I’ve seen these day-in-the-life posts on other blogs and I’ve been meaning to write one of my own for awhile. I wanted to do one while I was on maternity leave, but I was too sleep-addled to get it together. I can only think of one person who would really want a play-by-play of how I spend my day (hi, Mom!) but I’m going to do one anyway, for me. This bonus time I’m enjoying with Peanut is fleeting, and I’m always conscious of the fact that sooner or later I’ll be heading back to the office. I know that this is something I’ll want to look back on when that day comes, just to remember the little moments that might not stick in my memory, but that are worth holding onto. So here we go: a day in the life home with a fifteen-month-old, captured in December of 2013. Buckle up; this is a long one.
6:30 a.m. I wake up to little hands on my face. This might sound like the sweetest, most peaceful way you could ever wake up, and sometimes it is, but just as often it’s damp, violent, or both. Today, though, it’s just sweet and peaceful. Hubby has been up for awhile and Peanut has already had her morning bottle while I got some extra sleep. Early mornings are their special daddy-daughter time together. We all snuggle for a few minutes, then get up to start the day.
6:35-6:55 a.m. Peanut reads books in her crib while Daddy and I go through our morning routines. I make the bed and get ready for the day, while Daddy finishes getting prepared for work.
6:55 a.m. Peanut and I are downstairs. We greet Mirror Baby and make our morning rounds of the kitchen to make sure that no one has stolen the garbage can or the basement stairs overnight. Peanut is very relieved to see that both beloved items are in their proper places. We say good morning to the Christmas tree and follow Daddy around while he makes his lunch.
7:05 a.m. We open today’s door on our Advent calendar, hug and kiss Daddy goodbye, and he’s off to work. Peanut and I settle in to play in her play yard for a little while. Peanut snuggles sweetly in my lap while I read Christmas stories out loud. Then we shift to the “using Mommy as a climbing apparatus” part of the morning. Ah. My favorite time of day.
8:00 a.m. Okay, I need caffeine. Peanut stays in the play yard banging toys on the floor while I head to the kitchen to make my tea.
8:02-8:15 a.m. Peanut is voicing her displeasure at me going into the kitchen (what nerve I have!) so I grab her from the play yard and we make more rounds of the downstairs while my water boils. We check out the Christmas tree for a little while, and Peanut spends several minutes flipping through The Happiest Toddler on the Block, while I try to explain that the author photograph on the back is actually not a picture of Dada. (Dr. Harvey Karp doesn’t look anything like hubby, but right now Peanut calls all men “Dada.”) Finally, my tea is ready. I manage to distract Peanut with her sand pail while I grab it from the kitchen.
8:15-8:34 a.m. I drink my tea while Peanut complains that I’m not sharing it with her or allowing her to climb on me while I sip a molten hot beverage.
8:34-9:20 a.m. Back in the play yard with Peanut. We read stories, sing songs, play with Peanut’s V-Tech ball (which she is just beginning to play with more enthusiastically, though she usually just cautiously touches with one finger from a safe spot in my lap – I don’t know why, but she’s absolutely terrified of the thing) and put cups on our heads.
9:20 a.m. Peanut is restless, so we make a few loops of the downstairs and spend some time communing with the Christmas tree.
9:30 a.m. Peanut sits in her high chair and plays with a bucket while I get breakfast ready: yogurt, raspberries, and a bottle.
9:35 a.m. Breakfast is served. Peanut has two spoons: one to eat with, and one “sacrificial offering” to play with while I feed her. If she doesn’t have a spoon to play with, she sticks her hands in her yogurt and then rubs them all over her head, or she swats the eating spoon out of my hands while I try to feed her. I have no interest in cleaning yogurt off the walls, so I give her her own spoon.
9:36 a.m. Peanut’s “sacrificial offering” spoon is on the floor. I go to the kitchen and get her another one.
9:40 a.m. Peanut’s second “sacrificial offering” spoon is on the floor. I don’t feel like getting her a third spoon to play with, so I tear up a raspberry for her to eat between bites of yogurt. As long as her hands are busy, she’s cool. Most of the time, Peanut is pretty good about feeding herself her finger foods, but today she mostly wants me to put the raspberries in her mouth. That’s fine by me, and we spend the rest of breakfast pretty peacefully.
After breakfast, I clean Peanut up with a wash cloth, which she appropriates for a game of peekaboo.
9:55 a.m. Upstairs for bottle and nap routine. Peanut pounds her bottle and then does some pretty cute soothing with one of her Haba toys.
10:05 a.m. Peanut points to her bookshelf and says, “Booka!” Normally I would only read her one book before her morning nap (she’s usually pretty zonked, so she goes right down without a full story hour) but she asked so nicely and so cutely, so we go to the bookshelf and I let her choose one more story. Little stinker grabs two books off the shelf: Clifford Goes to Washington and Curious George Visits the Library. I tell her to choose one, and she points to George, so George it is. We read her extra story and then we read her naptime book, Wherever You Are, My Love Will Find You, which she got last month from a family friend and which we have made part of our pre-nap wind-down routine. As soon as Peanut sees this second book, the thumb is in her mouth and the foot is in her other hand: she’s ready to cuddle. We read the book, snuggle for a bit, and then I put Peanut down for her morning nap.
10:20 a.m. I make a second cup of tea while getting a start on cleaning up the kitchen. I swear, I leave it spotless at night (most of the time), so clearly we have a gnome problem.
10:47 a.m. Time for Mommy’s breakfast, finally! I have two eggs and some fruit while reading Naughty in Nice, the fifth “Her Royal Spyness” mystery. Light and funny.
11:10 a.m. Done with breakfast, back to work in the kitchen. I finish loading the breakfast dishes into the dishwasher, then start cleaning out the fridge and prepping some food for the next few days: homemade vegetable soup, roasted cinnamon apples (just for hubby and me; Peanut is allergic to cinnamon, poor kid), sliced peppers for snacking, and some plain roasted apples to have on hand for Peanut’s meals.
12:20 p.m. Soup is simmering on the stove, fridge is clean, dishwasher is chugging through another load of dishes, apples are roasting, and veggies have been prepped for munching. Peanut has been asleep for almost two hours now (judging by the time I stopped hearing her chatting over the baby monitor) so I’m expecting her up any minute. In the meantime, I try to make a dent in the mountain of clutter on the dining room table, which has become the repository for anything we feel like dropping at any particular moment, kind of the way the kitchen desk station was at our house in Virginia. I try to stay on top of it, but clearly it takes on a life of its own. Today it’s piled with mail, to-be-wrapped Christmas presents, the remnants of a Target run, and various baby gear items. I try to blaze through and put away as much of it as possible before Peanut starts peeping upstairs.
12:35 p.m. I still don’t hear Peanut, so I head upstairs to see what’s going on and wake her up if necessary. (I know, the conventional wisdom is “never wake a sleeping baby,” but Peanut needs to get up. She’s an easygoing kid who never objects to being woken up, but what she doesn’t appreciate is getting off schedule. I need her up now so that she will be ready for her afternoon nap in a few hours. If she misses the afternoon nap because she’s not tired enough, she’ll be overtired by early evening and it will be chaos at bedtime.) I peek in the nursery and see this:
That’s an awake baby, but she seems to have just woken up, because she’s pretty drowsy. Before long, though, she’s perked up. Peanut plays with her books and toys while I sort her clean laundry.
Oh, look, I’ve got myself a helper!
After I finish putting away the laundry, I join Peanut on the floor and we play for about an hour. We make faces at each other and I read the stories Peanut “requests” by handing the books to me. We read Blueberries for Sal, Bedtime (a texture book), Listen Up, Pup, Bible stories and a few more.
1:50 p.m. Lunchtime for baby! We head downstairs and I put together a plate of hard boiled egg and some of Peanut’s roasted apple, which has cooled. The apple is a hit, but the egg is a miss. Peanut eats about half of the egg; the rest she puts in her mouth and spits out. I mull over writing another installment of my Babyfood Diaries, which I haven’t done in awhile. After egg and apple eating (or throwing, as the case may be) is over, Peanut has a sippy cup full of milk and cracks herself up with giant trucker burps.
2:20 p.m. We head upstairs to wind down for the afternoon nap. Peanut plays in her crib while I run a bath for her.
She gets a quick scrub-down, then I bundle her up in a cozy long-sleeved onesie for her afternoon nap. She plays for a few more minutes while I drain her tub and do a lightening-fast bathroom cleaning job.
2:45 p.m. Time to wind down for the afternoon nap. I bundle Peanut into her sleepsack and we snuggle and read some more book ’ems: Caps for Sale, Make Way for Ducklings and our naptime book. I had planned to read a few more stories, but by the midway point of Make Way for Ducklings, Peanut is rubbing her eyes, sucking her thumb and generally acting tired. (Victory!) So I cut the reading short, give her a few snuggles and she’s ready for the crib.
3:00 p.m. I decide that if I’m going to get in a workout, it’s now or never. I had wanted to run, but baby, it’s cold outside. With wind chill, the temperature is a frigid 5 degrees. That’s cold even for me, and it’s way too cold for Peanut, so I’m not venturing outside. Instead I pull out a new Jillian DVD I’ve been saving for just such a chilly afternoon. The DVD has three 20-minute workouts: each one blasts you with cardio, but Workout 1 also tones the upper body, Workout 2 cuts up the lower body, and Workout 3 focuses on abs. I do Workouts 1 and 2, which is an intense 40 minutes, and I have a blast. Jillian makes “Karate Kid” and “Ghostbusters” references and gets kind of aggressive with suggestions that you break your opponent’s ribs. Gotta love Jill.
4:00 p.m. Done with the workout! Midway through the workout, I heard Peanut encouraging me over the baby monitor, but she dropped off to sleep fairly quickly and she’s snoozing now. By the time I’m done, there is snow driving down outside my window, but I’m dripping sweat. I enter my time into my online fitness tracker.
4:19 p.m. Realize I forgot to eat lunch. I’ve had some kind of stomach issue the past few days, and while I feel back to 100% today, I’m still not very hungry. (And because I know my mother-in-law will hear “stomach issue” and think “!!!!!” I should say: no, Peanut is not getting a little brother or sister. I was just sick. Hubby and Peanut are fine, so I think it’s something I ate and not a bug.) I had planned to have a bowl of the soup I made earlier, but it’s too late now and dinner isn’t very far off, so I settle for an orange, sliced soccer practice style, of course. I eat it while I clean the kitchen (again – how does stuff keep piling up in there?).
4:45 p.m. I hear snuffling on the baby monitor, which is good, because it’s about time for Peanut to get up for the evening. I go upstairs and set her up with some toys and books in the crib while I quickly clean up from my workout. (I know, I know, but I’d rather work up an additional sweat with some cleaning and wait until Peanut is awake before I start running water right next to her room.)
5:05 p.m. Peanut and I head downstairs and see that Daddy has texted that he’ll be working a little late. Peanut plays in her play yard while I leave a voicemail for my new basic literacy student (I’ve just completed my tutor training and been matched with a student!) to set up our first session. Then I hop in the play yard with Peanut and we listen to the Raffi channel on Pandora, sing along, and play with her toys for awhile. The snow is really coming down now, so we hope Daddy drives safe and gets home soon.
5:48 p.m. The song “Do You Love Me” comes on Pandora, so obviously Peanut and I have to dance. I show her my sick moves. She’s especially impressed with the mashed potato. Which makes us think about dinner, so we head to the dining room and I get Peanut’s dinner ready.
6:00 p.m. Dinner time! Usually we eat together as a family and Peanut has a less-seasoned version of whatever we’re eating, but Daddy is working late tonight, so I pull together something quick. Peanut gets cheese (her favorite) and kiwi. Now, I would prefer not to give Peanut cheese in the same day that she gets yogurt (that’s a lot of dairy, especially considering she drinks whole milk all day long) but she’s really hungry and I don’t have any other protein prepared for her, unless I feel like having another egg fight, which I don’t. Cheese it is, and Peanut couldn’t be more thrilled.
6:21 p.m. Peanut and I head upstairs with her evening bottle. She drinks the bottle and immediately points to her bookshelf and says “Booka!” I let her choose books to read and she picks Madeline, Listen Up Pup, Olivia, Maisy Goes to the Museum, Listen Up Pup, Roaring Rockets, and Listen Up Pup. (She’s really all over this puppy book, handing it to me and saying “Pup! Pup!”)
6:44 p.m. Daddy texts that he’s headed out, but might be awhile since there’s traffic and a blizzard raging outside. I start Peanut’s bedtime routine. We brush her teeth, change into a short-sleeved shirt and a cozy sleepsack, and settle in for our bedtime book: Sweet Dreams, Maisy. After Maisy, we read a prayer from Peanut’s Really Woolly Bedtime Prayers book, which is adorable. Then I tuck Peanut in and head downstairs to start dinner so that we can eat as soon as hubby gets home.
7:05 Hubby’s home! Finally! Long day for him. I’m so proud of him for working so hard to support our family while I have this bonus time at home with Peanut. Most of his days aren’t usually this long, but he has a big project going and he’s absolutely killing it. Hubby goes upstairs to change out of his work clothes and give Peanut a quick snuggle – she’s still awake – while I work on dinner. We’re having Asian shrimp sauté, which is just shrimp and Asian slaw mix (one of my favorite shortcut ingredients – tons of fresh veggies ready to eat, and all you have to do is open a bag!) sautéed in a little coconut oil and tamari, served over quinoa. The quinoa was left over from two nights ago, and the rest of the sauté is super quick, so I have dinner on the table in ten minutes flat.
7:15 p.m. Dinner is served. Hubby and I eat and talk about our days. He tells me what he can about his project, without divulging any client confidences, and I give him an update on how Peanut ate and napped today.
7:43 p.m. Done with dinner. We clear the table and I quickly clean up the kitchen. Fortunately, I’ve stayed on top of it all day, so I don’t have much to do. (Sometimes I feel like I’m beating back dirty dishes with a stick.) I load up the dishwasher for another run, hand wash the paring knife that I used for Peanut’s kiwi and the non-stick sauté pan from dinner, wipe down the counters and I’m done. I make myself a cup of Yogi bedtime tea, and the kitchen is closed for the night.
8:02 p.m. Ahhhhh – finally! I hit the couch and I don’t plan to move until I go upstairs for bed. Hubby has a Sabres game on, and I keep an eye on the boys while sipping my tea and reading Naughty in Nice. Georgie has landed herself in a sticky situation this time. Can’t wait to see how she gets out of it.
9:30ish p.m. Upstairs for the before-bed routine. Hubby turns the game off and heads up too.
9:42 p.m. Lights out. I’m zonked. These are long days, but at the same time, they’re so much fun and they seem to fly by. Time to get some sleep so I can wake up to do it all again tomorrow.
covered in flour 