To finish things off with this guest series, I'd love to share about a day in my life. Here she be:
7am - I hear the kids awake and Oli is whining, so I go. Sometimes I hear them just chatting or playing, and in those cases I stay in bed as long as possible (even until the glorious hour of eight), but if someone sounds upset, I'll go so long as it's 7am or later. Before 7am there would have to be some pretty serious cries to warrant an early wake up. I swear it's to teach them about proper wake up times... and maybe a bit for me too ;)
7am-8:30am - change out of nighttime diapers and get dressed, breakfast, independent play. Lily is potty trained but not for nights yet, so she's just into undies and clothes for school, Oli is into cloth diapers and whatever he's wearing for the day. Lily goes to a French daycare right next door to our house two days a week. It's terrific for everyone - she loves it and learns french, Oli benefits from one-on-one time with mama, and I get a bit of a breather. The kids sit at the kitchen island and have yogurt and bananas for breakfast while I make waffles. I usually make a huge batch and freeze them, but this morning I had none left. Once the waffles are done we all eat some and I make myself a smoothie also. Brad wakes and has a smoothie with me and takes Lily to school for 8:30am (or 9am, depending) before heading to work.
9am-10am - Oli plays independently or reads while I clean up from breakfast, empty the dishwasher, put a load of laundry in, and fold whatever is in the dryer. Oli "helps" put away the kid's clothes, which is actually no help at all, but it's cute! I finish my smoothie and tidy up with Oli from the morning's playtime and get him ready for his nap.
10am-12pm - Oli naps and if Lily is home, this is when she does too. Depending on how I'm feeling and what trimester I'm in, I'll either be productive during this 2 hour free period, or nap myself. Lately I've had a bit more energy (thank you, 2nd trimester!) so I often opt for the former. For the first four months of my pregnancy I napped every.single.day during the kid's naptime though, and it was fabulous! Today I respond to e-mails, research family cars for us, write a few blog posts and schedule them for throughout the week, catch up with my church family and learn of a service opportunity on Saturday and sign us up (a mostly-elderly church needs someone to drive someone somewhere), and make our bed and get dressed.
12pm - Oli is awake and a total crankster. The kid rarely wakes happily these days (I blame you, teething!) which is funny because Lily literally pops out of bed with a chipper "Hi Mama/Oli/Dada/Whoever is within earshot!!". We eat lunch almost right away - a variety of fruits and vegetables chopped up, some nuts, cheese, yogurt, eggs, leftovers, whatever. After we're done lunch and cleaned up I make plans to get together with Morgan and see her new place.
1:30pm-4pm - Oli and I are finally organized enough to leave the house to we get our shoes on and head downstairs. This is the one part of city-living that is hard on me: leaving the house with kids. Since we have no garage or parking, we park our car on the street wherever we can find parking. We also live on the 2nd floor with no elevator, so I have to carry the kids down (though they can climb up). It's a huge ordeal and being pregnant doesn't make things easier. Our stroller is in the trunk of the car so I don't also have to carry that, so usually I'd just go get it and we'd be off, but today we're driving (rare) because we have errands afterwards. Morgan treats me to coffee (love her) and Oli and I pop by her new place. It's a quick visit but SO refreshing. I have some great friends in Montreal, who we really view as family, especially since none of our family lives nearby. Then Oli are I drive to Marche St-Hubert (Marche= Market) where there are two thrift stores within one block. Aka my heaven. I have a huge bag of old clothes to drop off and am craving a little thrifting too. We buy some vintage dishes and table cloths and a dress for Little Sister and then head home.
4:30pm - Once Oli is settled with a snack (today it's Cheerios and dried apricots) I leave him playing and go get Lily next door. Lily's a ball of excitement as usual when I pick her up from day care. She blows her teacher kisses goodbye and I notice her teacher put her hair in braids today. Seriously, the care they give those kiddies is impressive. We come home to see Oli glued to the patio doors waiting for us and both kids start laughing happily at the thought of being reunited. Don't be fooled - they're fighting over the play kitchen and getting time outs for hitting one another mere minutes later. But I hold on to the reunion picture in my mind instead :)
5:30pm - The kiddies have dinner and Brad and I catch up from our days. We'll eat when they're asleep. I know the family dinner thing is all the rage but right now they eat too early and it's too chaotic for Brad and I to get a word in during the meal, so they eat before us.
6pm - The kids have a bath, which I sometimes draw out for up to an hour if I'm in need of a rest/break. Even if it's a short bath (15 minutes or so), it's relaxing for me. I usually sit on the toilet or beside the bath with my iPhone and catch up with friends on Instagram or via their blogs. Other times Brad comes in and mans the bathroom while I get our dinner ready.
6:30pm - depending on the night it's either independent play or stories or early to bed for Oli (if he didn't nap well, is sick, etc). Tonight he went down at 6:30pm not because of the aforementioned reasons, but because me and Lily needed some us time. Daycare days are usually like this. So he goes down and we go on the front porch and watch the traffic go by and talk about our days. Sometimes we pray for our city together (mostly I pray and she closes her eyes and snuggles me), other times we visit with our upstairs neighbours who share our front terrace, and often we just unwind quietly together (remember, she's my quality time girl!).
7pm - Lily and I head inside, put on her night time diaper and read some stories. Brad has meetings tonight so we're not eating together, so he says good night to Lily and heads out for the next couple hours. I put Lily to bed and remind her about a thousand times to be quiet because Oli is already asleep. Girlfriend has not mastered the art of whispering, but thankfully he stays asleep tonight.
7:30pm - I make myself dinner and tidy up from that, then unwind in whatever way works best based on the day I had. Sometimes it's a bath, other times it's blogging or reading blogs, other times it's baking or watching hockey. Tonight it's writing this very post.
9pm - Brad comes home and we catch the final period of whatever hockey game is on, chatting between plays and on commercials. We spend the rest of the night together either intentionally (doing something together) or unintentionally (reading our Bibles, web surfing, or working side by side).
10:30pm - I read a few chapters of the Bible (I'm in Nehemiah right now), then head to bed way before the hubs. He prefers to work late and get an extra hour of sleep in the morning, which is fine by me since I pass out pretty early anyway.
7am - I hear the kids awake and Oli is whining, so I go. Sometimes I hear them just chatting or playing, and in those cases I stay in bed as long as possible (even until the glorious hour of eight), but if someone sounds upset, I'll go so long as it's 7am or later. Before 7am there would have to be some pretty serious cries to warrant an early wake up. I swear it's to teach them about proper wake up times... and maybe a bit for me too ;)
7am-8:30am - change out of nighttime diapers and get dressed, breakfast, independent play. Lily is potty trained but not for nights yet, so she's just into undies and clothes for school, Oli is into cloth diapers and whatever he's wearing for the day. Lily goes to a French daycare right next door to our house two days a week. It's terrific for everyone - she loves it and learns french, Oli benefits from one-on-one time with mama, and I get a bit of a breather. The kids sit at the kitchen island and have yogurt and bananas for breakfast while I make waffles. I usually make a huge batch and freeze them, but this morning I had none left. Once the waffles are done we all eat some and I make myself a smoothie also. Brad wakes and has a smoothie with me and takes Lily to school for 8:30am (or 9am, depending) before heading to work.
9am-10am - Oli plays independently or reads while I clean up from breakfast, empty the dishwasher, put a load of laundry in, and fold whatever is in the dryer. Oli "helps" put away the kid's clothes, which is actually no help at all, but it's cute! I finish my smoothie and tidy up with Oli from the morning's playtime and get him ready for his nap.
10am-12pm - Oli naps and if Lily is home, this is when she does too. Depending on how I'm feeling and what trimester I'm in, I'll either be productive during this 2 hour free period, or nap myself. Lately I've had a bit more energy (thank you, 2nd trimester!) so I often opt for the former. For the first four months of my pregnancy I napped every.single.day during the kid's naptime though, and it was fabulous! Today I respond to e-mails, research family cars for us, write a few blog posts and schedule them for throughout the week, catch up with my church family and learn of a service opportunity on Saturday and sign us up (a mostly-elderly church needs someone to drive someone somewhere), and make our bed and get dressed.
12pm - Oli is awake and a total crankster. The kid rarely wakes happily these days (I blame you, teething!) which is funny because Lily literally pops out of bed with a chipper "Hi Mama/Oli/Dada/Whoever is within earshot!!". We eat lunch almost right away - a variety of fruits and vegetables chopped up, some nuts, cheese, yogurt, eggs, leftovers, whatever. After we're done lunch and cleaned up I make plans to get together with Morgan and see her new place.
1:30pm-4pm - Oli and I are finally organized enough to leave the house to we get our shoes on and head downstairs. This is the one part of city-living that is hard on me: leaving the house with kids. Since we have no garage or parking, we park our car on the street wherever we can find parking. We also live on the 2nd floor with no elevator, so I have to carry the kids down (though they can climb up). It's a huge ordeal and being pregnant doesn't make things easier. Our stroller is in the trunk of the car so I don't also have to carry that, so usually I'd just go get it and we'd be off, but today we're driving (rare) because we have errands afterwards. Morgan treats me to coffee (love her) and Oli and I pop by her new place. It's a quick visit but SO refreshing. I have some great friends in Montreal, who we really view as family, especially since none of our family lives nearby. Then Oli are I drive to Marche St-Hubert (Marche= Market) where there are two thrift stores within one block. Aka my heaven. I have a huge bag of old clothes to drop off and am craving a little thrifting too. We buy some vintage dishes and table cloths and a dress for Little Sister and then head home.
4:30pm - Once Oli is settled with a snack (today it's Cheerios and dried apricots) I leave him playing and go get Lily next door. Lily's a ball of excitement as usual when I pick her up from day care. She blows her teacher kisses goodbye and I notice her teacher put her hair in braids today. Seriously, the care they give those kiddies is impressive. We come home to see Oli glued to the patio doors waiting for us and both kids start laughing happily at the thought of being reunited. Don't be fooled - they're fighting over the play kitchen and getting time outs for hitting one another mere minutes later. But I hold on to the reunion picture in my mind instead :)
5:30pm - The kiddies have dinner and Brad and I catch up from our days. We'll eat when they're asleep. I know the family dinner thing is all the rage but right now they eat too early and it's too chaotic for Brad and I to get a word in during the meal, so they eat before us.
6pm - The kids have a bath, which I sometimes draw out for up to an hour if I'm in need of a rest/break. Even if it's a short bath (15 minutes or so), it's relaxing for me. I usually sit on the toilet or beside the bath with my iPhone and catch up with friends on Instagram or via their blogs. Other times Brad comes in and mans the bathroom while I get our dinner ready.
6:30pm - depending on the night it's either independent play or stories or early to bed for Oli (if he didn't nap well, is sick, etc). Tonight he went down at 6:30pm not because of the aforementioned reasons, but because me and Lily needed some us time. Daycare days are usually like this. So he goes down and we go on the front porch and watch the traffic go by and talk about our days. Sometimes we pray for our city together (mostly I pray and she closes her eyes and snuggles me), other times we visit with our upstairs neighbours who share our front terrace, and often we just unwind quietly together (remember, she's my quality time girl!).
7pm - Lily and I head inside, put on her night time diaper and read some stories. Brad has meetings tonight so we're not eating together, so he says good night to Lily and heads out for the next couple hours. I put Lily to bed and remind her about a thousand times to be quiet because Oli is already asleep. Girlfriend has not mastered the art of whispering, but thankfully he stays asleep tonight.
7:30pm - I make myself dinner and tidy up from that, then unwind in whatever way works best based on the day I had. Sometimes it's a bath, other times it's blogging or reading blogs, other times it's baking or watching hockey. Tonight it's writing this very post.
9pm - Brad comes home and we catch the final period of whatever hockey game is on, chatting between plays and on commercials. We spend the rest of the night together either intentionally (doing something together) or unintentionally (reading our Bibles, web surfing, or working side by side).
10:30pm - I read a few chapters of the Bible (I'm in Nehemiah right now), then head to bed way before the hubs. He prefers to work late and get an extra hour of sleep in the morning, which is fine by me since I pass out pretty early anyway.
Love that you're honest about bath time!! Sometimes I feel guilty that I am not "engaging" Levi during bathtime. But mostly it's a chance to sit with a good book. He loves it... and the longer the better !!
ReplyDeleteI hear you! Why do we feel like we have to be "ON" 100% of the time? Thats not normal! And our kid's don't need it 100% of the time either. That's called helicopter parenting, and kids don't usually benefit from it :)
DeleteLove bath time!
Beautiful day in the life of you!
ReplyDeleteMummer
xoxo
aww our days are pretty similar but our evenings are not! Pen is just falling asleep on her own now, and goes to bed at 7:30 or 8, and we go to bed shortly after (like...9:30! lol!) And that whole bath time relaxation idea seems foreign to me! I have to watch Pen like a hawk because she is standing up and slipping and sliding. five minutes is all I can handle! lol!
ReplyDeleteglad u shared too :)
wow, 9:30pm! I went to bed at that time during all three of my 1st trimesters, but only because I was so dead tired. Normally I go to bed between 10:30pm - midnight.
Deletedon't worry, Bri, the relaxing bathtime thing will come. But just so you know, my kids stand/slip/slide a lot too, I just don't find I have to be like hands in the bath during that time. Of course, when that happens (often)I stop what I'm doing, but usually they rebound faster than I can respond and are happy enough so I keep on relaxing :)
I'll bet in a few months you feel the same, but with young babies (around 1 year I still consider young) it's so hands-on so often, eh?