather is nice, after the kids are up from their naps we go play out front and wait for Ross to get home. As soon as Ross gets home the kids are officially wacko. They get so excited to see their daddy and they want to jump and climb and wrestle and play. Sometimes, I hide out. Seriously, I tuck myself away in our room with the lap top and enjoy some peace and quiet. It only last like 10 minutes, but is well worth it.
Time to make dinner. This night is burritos. Ross works on browning the meat and I work on slicing tomatoes, olives, etc.
Then we eat as a family. It is nice to sit down and be together as a family. Remember how Eleanor decided not to nap AT ALL today? Yeah, well after dinner she was done. So off to bed for her. Quinn, Ross and I had a movie night with popcorn. What else do you do on a rainy evening when you are under the weather?
Then it was off to bed for Quinn. We each read Quinn a story and tuck him in.
If the planets have aligned and the world is in our favor we will have both kids in bed by 7:30-8:00. Ross and I usually straighten up. Often times Ross straightens up while I blog. I know, he is great. Then we settle in for T.V. We actually finished all of the Burn Notice episodes available on Netflix, so now we are getting them off the computer.
It appears we have now made it through every available episode. Thank god fall T.V. is starting up, otherwise we might have to actually talk to each other.
It is rare if we get to bed before midnight. I never mean to go to bed that late, but once I get the kiddos in bed, straighten up the house, jump on the computer to catch up or write a post and the enjoy a show or two it is midnight. I always wonder how it got so late so fast.
Of course, on any given day, there are lots of mommy moments. Going through school folders and comforting children…just to name a few.
Obviously my whole day is dictated, more or less, by two little munchkins’ needs. There is diaper changing and potty breaks and a whole lot of negotiating tucked into the day as well. For those of you keeping count, that was 11 times I loaded and unloaded kids into a car. No such thing as a quick errand when you have kids.
Anything about my day look familiar?
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