Hellobee

Ever have one of those days that is so ridiculous that you just have to laugh, because if you don’t you might cry? I started writing this post expecting to document a typical day for the Lion family, but what I got instead was an almost comically horrible day. I almost stopped documenting part way through, since this is really NOT what a typical day in the life is like over here, but life is messy and I thought you might find comfort in experiencing our chaos with us. Enjoy. :) 

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Recently I wrote about the struggle I was having with making the decision to either remain a SAHM or take on some sort of work outside of the home. Shortly after it was published, I came across a part-time opportunity that seems like a great fit for our family. I am now doing a little bit (15ish hours per week) of freelance curriculum writing, which I can do from home. Since I am doing this without any formal childcare arrangement, I thought it would be interesting to write about how we are adjusting to this part-time WAH lifestyle.

Day in the life posts are one of my favorite kind to read, because I find it fascinating to see how other moms and dads make this whole parenting thing happen! For the purposes of this post (because let’s be real, toddlers and infants don’t know the day doesn’t start until morning) I will start this day at 12am.

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12:30am – Little Lion starts to fuss, then gets out of bed and runs to his door screaming. I stumble to his room, concerned because this is fairly unusual for him. I scoop him up and he snuggles into my shoulder saying, “Ow, huwts.” LL is currently working on his 2 year molars, so I figure that is probably what is wrong. He asks me to “lay bed 5 minutes” so I put him back in his bed and lay down next to him for a few minutes. I tell him I will stay one more minute, and then snuggle a bit more. Then I tell him it is time for me to go back to my bed, and I will see him when the light turns green (he has a toddler alarm clock that has a stoplight that lets him know when it is okay to get up). He goes back to sleep, and so do I.

3:08am – Baby Lion stirs and starts to grunt and roll around in her crib. We don’t use a monitor, but I can hear her through the wall (her room is next to ours). I get back up and go to her room to feed her, trying to catch her before she starts crying and wakes up her brother.

3:22am – Baby Lion is back in her bed asleep, and I go back to bed.

5:55am – Little Lion wakes up like clockwork. His alarm clock changes to green at 6:00, but he is at his door chatting away. We are still teaching him that he has to stay in bed until it changes, so Mr. Lion gets up and goes to his room to lay with him in his bed until the light turns green.

6:00-6:30am – Mr. Lion makes breakfast for LL and himself, and I catch a bit more sleep.

6:30am – Baby Lion is awake and cooing in her crib. Mr. Lion goes to get her and puts her in her bouncer to play in the kitchen.

6:34 – I am up and BL is still happy, so I make some coffee before I sit down to feed her.

6:30-7:30 – LL flits around the house, finding random things to play with and testing limits every chance he gets. He finds a bag of pom poms that I bought yesterday and wants to play with them, so I put them in a bowl for him. Before long he puts them in his dump truck and drives them around, then dumps them down the hallway. While I feed BL he bounces on the couch, bounces in the bouncer, runs up and down the hallway, and so forth. Mr. Lion is getting ready for work and has to lock the bedroom door because LL thinks bouncing on the bed is the greatest thing ever.

7:00 I feed BL. She eats for less than 10 minutes and is done. I change her diaper and get her dressed, then put her on her mat to play.

7:30 – Mr. Lion is ready for work and changes LL’s diaper and gets him dressed. I take LL to his room for his independent play time. He asks me to “play 5 minutes” so we do a puzzle and I get him started playing with his train. Then I tell him that I have to go do grown up stuff, and will be back in a little while to play some more (this is what I tell him every day before I leave). I leave him in his room playing with his train, and turn on the video monitor so I can watch him. BL is still happily cooing and batting at her toys so I sit down to start writing this post.

7:51 – Little Lion comes out of his room. He has been working on knobs for a couple weeks, but this is a first. Until today he didn’t know how to open his bedroom door. Oh no. I grab the portable gate and put it in his doorway, then we “play 5 minutes” more before I leave him again.

7:55 – I leave LL in his room, but he is mad because the gate is there. Simultaneously Baby Lion starts to fuss because she is ready for her first nap. I let him yell for a minute while I move BL to her swing, and by the time she is settled he has started playing in his room. This, unfortunately lasts only about 5 minutes though, and he is back at the door yelling again to come out. I let him come out of his room to play.

8:00 – While I am dealing with LL, BL is fussing and not falling to sleep. I am not sure if this is because I let her stay up a little too long or if it is because she is hungry from not eating enough earlier. I put her in her swaddle and in her bed, hoping a change of scenery will help, but this makes her upset, so I feed her again and then put her in her bed. She is awake when I put her down, but settles quickly…so I guess she was just hungry.

During this time Little Lion is fighting for my attention. He alternates between sitting on the rug looking at books, telling me he is “qwiet” and running as fast as he can with his dump truck in and out of BL’s bedroom. Feeding BL and simultaneously trying to deal with LL is definitely the most stressful part of my day.

8:20 – BL is asleep and I re-heat my cup of coffee (that is only half gone) and take LL outside to play in the back yard. When I try to help him put on his shoes he says “no like it” and runs away, so I decide that battle isn’t worth it today and let him play without them. He is having an especially difficult day, probably because he didn’t get a good night of sleep. He mows the grass with his toy mower for 5 minutes, and then cries to go back inside.

8:30 – As soon as we are back inside, LL is crying to go back outside, but when we go back outside he cries again. I give up and turn on Daniel Tiger for him to watch. I get him some Motrin in case this incredible grumpiness is molar related. He watches the show and intermittently continues to climb on the furniture.

8:40 – I sit down and drink my coffee, check some emails, and add some more to this post. I am already tired looking back at our morning.

8:50 – I start making my breakfast, and put away some dishes and start my morning chores while it cooks. I usually try to eat earlier, but since I slept in (ha slept in), I will have to eat and clean at the same time. I get out my to do list and start checking things off as I go.

9:00 – LL climbs up to the counter and steals some of my breakfast, but doesn’t like it and spits it back into my bowl. My life is glamorous. I give him back the spit out part and scarf down the rest before he can steal any more.

9:05 – I throw in a load of laundry, make our bed, and chug some more coffee. I never bother making LL’s bed, so it usually looks something like this. He likes it that way.

9:10 – I attempt to put away some laundry from yesterday, but LL wants to “go night night” in my bed and then BL starts crying. Maybe later. And yes, that is a crooked picture on my gallery wall. I didn’t even notice it wasn’t straight until I saw this picture. It’s still crooked.

9:13 – I move BL to the swing in hopes of continuing her nap a little longer. An hour is pretty short for her morning nap. I take a few minutes and get dressed and ready for the day. She plays and chats for 10 minutes, but then is over it.

9:25 – Since BL is awake, it’s time to go to the YMCA. I pack BL up in her car seat, then put LL’s shoes on and load them in the van. I come back inside and grab all of our stuff. I am thankful today that I pack our bags at night.

9:45 – We get to the Y and walk inside. LL wears his backpack and I lug the rest of our stuff…a bag for BL, and a bag with my work stuff, plus the baby.

9:55 – Everyone is settled in their rooms. BL will have her next feeding and a nap, and LL will get to play in the gym or on the playground, will have a snack, sing some songs, and have lots of free play time.

10:00 – I set up my computer at a cafe table and pull out my work stuff. I have about 2 hours to get some things done before I have to pick up the kids from the nursery. I try to take advantage of this time 2-3 times per week so that I can use the other 2-3 days for play dates at the playground or classes at the gym instead.

10:30 – I discover that I lost internet connection 10 minutes ago, along with all work that I had done during that time since I am writing on web based platform. I spend the next 30 minutes moving around the building trying to find a location where the WiFi works, with no success. Apparently work isn’t happening today. I text Mr. Lion and tell him it may be time to find other childcare arrangements for at least one morning a week until LL starts part time preschool in the fall. He asks if we want to meet for lunch. Yes please.

11:15 – I pick up the kiddos early from the nursery. LL refuses to leave, so some creative bargaining ensues. BL has leaked through her diaper and has a new outfit on, ate only half of her bottle, and hasn’t slept. But she is happy, thank goodness.

11:30 – We arrive at Chick-fil-a before Mr. Lion and play for a bit before he arrives. The next half hour is a blur of flailing toddler arms and legs fighting to not be restrained in a high chair, pleas for “mow dip, no chicken, mow fries, go away, all done pweeze,” and so forth. I eat my food as fast as humanly possible and Mr. Lion helps me get the kids back to the car. He jokes with a friend (who joins us for lunch often) to “run, before she makes us stay.” Ha. Ha. Ha.

12:05 – LL is asleep after less than a minute in the car.

12:15 – We get home. I transfer LL to his bed (thankfully he is easy to transfer), lug all of our stuff back into the house, and bring BL inside.

12:30 – BL is awake, and fusses when I get her out of her car seat, so I go ahead and feed her her 1 pm feeding. She takes the rest of her bottle from earlier and then falls asleep while nursing. She wakes up briefly when I put her in the swing, but quickly drifts back off.

12:50 – I take a deep breath, turn on Scandal on Netflix, and get my computer back out. I should probably do some work, but my brain isn’t functioning any more. I work on this post for a little bit, then I collapse on the couch.

1:30 – BL is awake. What is happening today with her naps? I guess I will settle for some snuggles with my Scandal. She is acting like she is still hungry, so I feed her again.

1:32 – LL starts crying in his bed. I have a mini panic attack thinking he may be awake, but he rolls around for a few minutes and goes back to sleep.

1:40 – Realizing that I may not have as long as I had hoped for nap time, I put BL back in the swing after she is finished eating, in hopes I can at least finish putting away the laundry and straighten up the house a bit. I contemplate calling the pediatrician and trying to get LL in for an appointment in case he has an ear infection, but I decide to wait it out a little bit longer.

2:15 – LL is still asleep and BL is happy in her swing, so I take the opportunity to jump in the shower. I am out just in time to hear her starting to fuss, so I bring her to my room while I get dressed.

2:30 – I sit down on the floor for some tummy time with BL. She is getting so strong!

2:45 – BL is over tummy time, so I move her to her bouncer and sit down to check email, browse facebook and the Hellobee boards.

3:00 – LL stirs again, but then goes back to sleep. I move BL to her swing, and she falls asleep after a few minutes.

3:10 – I set up some new tray activities for LL. Our trays haven’t been changed in a while, and I realized that some of his random flitting around the house is probably boredom. Hopefully these will keep his attention. Now that things have settled down I would like to change out his activities about once a week.

3:50 – BL is awake and ready for her next feeding, so I open LL’s door so he can come out without needing me to get him (he has been asleep for almost 4 hours!) and settle in to feed her.

4:10 – BL is done eating, and LL is awake. We have a snack, change some diapers, and I do some dinner prep.

4:30 – We are finished with our snack and LL helps me start another load of laundry and clean up some toys in his room that we didn’t clean up earlier. Then I turn on a show for him to watch while I cook dinner. BL babbles and coos and plays in her swing.

5:00 – Mr. Lion gets home and we eat a quick dinner. I wasn’t really thinking when I let LL eat a snack after his nap, and I was a little afraid he wouldn’t eat any dinner, but thankfully he scarfed down his tacos anyway.

5:15 – I pack up my computer and head to the library to work for a few hours. Thankfully they have a solid internet connection! On the nights I work Mr. Lion handles dinner clean up, play time, and bedtime solo. He is my hero. Both kids go to bed around the same time, so doing it alone isn’t easy!

8:15 – I get home. LL is in bed asleep and BL is in the sink getting a bath. She took a late nap and Mr. Lion let her sleep since she didn’t nap much today. He finishes her bath and then I feed her and put her to bed. Part of me hopes maybe a later bedtime will mean she will sleep through the night, but we gave tried many times before and that had never been the case.

9:00 – Mr. Lion and I hang out for a bit. I pump, and then we head to bed around 10. This is late for me, but I need the time to wind down after a crazy busy day.

10:00 – Bedtime! Occasionally I have trouble falling asleep on nights I have been working, but not tonight. I am exhausted!