It’s been a while since I did a day in the life post and now that Alvy is older I would like to document how my days are spent. My daughter, Evelyn is 3 years, 4 months old and my son, Alvy is 15 months. Today is a pretty typical Monday.
This post will be relatively long but I think this will be fun to go back and read later so I want to document as much detail as I can.
5:15 AM – Jason’s alarm goes off. I’ve been getting up with him lately because I like having a cup of coffee before the kids wake up. Evie slept with us last night and has her head glued into the crook of my arm, which is halfway asleep. Jason gets in the shower. I lay in bed and enjoy a sleeping kiddo cuddle until I hear him get out.
5:30 AM – Once he’s out of the shower I roll out of bed and no sooner than I walk into the kitchen to pour my coffee do I hear Alvy up in his room crying.
*headdesk*
So much for a quiet cup of coffee. I hurriedly pour my coffee, grab my tablet and head upstairs. I try to lay him back down but no dice. He’s awake. For the day. At 5:30AM. Bummer. I nurse him and we cuddle in the glider in his room and then he crawls out of my lap and begins playing.
6:00 AM – I sit down at my desk in the game room and write a MOMS Club email while Alvy plays. The email is long (about our upcoming monthly calendar) so it takes a while to write. I’m thankful he’s playing happily so I can concentrate.
7:00 AM – Alvy starts to get fussy so I assume he’s hungry. Before heading downstairs I change his diaper, get him dressed and lay Evie’s clothes out for the week in her room. Downstairs we go.
7:15 AM – As I’m making breakfast Evie wanders in still half asleep. She helps me out by cracking eggs as I make tortillas. We’re having egg and cheese breakfast tacos.
8:00 AM – Breakfast is over. I spend about an hour cleaning up after breakfast and doing my morning chores (unloading the dishwasher, making the bed, feeding our pets, putting in a load of laundry, picking up random toys). Evie goes upstairs to get dressed. The kids play quietly some inside and some outside while I watch through the window. The weather has been so nice the last few days they’ve been eating up the outside time. I want them to burn some energy because I need to go to the grocery store and I don’t want them squirming in the shopping cart.
9:00 AM – I tell Evie that we need to go to the grocery store and she has 5 minutes to finish playing. She is having so much fun in the backyard she doesn’t want to leave. Bribery follows. I may promised her a donut. 30 minutes later everyone is in the car.
On the way to the store we stop by the chiropractor for an adjustment and then finally make it to the grocery store around 10.
Grocery shopping goes off without a hitch and almost $200 later we leave. It is a pretty high grocery bill for us but we were out of almost everything so I’m not too surprised. The cart was overflowing.
11:30 AM – We get home. I unload the car and start making lunch (a double batch of chicken nuggets for the freezer and sweet potato fries). The kids play in the backyard while I watch from the kitchen window as I cook and put away groceries.
12:30 PM – We sit down for lunch. By we I mean Alvy and I – Evie insists that she’s not hungry and refuses to join us. It’s not a battle I’m willing to fight right now so I let it go. Alvy inhales the nuggets and sweet potato fries and I eat leftover pizza.
1:00 PM – Alvy has a meltdown. Nap time. When I tell Evie is time to go upstairs for quiet time she informs me that she’s hungry. Of course. I give her some lunch and tell her to sit at the table and eat while I lay Alvy down for a nap. I sit down in the glider, nurse him then lay him in his crib. Though it’s time for his nap and he’s obviously tired sleep isn’t coming easy. I sit back down in the glider and wait for him to settle himself down. He cries in the crib. Cries turn in fuss and fuss turns into silence. After 45 minutes he finally lays himself down and falls asleep. At some point Evie wanders into her room and begins playing quietly. The whole time I’m hoping the dog doesn’t eat the chicken nuggets left on the table.
1:50 PM – I go downstairs put the chicken nuggets in the freezer, pick up after lunch and come back upstairs to find Evie.
2:00 PM – We start “school”. We’ve been doing school every weekday while Alvy naps. It’s challenging for Evie and it gives us some good one-on-one time. Today we do sight words, number writing, a reading lesson, practice counting to 30 and write the letter J.
3:30 PM – School is over. We both go downstairs and I clean up from lunch, clean out the pantry, finish putting away the groceries and call I the audiologist (the tube on Alvy’s hearing aid is ripping in half). Evie practices using her scissors on our junk mail and leaves tiny little pieces of confetti all over the kitchen floor. Once I get all my mandatory chores done I continue to clean like a mad woman knowing my time my time is limited. I also change into my running clothes so I’m ready to go when the opportunity presents itself.
4:30 PM – Alvy wakes up. I change his diaper, feed him a snack and let him play for a few minutes. I am about to put the kids in the stroller for my run but I hang around just long enough to find out that Jason was leaving work. Immediately I decided to postpone my run until he got home so I didn’t have to push the stroller.
5:15 PM – Jason gets home and begins playing outside with the kids. I talk to him for a few minutes then leave for a 5 mile run. After about a half mile I realize how late we were going to eat dinner and instead decide to shorten it to 3 miles in exchange for more family time. Didn’t look at my watch at all just ran a leisurely pace. My legs felt reluctant but the weather was nice so I was a happy girl.
5:50 PM – I get back from my run and Jason informs me that I left the door to our upright freezer in the garage open when I put the shrimp away after my grocery trip. All the food inside has thawed and ruined. At first I was mad at myself but most of the food in there was very old and probably needed to be thrown out anyway. Still kind of a bummer. I guess I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow. I spend a few minutes outside cooling down.
6:15 PM – I go inside, take a shower and start working on dinner. We’re having Huevos rancheros – fried eggs served over a tostada, covered in salsa and queso fresco. Served with refried black beans, country style potatoes and bacon.
7:10 PM – We all sit down to dinner. Jason and I talk a lot about his work and a little about my hair brained business ideas. Evie tells Jason about her day at school. She actually eats quite a bit of her dinner, something that only happens about once a week.
7:45 PM – Evie asks if she can be excused from the table and she had eaten relatively well so we let her. As soon as she leaves Alvy starts screaming, “ALL DONE! ALL DONE” (which sounds like Ahhhh da! Ahhh da!) and waving his hands in the all finished sign. The kids both go in the den to watch Mickey Mouse. This is the first time all day our television has been on. Jason and I continue to sit at the table and chat and enjoy some quiet time. Ahhhhh.
8:00 PM – We finally leave the table. I clean the kitchen and do my evening chores (make the coffee for tomorrow, program the dishwasher to run overnight, get the next load of laundry in the washer and pick up the house) and Jason goes outside to make a work phone call. The kids play.
8:46 PM – I’m standing in the kitchen talking to Jason and Alvy walks over crying. That’s our cue that’s it’s time for bed. We all trudge upstairs to change the kids into pajamas. Once in his PJs Alvy gets a second wind and we all play in Evie’s room as a family.
9:15 PM – I take Alvy, literally kicking and screaming, into his room for bed. He was having such a good time playing with his daddy and sister that he didn’t want to stop but it was past time for bed. I rock him and nurse him until he’s calm.
9:30 PM – I lay Alvy down in his crib. He cries for about 3 seconds and immediately falls asleep. I sit in the glider for a few minutes to make sure he’s well settled before leaving the room.
9:45 PM – I walk downstairs and find Evie and Jason reading curious George and watching football. As soon as the book is finished Evie comes to cuddle with me on the couch. It’s time for both of us to go to bed. Lately, she hasn’t been sleeping well in her room so we’ve been letting her sleep with us. Jason stays up to watch the rest of the football game and she and I go to our bedroom. I move the pile of unfolded laundry off the bed and on to my dresser (I’ll deal with it tomorrow). She and I curl up in bed in a mommy/daughter cuddle and we both go to sleep.
Today was a pretty good day. I was in control all day, no epic meltodown, no tantrums, nothing I couldn’t handle. I can walk around with my head held high proud of the two, well behaved, little people I’m raising. Days like today, I feel like I’ve got this stay-at-home mom thing down – until tomorrow when the kids run me over like a Mack truck. {Two days later as I’m editing this, I can tell you that’s exactly what happened – oh well. You win some you loose some.}
One thing is for sure, I wouldn’t trade this time for anything.