A day in the life of mile high mom.

I've had several blogger friends that have done a "day in the life of..." blog, so I guess it's my turn. Here's a typical weekday of my life.


Morning: I run a pretty tight ship at my house. I do it for my own sanity, and I also think that it gives kids a sense of stability to know what to expect, everyday. My alarm is set for 6:45 everyday. It goes off, I push the snooze button for about 15 minutes and get up around 7:00. I just cannot get out of bed right away. So, I finally get up around 7:00 and immediately get in the shower. On days when I don't get in the shower right away, I feel like crap and feel like I'm still sleeping until I do shower. I stay in the shower for WAY too long, then have to rush around to make sure I'm ready by 7:45. Usually Jackson is kind of waking up by this point, but I keep him in his crib until 7:45 even if he's totally awake. I watch a friend's little boy, who, coincidentally, was born the exact same day as Jackson. Just a few hours apart! He comes over between 7:45 and 8:00 Monday-Friday. I try to get Jackson out of bed and have breakfast started before they arrive, but that doesn't always happen. So, Christopher comes over and that's the start of the most hectic part of my day. Trying to feed Jackson his breakfast, keep Christopher happy, unload the dishwasher, let the dogs out, feed the dogs, put the dogs back in their cages etc.... Now, for those of you who are thinking "why don't you just wake up earlier, and take care of the dogs, the dishwasher, and feed Jackson. That way when Christopher comes over, it's not so hectic." Yeah, not gonna happen. I value sleep WAY too much to give up that extra 20 minutes in the morning. I'd rather be crazy and rushed and 20 minutes more rested all day. Anyway, Jackson is usually finished eating and Christopher's mommy is usually gone by around 8:15. We head down to the basement, where the playroom is. This is when I start the portion of my day I like to call "Just keep them from killing each other". I don't know what it is, but they are both extremely grouchy and irritable this time of day. Jackson gets really possessive over his toys and me and Christopher gets overly sensitive about, well, everything. It's pretty much just a toy stealing, face pushing, high pitched screaming, temper tantrum throwing, bodily fluid flowing hour.

Morning Nap: They are 21 months old right now and all of their friends are down to 1 nap a day, but these boys need to have 2 naps still. Even if the first one is just resting in their cribs. And, I need for them to have 2 naps still. They always come out of this "rest time" much happier, and so do I. I try to make it to 9:00, then I take them upstairs for naps. I put Christopher in his pack and play first. He can climb out of pack and plays and cribs, so I put a sleep sack on him....backwards. (so he can't unzip it, climb out of his crib, and meet me in the basement with a "what did I do?" look) After that, I take Jackson to his room, let him pick out a book to read and put him in his crib with his binky. They might not nap, but I can usually squeeze and hour of "quiet time" out of them. This hour of quite time is what I most look forward to everyday. It's like my social hour. I get on the computer or phone and talk to friends or family. I usually get NOTHING accomplished during this hour, and I'm okay with that. The boys usually make it to around 10:15 or 10:30 before they get bored and start screaming. Every once in a while, one or both of them will fall asleep and I can squeeze that time to 11:00. I don't usually let them go past 11:00 though, or that will ruin their afternoon naps.


11:00 - 12:00 is usually pretty good. This is when Sesame Street is on. The boys LOVE Sesame Street. I worry a little that they love it too much. Jackson points to the tv and says "Elmo". They know the introduction to Sesame Street, right before the opening music comes on and their eyes are GLUED to the tv, waiting for that sweet song to start playing. When the music starts they dance around with joy that I've never seen any adult have. It's like the happiest moment of their lives....everyday....at 11:00!




12:00 is lunch time. This is the meal that I feel most guilty about. I try to have a protein, a veggie and a fruit. I almost always do that, but since I'm cooking for 2 picky eaters, while they are screaming for food and fighting with each other, I need this meal to be easy. So, I make hot dogs, or mac and cheese, or chicken nuggets, or pizza or any of the things that would make Jamie Oliver cringe. I justify it in my head by knowing that his breakfast was healthy and balanced, as well as his dinner. I try to squeeze in something for me to eat also. I usually haven't had anything to eat all day, and am to the point where I'm so hungry I'm not hungry anymore. So, I'll eat a chicken nugget, or a half of a grilled cheese sandwich, or whatever they are having and call it lunch. (Don't worry, I make up for the no breakfast/tiny lunch later in the day.)


After the boys have finished eating/throwing the rest of their lunch across the room, I clean them up and try to at least get the dishes to the sink. If it's nice outside, we'll go for a walk. This is another part of my day I love. I put them in the double stroller, put my headphones on and walk and listen to music. Usually they are pretty good. Just sitting, pointing out every dog they see, every car that goes by, every airplane flying overhead. Sometimes they are cranky. When they are I just turn my music up louder and walk faster, so we bother the people in the houses we pass for a shorter amount of time. My route is about 2 miles...pushing about 45 pounds of kid plus a 35 pound stroller. Not too bad of a workout!

On the days when the weather isn't good enough to walk, we head back down to the basement. This can be a little rough, because they are getting tired again. So, I try to keep them distracted and not bothering each other. We read books, play "baketball", play "Elmo" (which is sitting on the Sesame Street kiddie couch and throwing the Sesame Street blanket over their heads while they struggle to get out of the blanket.....this game NEVER gets old with them), we'll wrestle around....just do typical boy playing stuff.


Afternoon nap: Everyday I tell myself that I'm going to try to push them to 2:00 to take their afternoon nap, and almost everyday, I barely make it to 1:30. (sometimes it's even 1:00, if they didn't sleep at all in the morning) They go down so easily though, that it's hard to justify NOT putting them down when they are tired and go to sleep so well. So sometime between 1:00 and 2:00, we go upstairs and do the same naptime routine as the morning. During this naptime I try to actually get stuff done around the house. I'll do the breakfast and lunch dishes, make business phone calls, send business emails, clean up the playroom, tell myself that I should fold some laundry, but never actually get around to it. A lot of days, this is when I write my blog. And EVERYDAY this is when I pig out on junk food. Ice cream is usually my guilty pleasure, but sometimes it's candy, or popcorn. Afternoon nap really varies in time. Sometimes they are up by 2:30, sometimes they will make it to 4:30. Usually it's somewhere in between and one of the boys gets up before the other.


Early evening: We play and sometimes have a snack after their nap. This is the beginning of the "whiney" portion of the day. They are both done with having to share everything by this time of day, so it's my job to provide them with more distractions. Playing games, reading books, that sort of thing. Christopher's mom comes to get him between 4:45 and 5:00. We are good friends, his mom and I, so we'll usually chat for a while before she heads home. Sometimes if it's nice, we'll go for a walk with the boys or something. It's nice to have some time talking to another adult, even if it's with two whiney boys pulling on our legs. After Christopher leaves I try to get out of the house with Jackson. We'll go to the grocery store, go to the mall, run errands. Anything to get out of the house. We can't be gone for very long, because I need to get dinner started, but I really like to leave the house, just for a little bit, and it keeps Jackson happy too.


Dinner time: Eric usually gets home between 6:00 and 7:00. By now, Jackson is a mess. All he does is whine. He's hungry and needing lots of attention and I can't give it to him because I'm busy cooking and cleaning, and Eric is trying to decompress from a long day at work too. This is usually when I go out to the garage, get a beer out of the fridge, and turn on cartoons for Jackson. I feel a little guilty about using the tv as a babysitter, but not guilty enough to actually turn the tv off. I need my sanity too! I try to always make real dinners. And by real, I mean, from scratch, using actual ingredients and recipes. We don't have frozen dinners and pizza here. I also refuse to make Jackson a separate "kid friendly" meal. He eats what we eat, end of story. If he doesn't like it, there's always breakfast.


Ahhhhhh....Bedtime routine: Eric does this. I love it. I love him for doing it. It's great! He gives Jack his bath, puts him in his pjs, reads him his stories and puts him to bed. Again, Jackson is a fabulous "night-nighter", so it's not a fight, which is great for both Eric and me. If it WERE a fight, Eric would probably hand the bedtime routine back over to me. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not exactly downstairs eating bon-bons during the bedtime routine. I'm cleaning up the kitchen and dining room, then going down to the basement to clean it up as well. My goal is to be completely finished cleaning and in relaxation mode by 9:00. Some days I can even do it by 8:30, depending on how diligent I was during the day, keeping things clean and how messy cooking dinner was.


9:00 - 11:00 bedtime: During this time I watch DVRed shows, get on the computer (again), read books, knit, or do whatever the heck I want. This is always the time of day that I'm most awake. Most people are winding down by 9:00, but not me. This is when I feel the most energized. I'm a total night owl. I fight my natural night owl-ness tooth and nail every single day. I force myself to go to bed every night and force myself to wake up every morning. I try to be in bed by 11:00 every night. Usually around 10:30 I'll head upstairs and take a bath. This really helps me wind down and helps my aching body too. My days are pretty physically demanding, lifting 25 pound kids non stop, running after them, walking them in the stroller, going up and down 2 flights of step at least 30 times a day (probably more). It's 10:53 now, which means that I'm 23 minutes late for my bath. I'll go up, take my bath, go to bed and do the exact same thing tomorrow......sigh......