Hellobee

If you have read any of my earlier day in the life posts with Lil’ Tea Cup, you know that I am a Mama that thrives on a schedule ( you can find them here and here if you are interested). However, I knew that when I had Lil Tea Pot things would change and that having and sticking to a very strict schedule with two would not be easy. Thankfully we have been blessed with my easy going little guy, who loves a schedule as much as he loves going with the flow, so things have settled down in our home fairly easily (I am now knocking on wood!).

I still stick fairly closely to the schedules provided in the Moms on Call program, but have adapted here and there as needed. I highly recommend them if you are looking for sample plans for planning out your day. Also I must note, that the day that I used for this post was a day that both my children slept for their naps, which of course is not always the case. It was also a day where we did not have any outside classes/playdates/appointments which do switch things up. I do however try to schedule things around naps times, do errands at night once they are both in bed and usually host playdates at our house to keep things as routine as possible for Lol’ Tea Pot. Although teaching him to go with the flow is important to me, I also want to try to set a good foundation of sleep habits for him while he is still so young. I am very aware that being this structured is not possible for everyone or something that everyone would want for their family but for us it works extremely well.

So without further ado –  here is a day in our life!

6:30 am Baby Tea Pot (I will call him P after this ) starts to talk in his crib. He seems to be having a conversation with his hand and telling it that it isn’t in the right spot. This is a fairly regular conversation since he has started sleeping on his stomach. He gives up after a few minute and falls back to sleep on top of it. I do a quick check on Lil’ Tea Cup  I will call her C from now on) through the monitor and she is still fast asleep. I close my eyes and fall back asleep.

7:00 Alarm goes off and Mr. Tea gets up to put the bottle in the heater and goes to wake up P. He comes down and informs me that he once again leaked out of his diaper. So I take over cleaning the little guy up while my husband goes up to change sheets etc. P is really hungry and not loving getting changed and so after I get him cleaned up, I let him stay in the nude and take him for a little “walk about” to distract him until his bottle is warm. C is still asleep despite the racket.

7:10 Mr. Tea feeds P and I lay back down half awake and half having a conversation about the day to come.

7:30 I go upstairs to wake up C, stopping to do a quick teeth brush and face wash on the way. She is ready and waiting for me in her bed and had at least ten stuffed animals that “need” to come with her. I also grab her outfit from the hook in her room that I picked out the night before.

7:35 Everyone gets dressed.

7:40 Mr. Tea leaves for work and I continue to get ready and put on a little makeup while the little ones play on my bed. C goes and gets her trains and drives them up and down P’s legs which he thinks is amazing and it buys me a few minutes to brush my hair!

8:00 I put P into our Infantino Mei Tei Sash Carrier and help C into her flip flops and then we are off for a walk to the local  coffee shop.

8:10 We arrive, order and then sit with a couple of neighborhood friends we have made over the years. P is a little cranky this morning (probably from his 6:30 argument), so I stand and rock him a little in the carrier and he calms down. C tells everyone that two bunnies on our front yard were making baby bunnies…how does she even know that?

8:40 Walk back home

8:50 I get C settled with a maze, she is currently obsessed with these and  then I take P upstairs to his room to get him ready for his nap. A quick diaper change , a kiss on the head and his white noise on before going awake into the crib is his naptime routine. He often will cry/fuss for about 5 minutes before he finds a good spot, but today he falls asleep immediately.

9:00 I make breakfast for C and myself. She has finished her maze quickly and is now gluing buttons onto it. We eat and then play for a bit.

9:45 I hold my breath as I see P shifting around in his crib. If he is going to wake up during his nap it is always during twilight sleep (45 minutes or so into it ) but today he settled back in. I let C watch an episode of Dinosaur train while I clean up the breakfast dishes and pay next week’s bills which I do every Friday. She loses interest in the show quickly and wanders over to me at the computer and asks for a coloring page instead. I pass her one and she happily goes on her way. I then decide to start writing this post. After about ten minutes of typing,  I stop working and we play trains together.

11:00 I head upstairs to wake P up from his nap and get C settled in her room for quiet time. I then head down to feed him and I switch the monitor to her room so I can see what she is up to. She is happily looking at her book on her bed and listening to music. I try not to have the tv on around P but today Mama needed a mind break, so I watch some Netflix while I feed him.

11:30 My parents arrive for a visit and we head outside to sit on the patio. C runs around with my Dad and I hand P to my Mom while I get out the toys, cushions etc. Then I put P in his outside play pen to play (if you can pick up a second play pen for outside, best investment ever for a not yet mobile baby and you don’t have to do as much hauling about. I purchased mine for $5 from a consignment store).

12:20 ish  We head in for lunch. I usually make C lunch in the morning while I am making breakfast (she likes cut up veggies, fruits, bread and cheese, apple sauce etc. for lunch in the summer), so I grab it from the fridge and get her set up at the table. P has just started having a little cereal at lunch time, so I put him in his highchair and feed him. My parents leave at this point.

12:55 C gets out a puzzle to play with and I take P upstairs for his second nap. After a quick change and a kiss. I lay him into his crib and turn on his white noise. I then head back downstairs.

1:00 P is fussing/crying in his crib so I head back up to soothe him. If you are wondering, I get pretty much all the exercise I need from walking up and down my stairs all day ha ha! I lean into P’s crib and wiggle his belly and shush him. With my free hand, I turn up his white noise a little and adjust his fan as it is somewhat sticky in our house today. After about 2 minutes of this, I can feel him relax and hear him sigh as he drifts off. I carefully take my hand off his belly and then leave the room.

1:05ish Back downstairs I go and then back upstairs to take Lil’ Tea Cup up for her nap. A quick diaper change, tuck in and a kiss is all she needs to settle in.

Then there is this amazing time of day – the double nap. I give myself 15 minutes to pick up, put in laundry, start the Keurig etc. and then I sit down and take a breather. Some days P doesn’t make it past an hour of his second nap, so I make sure to take a break in the first hour just in case. Today he makes it the entire two hours and I watch some tv while I wash the floors.

3:00 I wake up P and he has his next bottle. He sits on my lap and plays with his burp cloth for a little while after he is done, and we play with his crinkle books which are his favorites at the moment.

3:30 I put P in his jumper and go up to get C. We head downstairs and it’s playtime for all! We are at a wonderful age with P where he loves to watch everything and the most exciting thing in the world to him is his big sister. I love watching him play and C interact with him.

4:50 Mr. Tea gets home and we take C out for a quick walk to look for caterpillars. P is getting cranky because he is hungry so I take him for a walk in our backyard to see the vegetables (read: distract).

5:00 Mr. Tea gives P his bottle and  I start making dinner. C is pretty hyper at this time of night and is practically climbing up my leg while I am cooking. I move all of her play food into the kitchen to keep her busy while I am cooking since tonight’s dinner is not something that she can help out with very much. When dinner is ready, we all sit down at the table to eat.

5:50 C is still pretty hyper, so we decide to go swimming at the local pool to get out some of her energy. We get everyone changed and packed up in the car and drive the 5 minutes to our neighborhood pool.

6:00 – 7:00 Swimming! I use our water sling to hold P and Mr. Tea is on toddler chase duty.

7:00  Back in the car headed for home. P is crabby at this point because he wants to eat and go to sleep and we are running a little late.

7:15 Bottle for P and story time for both little ones. No bath tonight because we are running late. C is very tried at this point and tucks in with her eyes closed on the glider with me while we are reading. She only opens them every once and while to ask a question about the story. “Why is Wilbur sad?” “What is Charlotte doing?” “Why don’t humans have eight legs?” (That last one was a tricky one!)

7:35 We finish story time and I carry C to her room. I tuck her in, sing her a song, turn on her music and give her a kiss goodnight. Her eyes are already closed before I leave the room. Mr. Tea changes P and then puts him in his sleep sack. He turns on the white noise and puts him in his crib. Tonight he also drifts off immediately.

7:40 I wash bottles and finish dishes while Mr. Tea throws in a load of cloth diapers.

8:00 We watch tv, check emails and relax. I get back to working on this post too!

11:00 Bed time for us!