A Day in Our Lives

The last time I did one of these "Day in the Life" posts was when Cashel was 17 months old this past June, but things have changed pretty drastically for us since then, so I thought it'd be fun to do another one detailing our typical days with both boys.

The Night until 5ish am

Our day typically starts between 5 and 6, depending on when Kendrick wakes up. Up until about 3 weeks ago, he was sleeping through the night, but these days he usually is already in bed with us after who knows when, since neither of us remember going to get him a lot of times. He usually wants to eat between 1-3 times in the night, so needless to say, we're sleepy and groggy these days :) But to be honest, when you get to wake up to a sweet face like this, who really cares? :)

6am

Anyway, so around 6am we finally officially get up, and I feed/burp Kendrick (usually sidelying in bed), then get up, get him dressed and talk with him a little, then set him down either with Mark on the couch to eat breakfast, on the spare room bed, or in his jumperoo (this is new as of this past weekend - woohoo! He loves it!).

I then start getting myself ready. I usually shower the night before to make the morning go a little easier, so I just get dressed, get my straightening iron going, put my makeup on and start thinking about breakfast.

Depending on if Mark needs to shower or not, Kendrick may or may not be with him still, but I'll usually continue to peek in and listen to him squawk at me, tickle him a bit, pick him up and play with him, then get back to getting ready.

My list of responsibilities for the morning involve:

• Getting myself ready
• Feeding, changing and dressing Kendrick
• Making sure Kendrick's milk is ready to go in his little cooler for daycare
• Getting my breakfast together
• Getting Kendrick in his carseat and snugged in with his blanket, hat and binky
• Making sure supper is in the crockpot if it is a crockpot day (about 1-2 times a week)
• Getting all the kids' stuff in the car

Mark's list of responsibilities for the morning involve:

• Eating breakfast
• Showering/Getting himself ready
• Getting Cashel up, change his diaper and dressed
• Getting Cashel breakfast (sometimes all he wants is milk, depends on the day)
• Getting Cashel buckled up in his carseat and ready to go
• Helping me with whatever is slowing me up - sometimes with getting my coffee, sometimes with getting Kendrick to the car in his carseat.

6:30am

Cashel has been sleeping a lot better, and Mark typically has to wake him up at 6:30, so they have to rush a bit more, but we are usually out the door by 6:45 or soon after, so it's a rush to get to work by 7. Thankfully, we're close to daycare!

6:45am

Out the door, off to daycare and work! We arrive, and usually Kendrick is awake and happy, so I get him out of his seat and hand him off to Jody for some snuggles.

Cashel is usually one of the only really awake ones there, but those who are awake, he snuggles in with them on the couch to watch some cartoons for a little while until everyone wakes up.

7am

We start work! I usually settle in with my coffee and breakfast (if I didn't have time to eat it in the morning) while catching up on emails, then get started into my day with meetings, troubleshooting and lots of coding.

10am

I head to HR to pump - a nice little break from the crazy at work.

noon

Mark usually calls me a few minutes before noon, and the conversation goes a bit like this:

Mark: Ready?
Me: See you at the car!

We meet at the car and head home for lunch for some of our only true downtime in the day without responsibilities beyond enjoying lunch together :) Granted, half of the time, I'm running around trying to finish up some of my nightly duties so I have more free time in the evening. (I'll get to my nightly stuff later).

12:30 or so

We get back to work and finish up our days - some busier than others for sure.

2-2:30pm sometime

I head back to HR to pump again. This time around it typically feels less like a break and more like an, "Oh crap! I almost forgot I've gotta go do that again" type thing.

3:30-4pm ish

We head back to the car after a phone conversation similar to lunch. Some days we stop at the store on the way home to pick up groceries (so we can do it without hauling along the boys) or at the gas station for milk or run errands here and there, but most days we just head straight over to pick up the boys.

4-4:30ish

Pick up the boys from daycare!! Most days Cashel gets REALLY excited to see us and can't wait to come give us hugs, but there is the occasional day that he's having so much fun he hardly wants to go home.

Sometimes we have to drag him kicking and screaming from his favorite horsey lol

Kendrick is usually has just finished taking his 3rd bottle and is starting to get really sleepy, and therefore pretty cranky. We hope we make it there before he dozes off most days.

4:30-5ish

We get home, head inside, unload everything, and spend a half hour or so unwinding from our day, snuggling, hanging out together, and resting. I don't get much of a break as I start supper for sure by 4:45 - this is when I enjoy the crockpot meals because I have way more time to get things done!

4:45ish

I start (or finish) supper while Kendrick takes a cat nap.

5-5:30ish

We all sit down at the table to eat. Well, in reality, Mark and I eat while Cashel takes a nibble here and there and otherwise wants to get down from his seat about 5 minutes after we sit down. He constantly wants to go running around and checking things out. That is, if he's not gobbling up ALL the veggies.

Kendrick has begun joining us at the table too, but typically just plays with toys on the tray. And by "play with toys", I mean eat them and/or throw them on the floor.

6pm

It is jammy time for Kendrick on.the.dot. This kid is predictable. He wants "nekkid baby" time followed about 10 minutes later by warm pjs. We give him a bath about every 2-3 days, and those evenings are harried, since his baths are still in the sink.

So we have to eat quick, then do all the dishes quick, then give him his bath before "nekkid baby" time at 6 and pjs shortly after.

6:30pm

While big brother has tubby time with Daddy, Mommy takes Kendrick down to nurse and rock and sing, then Kendrick goes down between 6:45 and 7pm.

7pm

Kendrick is usually asleep, and then the evening varies usually. Sometimes I sit down at the computer and take a breather for 20 minutes or so. Sometimes I join Cashel and Daddy with some snuggles upstairs while watching Barney or the like. Sometimes I go upstairs and tackle the dishes if Mark hadn't gotten to them yet (he's really good at helping with that!) Sometimes it's laundry, or picking up, or if I'm really lucky, I get to just sit down and relax. Mark and Cashel do different things in that hour before bed most nights. sometimes they jump on the bed in the spare bedroom listening to music. Sometimes they sit down and watch some Barney. Sometimes they play in the toy room. Sometimes Cashel just wants to do his own thing. Sometimes they run all over the place chasing each other. It's fun :)

7:50pm

It's time for Cashel to head down to bed. We get him his blankies, milk and binky, and we all head downstairs to his bed, where we unwind, read books, have conversations that make no sense to anyone but Cashel that go about like this:

Cashel: Guys, guys! Blick black bo bo ::uncontrollable laughter::
Mommy: Cashel! Cashel! Bicka bo bo booom ::uncontrollable laugher::
or
Cashel: Guys, guys! Barney Song!
Daddy: How about ABCs?
Cashel: A, B, C, D, E, G,......P,...S...double ooooooo, ecs (while we sing along)

Cashel would read 15 books or more every night if we let him. We try to cut him off around 5 or 6 at most. This is probably my favorite part of the day. We have fun snuggling all together there. I'm looking forward to the days when Kendrick can join us too, but for now, the bed gets a little bit rowdy. We sometimes kick our energy out, sometimes we just laugh and laugh. We hear "guys, guys" and "shhh" and all sorts of other random stuff most nights.

At some point, we wind things down, pray together and tuck Cashel in with all his stuffed animals of choice: Moos the cow, Moosey the moose, the unnamed monkey and the unnamed bear. Most nights, that's all it takes, and he drifts off to sleep within a few minutes, but sometimes we end up having to go back in there multiple times to remind him that it's nigh-night's time and he needs to get in bed.

8-8:15ish

Both boys are usually asleep by now, and this time is kinda unstructured and depends on what's on our plate for the day. Usually Mark will wind down with the tv and laptop unless we have too big a mess on our hands. Over the course of the next 2 hours or so, we take care of the essentials, and possibly some of the extras.

The essentials are:

• Make sure all my flanges and bottles are clean and put in my bag for the next day
• Make sure Kendrick has enough milk for the next day of daycare, and if I didn't pump quite enough at work, pump some extra.
• Get my coffee pot set up for the next morning.
• Make sure any laundry that is dry is folded, and if we have a ton of laundry piled up, throw in another load or two.
• Get the dishes unloaded and/or loaded from the (or into the) dishwasher and started
• Get any crockpot meal (if necessary) prepped for the next night and put in the fridge
• Shower
• Make sure the boys' bag is well-stocked with an extra set of clothes for both of the boys for daycare the next day.
• Change Cashel into a nighttime diaper before we head to bed.
• Check on Kendrick
• Fill our water bottles
• Fill humidifiers in the laundry room and each boy's room.
• Take my prenatal (for milk supply)

We catch a break some days, and Cashel hasn't pulled all the clothes out of the diaper bag looking for his binky (this happens ALL the time, since we have taken it away again), or we have spare bottles or flanges already clean, or I happened to do the dishes up over lunch, or had leftovers, or ate out, or something like that. But most of the time, this list of "essentials" take us most of the 2 hours we have and then some. Some nights we say "screw it!" and let the dishes and laundry go and leave the shower and coffee 'til the morning. And we indulge in ice cream and watch TV together. Some nights. But when all the essentials are done, and we have some ::GASP:: "free time", I sometimes will...

• Work on my scrapbooking
• Catch up on some of my guilty pleasures: HIMYM or The Bachelor
• Blog
• Download/Edit pictures from the camera and organize them, then upload them to Picasaweb or Facebook
• Spend some time with the hubby

And when Mark has free time, he will...

• Chat with his brother or Mom or Dad
• Catch up on FB or other things on the internet
• Watch football...or baseball...or Storage Wars or Pawn Stars or whatever it might be
• Like every.single.one of the pictures I post on FB
• Spend some time with the wifey

It is definitely a busy season of life right now, but I think we're managing really well, even if some days we dream of the days when we had no kids and no responsibilities. Those days were full too, just full of different things and a lot more indulgences and luxuries...like bubble baths and watching TV and WORKING OUT! We're looking forward to this spring and summer when we can actually go on walks together as a family again, even if they are short-lived.

So that's it! That's pretty much how our typical day goes :) Any questions?