A Day in Our Lives: Stay at Home Mom Edition

Last week I decided we needed a free week with no learning theme to do our thing and go on more "field trips".  I wanted a week without structure to just do as we pleased and to choose whatever books we wanted from the library.  That's exactly what we did with a trip to the Children's Museum on Wednesday and the aquarium on Thursday.  I decided for today's post since I wouldn't be sharing all about our weekly learning theme, I would do a day in our lives post.  I hadn't done one since back in May when I was still working.  After 5 months of staying at home I figured we ought to document what a typical day is like for us, especially since it will be changing drastically here in about, oh 4.5 months.  I'd like to do another one on a day Jake is with us so I'll remember what days were like with him.  So here's what our day was like on Thursday, November 6th.

6:00 am- I hear Carter yell my name from his room.  Ty gets up and brings him to bed with us so we can rest rather than getting up.  Daylight savings must've thrown Carter off because he's been waking up at 6 all week and he normally sleeps until 7.  At some point I hear Ty begin snoring again, but I'm unable to go back to sleep with Carter playing with my hair.  But I'm also so tired I can't bring myself to get up so I just lay there until Ty wakes up.

7:00 am- Ty gets up to get ready for work and takes Carter in with him to feed him breakfast.  He's been doing that all week so I can go back to sleep for a little bit which has been my saving grace.  I have been so exhausted lately.  I'm still waiting for that 2nd trimester energy surge to hit, any day now!

7:30 am- Ty brings Carter back in and says good bye as he leaves for work.  I get up and brush my teeth while Carter sits in the chair and reads.  Normally we run in the morning, but I check the temperature and it's 39 degrees.  I'm not ready for cold weather running yet, especially when it's supposed to get up into the 60's in the afternoon so I decide to postpone our run until after Carter's nap.  I check Carter's diapers that I washed the night before.  The inserts are still damp so I start the dryer for another cycle and head back into the bedroom to change the sheets on our bed.  It takes much longer than usual because Carter plays on the bed and we play peek-a-boo with the sheets.

Reading while I brush my teeth.

 

8:15 am- I eat a bowl of Raisin Bran for breakfast and Carter decides he needs a 2nd breakfast since I'm eating.  He sits at the table with me and I peel him a banana.  When he's done he gets up and starts playing while I finish eating.  Then I sweep and mop part of the kitchen floor while he rides his car around on the linoleum.  I get Carter dressed and then we watch the dogs play and we dance to some music.  While I'm getting ready for the day Carter stands on his stool and plays at the sink.  I get a message that our 10:30 playdate is canceled because the older son of the mom hosting got sick at school.  I decide we should go to the aquarium instead.  It doesn't open until 10:00 and Carter has put on his rain boots and is sweetly suggesting "side" because he wants to play outside.

9:00 am- I overdo it and put Carter in a coat as we head outside with Harper and Thomas' dog, Quinn, who is visiting for the day.  Carter is all over the place, climbing the small hill, digging in mud, playing with his kitchen, riding cars, mowing the lawn, getting in his fort, and observing dog poop.  At one point I realize I haven't seen Quinn in a few minutes, she's notorious for jumping the fence, so I look for her.  She's no where in the yard so I run to the front door and call for her.  She comes running to the door and then turns and runs away.  Carter and I grab a leash and take off looking for her.  My belly is large enough that I am huffing and puffing as I run/walk up the hill by our house carrying Carter.  By the time I reach Quinn I want to spank her, but she immediately rolls to her back in apology and my anger melts away.  I wanted to leave in time to get to the aquarium when they opened at 10:00, but Quinn's shenanigans put us behind schedule.

 

Pointing and saying the colors on the tarp.

10:20- We arrive at the aquarium and Carter is excited to see 4 school buses in the parking lot.  I'm worried it will be crazy with that many students, but they are all in a presentation while we take off looking at the animals.  Thanks to being pregnant when we make it down by the sharks I'm dying to use the restroom.  We stop in and while we're in the stall we notice a sign on the back of the door advertising "Aqua Tots", a special storytime and craft program for children ages 1-5.  I notice the date says November 6th and I realize that's today.  I scan down and it says it starts at 11:00.  I pull out my phone and realize that's in 10 minutes.  For the first time all pregnancy I am so thankful that I constantly have to pee!  If I hadn't needed to go to the restroom, we wouldn't have found out about the program.  We head to where the program is taking place and the school group starts heading into the aquarium after their presentation, perfect timing!  The Aqua Tots program is awesome!  She has puppets, stuffed animals, sea coral, whale teeth, and various figurines she passes around that go with the story.  She even has whale baleen for us to feel and a tree frog she lets us look at and touch.  It was an awesome program and I'm excited for their next one in December!  After the program we head back to finish up in the aquarium.  Carter is getting hungry and tired so we don't stay much longer before heading home.

Carter wanted to take a purse to the aquarium, just like mommy.

Posing with the bull shark statue outside the aquarium.

Carter loves the jellyfish!

Feeling whale teeth at the Aqua Tots storytime.

12:15 pm- We arrive home and I heat up left over homemade macaroni and cheese with tuna (one of my pregnancy cravings) for Carter and my lunch.  I also cut up apples and heat some corn as our sides.  We sit together as we eat.  I have Pandora playing music on my phone and we dance to the songs that spark Carter's interest.  Carter requests a 2nd helping so I heat up more for him and mop another section of the floor as he finishes up.  While I'm mopping we talk and he is cracking me up going on about the dogs.  He loves when Quinn comes to visit.

12:50 pm- Carter has finished his lunch and we head into his room for a diaper change and cuddles before naptime.  I set him in his crib and he waves and says "Bye bye momma".  He appears to be asleep 10 minutes later which is pretty typical, but then he rolls over and I see his eyes are open.  After a few minutes of laying quietly he sits up and begins singing "Baluba" which is his version of Raffi's "Baby Beluga".  I'm shocked when he's still not asleep at 2:00 and he's started crying.  I head into his room, snuggle him for a couple minutes, and he's asleep the minute I lay him back down.

"Bye bye momma!"

Faking me out, looking asleep.

Finally asleep!

2:00 pm- Jeremy arrives to pick up Harper and Quinn and take them to my parents' house for the weekend.  We are meeting them for a race tomorrow evening and then will head back to their house to spend the weekend.  The dogs will stay there and be watched by their pet sitter while we're gone.  I sit down and work on a post after Jeremy leaves.

3:00 pm- I lay down for a 30 minute nap and set an alarm on my phone so I don't sleep for too long.  I wake up at 3:30 and still feel tired so I lay in bed and read for a little bit.  When I get up I head into the kitchen and mop the 2 areas of the kitchen floor I hadn't done yet.

4:15 pm- Carter wakes up from his nap crying.  Normally he wakes up saying my name and is happy.  He was really upset and kept crying.  It took a while for me to calm him down.  We read a few books and then shared a yogurt for our snack.  Carter asked for more so I gave him another yogurt and then he ate half a banana.

5:20 pm- Ty texts me that he is heading to run.  He usually leaves work at 5:00 and heads straight to the trails, but his car was in the shop and he had to go pick it up.  I get dressed and put Carter's shoes on and we head out to meet Ty for a run.  Carter decides he wants to carry a purse like me again and grabs an insert I had pulled out of my purse to make it lighter.  My back has been killing me lately and I figured a lighter purse would help!  We run 2 miles with Ty at the trails and then part ways.  Ty heads to Taco Bueno to pick up 49 cent tacos (their special on Thursdays) for dinner and Carter and I head home to make the sides.

Heading to the car with his "purse".

6:20 pm- Carter and I arrive home.  I make rice and guacamole and heat up a can of refried beans for our sides while Carter works on coloring his frog craft from storytime earlier in the day.  Ty gets home shortly after us with our 8 tacos, only costing $4.25!  Carter gets so excited when he sees the tacos and says "taco" while pointing at them which shocks both of us because we don't say taco very often.  While Ty and I clean up the kitchen Carter stands on a chair and Ty tells him no and to get down.  Then Carter heads to his craft table, stands on it and yells "Daddy, down!"  I tell Ty that Carter obviously wants his attention and to go play with him while I finish cleaning the kitchen.

Coloring his frog.

 

For some reason he eats his taco upside down.

Playing with daddy.

7:20 pm- I start Carter's bath.  Since I ran in the evening I take a bath with him which is always so much fun.  We pour out all of his bath letters and talk about what each letter he picks up stands for.  We play for a long time before getting out and drying off.  Carter's new thing is dashing out of the bathroom in his towel to say hi to daddy.  We run out and Ty isn't in the house, so I realize he must be in the garage weight lifting.  Carter likes to wrap his hands in his towel like he has pockets.  It cracks me up!

8:00 pm- I take Carter out in the garage to tell daddy night night.  Then we read some books in his rocker before I lay him down in his crib at 8:30.  We were hoping that putting Carter down a little bit later would help us out by getting him to sleep later in the morning.  It totally back fired with him waking up at 5:30 am the next morning!

9:00 pm- Ty comes in from lifting and takes a quick shower while I work on this blog post.  When he's out of the shower he comes in to watch the football game.  We don't have cable so he pulls it up on his computer and watches it while I work on my post.  Then he tries to help me with some forms I need to fill out, but can't get to work online.  We're both tired and plan on going to bed early, but somehow that never happens and I find myself not doing my planks until 10:00 and we head for bed around 10:30.