I have been meaning to do this post for a while. Its always fun to look back on the different seasons, the seasons of change in your days when you spend them with little kids. In Jake's first two years there have been many seasons. There was the season of stroller naps, the season of waking up at 5 am at the latest, the season of playing inside only, the season of playing outside only, the seasons before Baby Bo and the seasons after.
There isn't a single thing I do in my life that doesn't revolve around the boys. Not a single thing. There is no point in the day when I am not considering them in some way and how my decisions (big and small) will affect them. I actually think this is a quality unique to a stay-at-home Mom. Not because working Moms have some kind of free time or anything like that, but when they are at work, they are making decisions throughout the day that affect their jobs…not their kids (for the most part). Of course there are things like the 5pm meeting that just pops up and they have to consider daycare, or a presentation that runs over and they miss their time to pump… Nobody has it easy, but when you are at home and your only job is the little people in your house your entire world revolves there. I have seriously gone off on a tangent, but when I started to think about our days, it hit me. For better or worse, this life is dedicated to Jake and Bo these days. Lucky them and lucky me.
I want to document what our days have looked like in these early months of two kids. Someday I am sure I can look back and laugh and think - yikes, that was a little nutty.
5:00 am - I wake up to get showered, sometimes Bo beats the alarm and I nurse and then shower and get ready.
5:45 - 6:00 am - On a lucky day I will be done showering and the house will still be quiet…at least for about 10 minutes and I will sit in our walk-in closet while everyone else sleeps and just enjoy the quiet before the day goes. Sometimes I will read or make a grocery list or just take my time getting dressed.
6:00am - It is rare that we hit 6am without someone awake. So usually I am going to get them. If it is Jake I will stall in his bedroom until 6:30 because his oh-so quiet arrival downstairs will undoubtedly wake up his brother.
6:15 am to 6:30 am - The other one is up. Now its go time.
6:30 to 7:30 am - My Mom once told me that her biggest fear when she had my sister was that we would both be hungry at the same time and she would be nursing and I would want food. Its funny that that was her biggest fear and she said somehow it worked out and it never really happened. That is especially funny because it happens to me every. single. day.
So, sometimes I make Jake a quick smoothie and give him that because the negotiations to get him into his high chair can take a good 20 minutes. I'll nurse Bo and then focus on some real food for Jake.
I get everyone out of their overnight diapers and pajamas and we get dressed. I have never been a hang out in pajamas kind of person and I fear I am passing that onto my kids.
7:30 am - Bo is ready an hour after he wakes up for his first nap. It can be anywhere from 30 minutes to over 90 minutes, but most often I would say about an hour. I rock him to sleep at naps and discovered quickly that while Jake will play quietly for about 10 minutes, if it takes any longer than that to get Bo asleep he will charge right into his room and speak in his oh-so quiet (closer to a yelling) voice about what he needs…so, enter Curious George or Mickey Mouse. These two guys save the day and make for a nice quiet and occupied time so I can get Bo down….and then I won't lie, probably another episode so I can have some breakfast and some sanity.
8:30 am - Wow…its only 8:30, we have done a lot already. Jake and I will play in the playroom until Bo wakes up. Its fun to have this time just with him and its a good way to start the day.
9 ish - Bo wakes up and I feed him again so that we can head out on our "adventure" for the day.
9:30ish - 11:30ish - Adventure time, this could include a play date with friends, meeting up with Grandparents or having them come visit at our house, it could be Target or Fred Meyer or other errands, or maybe just another destination - kid-friendly or not - for us to check-out.
10:30 to 11:00 ish - Bo is ready for another nap and this one almost always happens on the go, usually in the car and ending with him in his carseat in his room.
11:30 to 1:30 - This is by far the craziest and fastest time of the day. Its about a 2 hour routine that ends in two kids sleeping if all goes as planned. Which right now happens more than you would think, but I can feel it changing as I type. When we get home I usually take Bo inside to continue his nap while Jake plays in the backyard (weather permitting, but this means, no hurricanes or monsoons, every other weather he will play in) I get some stuff done in the kitchen making lunches and wait for Bo to get up, usually by noon. I will then nurse him on the kitchen floor by the back door so I can keep an eye on the little crazy. Jake is super happy and independent during this time. He likes to have his lunch at his picnic table in the garage and he busies himself with all kinds of things outside. He particularly enjoys soaking himself and anything else he can find with the rain water that accumulates in one of my planters. Gross, but he loves it.
My target is always to have us heading upstairs to Jake's room by 12:30. All 3 of us pile in the chair for some books and then I lay Bo on the floor, pick up Jake, get him "tucked in" and do a few songs. In a perfect world he would quietly head off to dreamland as I leave the room, but it is usually at least 30 minutes of partying before he nods off. Meanwhile I take Bo directly down to his room (around 1:15 ish now) and rock him to sleep for a nap.
1:30 to 2:00 pm - Usually all kids are contained for at least this 30 minutes where I run around the house, then make my lunch and usually enjoy it in front of a few minutes of Days of our Lives. I know, sad but true. I never have the TV on during the day, but this is my guilty pleasure.
2:00 ish to 4:00 ish - Bo gets up from his nap and I feed him again. We play in the living room for a while and then he plays on the kitchen floor while I do dinner prep or bake something. I usually tell him everything I am doing and it feels like I am on a cooking show. He will be ready for his last nap about 90 minutes after he gets up. Most days I will leave Bo's room just in time to see Jake waking up.
4:00ish to 6:00 ish - This is the home stretch. If Bo takes his last nap (4th) then Jake and I will play in the playroom outside until he wakes up. Some days I take them both on a run. Once Bo is up he is fed again (storing up for the night) and I get Jake some dinner too. Then we might go on one last walk for the day and if the weather permits we might even be outside when Brian gets home about 6.
5:30 ish to 7:30 ish - Depending if Brian is home for bedtime or not and when/if there were naps in the afternoon determines when the whole bedtime process starts and how it goes, but usually we take them up for a bath. Bo goes first and then I take him downstairs, nurse him and get him to bed while Brian gives Jake his bath and gets him in his PJs. Then I head back upstairs and read books with Jake, sing songs, and get him to bed.
7:00 ish to 8:30 ish - Kids are usually all in bed at this point and hopefully asleep too. If we haven't eaten as soon as Brian got home then we eat now, or maybe just clean up if we scarfed it down when he got home. We usually watch some DVR, I might get something ready for us to do the next day, eat some cookies, drink some beer or wine, and head upstairs. I'm almost always asleep by 9 these days, Brian by 10ish.
Sometime between 10:30 and 2 Bo wakes up for a feeding, or just to hang out, I am trying to figure that out.
Sometime between 2 and 5 Bo wakes up again.
Sometime around 5 it starts all over again.
And that my friends, is what life is like these days. It's a whole lotta fun and whole lotta work and I have a lot more wrinkles than I did 2 years ago.
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