A Day in Our Lives

It dawned on me the other day that I haven't done a day in our lives post since Carter started school. I had planned to do one on a day when Elise and I had plans and another on a day where I ran with Elise while Carter was at school. Since we are approaching the end of the school year I decided to go ahead and document our day on Thursday, May 11th. If I get the chance I will also document a day during the last week of school when Elise and I don't have plans while Carter's at school. This is what our day was like on a Thursday with Carter going to school for half the day.


6:20 am- I hear Elise's door open and she walks into our bedroom. I feel really tired and it takes me a minute to register that it must be before 6:30 since my alarm hasn't gone off yet. I check the time and then decide to lay in bed for a little bit as Elise stands by the bed taking pictures on my phone. Then I get up and as I'm walking by Carter's room with Elise we see he has just woken up so we wait for him before heading into the kitchen. I heat up some waffles I made the other day for the kids and they eat breakfast while I get dressed to run. I then head back into our room to brush my teeth while the kids finish eating. I feed the animals and then hear Ty is up so I head in to tell him I'm going to head out to run a little early to try to beat the bad weather. My weather app is showing it's supposed to start storming at 7:00 am and it had stormed all night long.

The kids eating breakfast.

6:45- I head out the door to set my Garmin out to pick up satellites and see it has already started raining again. I put my shoes on and see a couple flashes of lightning as I'm tying my shoes. I debate whether to go ahead with my run or wait due to the lightning. Before the kids were born I wouldn't have thought twice about running in bad weather but now I worry so much about leaving them without a mom that I don't like to do things that are even mildly dangerous. I decide to go ahead and head out and if the lightning intensifies I will turn around early. By the time I hit the mile mark it has gone from heavy to light rain and I don't see any other lightning until I hit the half-way mark and just see one bolt and no more after that, so I made the right decision. I get my easy 4 miles in and come home soaked. Yesterday was my first speed workout in about a month and a half so I was expecting to feel pretty sore on my run this morning but I felt great!

Rain as I head out for my run.

7:25- I return from my run and give Ty a kiss as he heads out the door for work. I'm pretty soaked and Carter takes a picture to show me how wet I am. I put Stuffits in my shoes to help them dry faster and then head for a shower because I'm so cold! Both the kids decide they want to shower with me and Carter wants to bring in toys so I let them each pick out a couple of cars to bring with them. They want to keep playing when I'm done in the shower so I go ahead and get dressed while they play a little bit longer. Then I turn off the water and get them both dried off. Elise likes to be wrapped up in a towel and held like a baby after showers so she keeps saying baby at me over and over until I pick her up. Then it's on to dressing the kids. Carter is usually easy, I just pick out his clothes for him and then he dresses himself but today he wants me to help him so I help him get dressed. Elise tends to be the pickle when it comes to getting dressed and today is no exception. She keeps yelling "dressy" at me over and over and I'm not sure if she wants to dress self or wear a dress. I try out both options and she keeps screaming at me so I stop after putting a onesie and socks on her and set her on the ground with her pants and the dress drawer open so she can dress herself or pick out a dress. I'm super hungry at this point so I head in to make myself breakfast. Dressing Elise was a waste of time as she greets me in the kitchen wearing just a diaper and socks, both of which she takes off once she's in the kitchen. Awesome! I make myself a couple scrambled eggs and Carter decides he wants some so I cover mine to keep them warm and make some more eggs for him. Then Elise sees Carter's eggs and tries to eat them so I make her some too. We all sit down to eat our eggs together and Carter wants Cholula on his eggs like me so he and Elise both add some to their eggs. I finish eating before them so I start foam rolling while they finish eating. This proves to be difficult as Elise loves to sit on me while I roll. She sees me and runs over to climb on me. Thankfully Carter finishes his breakfast and starts to color and she decides to go color with him after sitting on my lap for a few different foam rolling positions. When I'm done foam rolling I start vacuuming. My Thursday chore is to vacuum and we have a little time so I get a couple rooms done. Carter and Elise want in on the fun so they get out baby wipes and wipe down the windows and couch. It's so cute because Carter keeps saying, "It's cleaning day!" I brush both the kids' teeth, get water bottles ready for everyone, get Elise dressed again even though she's kicking and screaming, and then we're out the door to drop Carter off at school.

Wet after my run.

Elise before deciding she didn't want to wear her socks or diaper either.

Getting ready to eat my breakfast as the kids enjoy their 2nd breakfast.

Elise adding Cholula to her eggs.

Attempting to foam roll.

Carter drawing while I foam roll.

Thankfully Elise decided to join him.

9:10- I get both the kids strapped into their car seats and we are on the road. During our drive Carter asks where people lived with their babies while all the houses and buildings were being built. That sparks an interesting conversation about evolution and the different kinds of shelters and homes homo sapiens have used during different time periods. When we get to Carter's school we park and Elise and I walk him in. He gives us both hugs and kisses, I briefly chat with his teacher, and then Elise and I are headed back out to the car. Elise asks for oranges once she's in her car seat so I peel her oranges I packed for her snack and give them to her. Elise and I are signed up for a program at our local art museum called Museum Babies. It doesn't start until 10:30 so we stop by the store to pick up some new allergy pills for me. I've been having a tough time with allergies even though I take a daily pill so it was suggested by multiple people that I try switching to a different pill with a different main ingredient.

Carter giving Elise's hugs before we leave.

10:30- Elise is so excited to see her best friend, Charlee, and is talking about her the entire time we are at Wal-Mart. In the car she's suddenly quiet and I'm surprised to find she has fallen asleep when we get to the museum and I go to get her out. I love the Museum Babies program because they take us into a gallery and discuss the art work with us focusing on a certain theme. Then afterward we go into a special room with all kinds of age appropriate toys set up and the kids play. They have a partnership with a local university and the early childhood students plan out art activities and toys to go with the week's theme. I love the discussions in the exhibits because it gives me ideas and topics for discussing art with the kids anytime we are experiencing art. Today's theme is weather and how it influences art, especially clouds and how they are used in art to convey feelings. It was very interesting. Elise's favorite part of the program is that they have lemonade and snacks in the room with all the toys. She spends most of her play time running around, playing with soccer balls. We leave a little after 11:30 to pick Carter up from school.

Elise was asleep when we arrived at the museum.

Looking at the artwork in the gallery.

Looking at artwork in the gallery during Museum Babies, picture from a friend.

Playing at Museum Babies.

Playing at Museum Babies.

12:00 pm- We pick Carter up. He had a great day at school and earned a sticker for keeping his hands, feet, and objects to himself. His reward for having a good day at school is getting to watch a little extra tv. When we get home he picks Garfield on Netflix and he and Elise watch it while I made them lunch. Carter requests a peanut butter and jelly with sugar snap peas and apple sauce. Elise parrots him back, saying, "P j, snap pea, appo sauce!" Sometimes we do a living room picnic on school days as an extra treat for being good at school. I lay a blanket on the floor and we all eat while watching an episode of Garfield.

Living room picnic while watching Garfield.

1:00- I take Elise into her room to prepare for naps after cleaning up lunch and wiping her face. I change her diaper and then we rock for a little bit. She is struggling a little bit more than usual and gets up after I lay her down. When I go back in to lay her back down she asks to rock some more so I sit back down with her and we rock a little bit more. I hear her breathing change and use the camera on my phone to discover she has fallen asleep. I lay her down and head out to find Carter drawing on his special Boogie Board. He says he has drawn me a special picture for Mother's Day and tells me all about his picture of me and him surrounded by Easter eggs. He is the sweetest and I love that he does such a great job of entertaining himself while I'm putting Elise down, especially on days like today where it took over 30 minutes! I tell Carter I'm going to go get dinner in the crock pot and he asks to help so I have a little dinner helper. We throw the ingredients for crock pot chicken pot pie in the crock pot. It's just chicken breast, celery, onion, a few seasonings, and cream of chicken soup. I had already chopped up the celery, onion, and chicken breast which made it super easy. Later we'll add in the veggies and make biscuits to top it with. Carter was so proud helping me and wanted to try a little bit of the soup so I let him lick the spatula after I scraped the can out.

Elise sitting in her bed, thinking she wasn't ready to nap.

I love being able to rock my baby to sleep when she wants me to!

Sweet sister tucked in and sleeping.

Carter drawing on his Boogie Board.

Carter helping me prep dinner.

2:00- Carter and I head into his room to lay down. I've found he is more likely to take a nap if we don't lay down until 2:00. If we lay down around 1:00 like we used to, he tosses and turns and either doesn't sleep or takes over an hour to fall asleep. He tells me he's tired as we walk down the hall toward his room, he likes to be carried to bed and I love the snuggles. He had pretty much stopped napping altogether until Elise started waking between 6:00 and 6:30 in the morning. He pretty much always wakes up when he hears her get up and with the earlier wake up, he tends to nap most days. I wouldn't mind sleeping a little later some days but it is nice to get more done in the mornings and then have a bit more quiet time during naptime, so I'll take it. Carter's being super cute and telling me stories while we lay together. Then I pull out my book and start reading and he gets quiet. I read while he works on falling asleep. One of my favorite times of day is laying in bed with Carter snuggled up to me while I read. It's so wonderful and that's why I still do it! He falls asleep pretty quickly and I start to get up but when I do he opens his eyes so I lay back down.

Snuggle time with my sweet boy!

2:40- I leave Carter's room and pick up a little more in the kitchen. Then I sit down with my computer and publish a post I had already written on Tuesday and then work on the beginning of this post. Then I'm off to pick up the house so I can finish vacuuming when the kids wake up. Thursdays are nice because my chore is something loud that I can't do while the kids are napping so I usually take that time to read a book or work on some blog posts if Carter is napping. If he doesn't nap, I let him come out after 30 minutes and then we do some learning theme stuff together.

Snuggle time with my kitty! The afternoon was a snugglefest for me, haha!

3:45- Elise wakes up and calls out for me. Before I make it into her room I hear her door open and she comes walking down the hall. I love how her hair looks when she first wakes up, it's so curly and adorable! When Elise walks into the living room Skippy is laying on the couch and she gets so excited yelling out, "kitty ca!" Skippy freaks out and takes off running which upsets Elise and she starts crying. Carter wakes up when Elise starts crying and comes in. Elise asks for fruit snacks and we have a box as a special treat so I give each of the kids a package of fruit snacks and we sit down to read books together. After reading a few books we come across a book of poems and decide to act out one of the poems. We head into the kitchen and I fill up a container we use as a sensory bin with water. I let each of the kids pick out a color tablet to put in the water. After cupping our hands like in the poem and trying it out I add some spoons and kitchen tools for the kids to play with in the water. Elise starts fussing for another fruit snack (which is why I rarely buy them, she doesn't like to follow the rule of one package per day at most). I give the kids some grapes and then empty the dishwasher while they eat. When they are done eating they put the silverware away working together. Carter had mentioned we need new books from the library while we were reading so I ask him if he'd like to go to the library when he's done. He says he would so I head into the other room to get shoes for everyone. While I'm gone something happens between the kids which leaves them both crying. I can't quite get a full story out of either of them. They finish putting the silverware away and then we get dressed to head to the library.

Elise's sweet nap hair.

My precious girl still a little sleepy after her nap.

Eating their fruit snacks.

Reading books together on the couch.

Playing with water in the sensory bin.

Putting the silverware away.

5:10- We get our shoes on and I put all the library books we've read into our library bag. Carter asks for the wagon so we decide to take the wagon. I check the weather on my weather app and it says there's only a 10% chance of rain so we risk it and walk to the library. We return our books and check out new ones. As we are getting ready to leave it starts pouring down rain. I immediately feel bad for Ty who I know is probably in the middle of his run which he stopped to do on his way home. I set Carter up on a computer while Elise and I watch the rain. We wait it out for about 5 minutes and then it stops raining so we head home.

Watching the rain while at the library.

Carter playing on the computer while waiting out the rain.

Walking home from the library.

It was already sunny and blue skies on our way home!

5:45- We make it home. I unload the books and put the wagon away while the kids splash in some puddles. Then we head into the kitchen. I add the frozen veggies into the crockpot and preheat the oven while Carter makes hot chocolate. He got cold splashing in puddles and wants something to warm himself up. Elise wants hot chocolate too so I mak her some lukewarm in a sippy. While I'm doing that I find cat puke under the table so I clean it up. At that point the oven is preheated so I put the biscuits in. Then I head off to finish vacuuming the house. I ask Carter to pick up his room so it's ready to be vacuumed when I get to it. When I walk by I see he has put on an Ironman mask and insists that Ironman has arrived to help me clean. I play along and Carter eventually comes in and pulls up the mask to show me it was him all along. Since Carter's wearing a mask, Elise wants to wear one, so I pull out Carter's superhero basket with capes and masks and she picks one out. The kids then start a game of superheroes running through the house and being hilarious as I finish vacuuming.

Ironman picking up in Carter's room.

Carter and Elise playing superheroes.

6:15- Ty makes it home from his run soaking wet and moves the trash and recycling bins out to the road while he's out there. He heads in to take a shower while I set the table and then clean the kitty litter which I take straight out to the trash can. We eat our dinner of crockpot chicken pot pie topped with biscuits along with some apple sauce. Gma and Gpa Facetime during dinner so Gma can thank the kids for her Mother's Day cards. When we are finished eating Carter wants to play puppies. He and Elise bring me straws to throw for them to fetch and run back and forth bringing them to me. Then we start picking up. Ty and I have decided to try something different with Elise tonight. Normally we put her down around 7:00 and then Carter goes down around 8:00. While I'm rocking Elise Ty puts a show on for Carter once he's done picking up. Elise has started noticing that Carter gets to watch a show while she's getting ready for bed and will go to bed yelling "watch sumping!" So tonight we decide to let her watch a little bit with Carter, then stop it and put her to bed, then Carter can watch a little more until I come out to get him ready for bed. While they are watching their show I do my strength training workout. Then I get the kids their jammies. Carter puts his on by himself and I help Elise with hers along with changing her diaper. Then I brush and floss both their teeth as they watch tv. This seems to be a winning combination because Elise has started just in the last couple of weeks really fighting having her teeth brushed. When she fights me tonight, I tell her if she doesn't let me brush her teeth she will leave the room and not get to watch tv. She immediately stops and opens her mouth. TV for the win!

Watching some tv all snuggled up together.

7:30- We turn the tv off and Elise gives everyone hugs and kisses goodnight. I send Carter in to brush his teeth again with toothpaste. Elise wants to brush her teeth with toothpaste too so I set her down and let her do it. Then I take her into her room and rock for a while. I lay her down and she starts crying that she wants to rock more which has been a new development this past week. I leave the room and stand right outside her door. She comes out once and I take her back in and lay her down. She stays in bed but just lays and cries. I head into the living room and have Carter pick out his 2 bedtime books to read. Ty goes into Elise's room and asks her to lay down and covers her up which she does and is now quiet. Carter and I read our books and then sing "No More Monkeys Jumping On the Bed" before he lays down.

Brushing their teeth before bed.

Elise putting up a fight at bedtime.

8:15- Both the kids are in bed and I add the past few hours to this post while Ty foam rolls and then catches up on some texts on his phone. When I'm done we head into the kitchen to finish the game of Phase 10 we started last night.

Ty ready to play some Phase 10.

10:00- We get ready for bed. My favorite part of our bedtime routine is sneaking into the kids' rooms and kissing them one last time before I lay down. I've been doing it with Carter for a long time but have just now been able to with Elise since she's in a toddler bed and I can reach her. I love seeing how she's moved and tonight she's actually turned all the way around with her head where her feet originally were! I love that the kids are so hard asleep I can kiss them and then lean in close to smell their cheeks for a little bit without disturbing them. They are such angels when they are sleeping! After kissing the kids and brushing my teeth I lay down. Ty gives me a bedtime kiss and then I read for about 30 minutes before setting my Fitbit to sleep mode and closing my eyes.

Elise was asleep facing the opposite direction from when she first fell asleep.