Hellobee

It has been ages since I’ve done a Day in the Life post – over two years in fact! While life doesn’t exactly feel the same sort of hectic as it did in the newborn days and the stressors are certainly different than the one-year days, life remains busy with two 3-year-olds. I think it’s always interesting to see how other families manage their day-to-day and so I thought I’d do another Day in the Life. To level set here, I am a work-outside-the-home mom with a full-time traveling spouse and we have a wonderful full-time nanny.

5:30 AM: My alarm goes off. I press snooze until 6AM and get my body out of bed. I get myself ready for work while listening to the local news.

6:30 AM: I make myself breakfast and eat while checking national and financial news on my phone (I work in finance).

6:40 AM: I get the girls’ breakfast ready. Earlier this week, our nanny made the girls a big batch of overnight oats and so it’s pretty easy to scoop the oats into their bowls and pour them each a cup of milk. I also get my to-go coffee brewing.

6:45 AM: I head upstairs to the girls’ room to wake them up.

Audrey snoozing

Today is one of the three weekday mornings that the girls attend preschool and so we are on a tight schedule. I lift the girls out of their cribs and give them each a hug and kiss. I remind the girls that it’s a school morning and ask them what we do first; they respond with the Daniel Tiger morning routine song, “Clothes on, eat breakfast, brush teeth, put on shoes, and off to school” and are seemingly ready to get dressed. I had selected and laid out the girls’ school outfits the night before and so I grab them from the dresser and try to get them dressed. One girl says that she really misses her daddy and wants snuggles; the other girl is pretending to be a spaceship this morning and is “blasting off” in loud circles around me and the snuggling child on my lap. Getting them dressed this morning moves slowly as I also deal with a semi-meltdown because I put white socks instead of gray socks on one of the girls; apparently gray is the way this morning and I didn’t get the memo…

6:55 AM: We head to their bathroom for their morning potty break and one of them becomes upset that she doesn’t get to go potty in the basement. (????) Screaming continues while the other goes potty. Screaming ceases once child hears that her favorite overnight oats are waiting for her downstairs at the table and she goes potty super fast, “fast like a super girl!”, she says.

7 AM: The girls are eating their breakfast when our nanny arrives. She and I talk briefly about our September calendar because it is really busy with lots of things to keep track of. As the girls finish their breakfast, our nanny takes them upstairs to do their hair and help them brush their teeth. While she’s doing that, I clean up the breakfast mess and get the dishwasher started. I also slice up an apple for them to bring for morning preschool snack and drop it in their school bags.

7:20 AM: The girls come back downstairs for storytime with me. This is our special time together each day. They each pick out their own books and we cuddle together on the couch to read 2-4 books together. While I’m reading, our nanny is getting the girls’ shoes on (this is more complicated than it may seem because of Audrey’s orthotics and Lilly’s particular-ness about her shoes).

7:30 AM: We get off the couch and the girls race to the front door to leave for school. I give them a hug, a kiss, and a snuggle, and the nanny takes them and gets them buckled in her car and drives them to school. I leave out the back door and get in my car for my commute to work.

7:50 AM: The girls arrive at school. I arrive at work.

Morning: The girls’ morning at school consists of potty, play, circle time, play, potty, snack, art class, potty, recess, play, potty, and lunch. My morning at work is not that much different – just replace “circle time” with “organizational meeting”, cut the snack and at least one potty session, and swap out a play session for a mind-numbing spreadsheet evaluation session.

Lilly in the classroom

12 PM: The nanny picks up the girls from school. Meanwhile, I am eating lunch at my desk (salad and veggie chips) while also lining up a babysitter for this weekend so that Mr. Starfish and I can enjoy a date, settling on a menu and shopping plan for a small gathering that we’re hosting this weekend with new friends, and online shopping for a piece of art for our dining room (we recently moved and I’m still in the midst of decorating choices).

12:20 PM: The girls arrive home. They Face-timed with Mr. Starfish on the drive from school. Our nanny works to get them settled and to bring the energy level down (usually they read books by themselves or color) so that they will transition easily to a nap.

1 – 3 PM: The girls nap. While napping, our nanny unloads the dishwasher and checks the girls’ school bags for anything urgent for me to take care of tonight after work; she places it on our kitchen counter so I can’t miss it. She also takes care of a task tied to the girls’ weekly dance class that I asked her to do this morning via text message. She prepares a PB&J sandwich for their dinner because Wednesday dinners are hectic with the girls’ evening dance class, and I need to be able to grab-and-serve dinner very fast once we get home.

3 PM: The nanny wakes the girls, takes them potty, pulls their hair into buns for dance class, and they head downstairs for a snack. She feeds them a larger-than-normal snack so that they will have lots of energy for their dance class this evening. She dresses them in tights and leotards after snack.

4:10 PM: The nanny gets the girls in her car and buckled in and drives them to dance class. She gets them to their classroom and puts on their ballet slippers.

4:30 PM: Class begins.

5:05 PM: I leave the office and battle traffic to meet the girls for dance class pick-up.

5:25 PM: I arrive at the dance school and catch up with our nanny – she gives me a quick update on their day and their current moods. She leaves for the day and I awkwardly try to make conversation with the other moms; they know each other from last year’s dance class and we only joined recently so they are catching up while I’m trying to keep up.

5:30 PM: The dance teacher invites the moms in to watch a dance number and the girls see that I’m there. They are SO, SO excited to see me and it makes my heart really happy. They are super proud to show me their dance; it’s adorable and hilarious and also makes obvious that they are only on their second week of dance class this fall!

5:40 PM: After getting their shoes changed and exiting the dance building (which was delayed because one of the girls insisted on holding the handrail a very particular way down two flights of stairs), I buckle the girls in to my car. We drive home.

5:55 PM: We arrive home. The girls take off their shoes and wash their hands while I grab the PB&J sandwich and a banana for their dinner.

6 PM: While the girls are eating, I change them into their pajamas and release their hair from buns. I also measure out allergy medicine for both girls (allergies in Kentucky are so bad!) and get their toothbrushes ready.

6:15 PM: They’ve finished dinner. I am aware that two things must happen before the bedtime alarm goes off in 15 minutes: 1) brush teeth, and 2) big bathroom break. The girls are also aware that those two things must happen before bed (because I’ve told them at least 10 times in a span of 5 minutes), but they are much more interested in showing me the dance moves that they learned at dance class, recounting all the things that they ate today, pushing their doll strollers around, making 1-5 marks on a small piece of paper and then finding it so funny to crunch the paper up and throw it up in the air (this repeated for about 5 small pieces of paper each), and walking on their tip-toes. Somehow (I really don’t know how…), I managed to brush their teeth. The big bathroom trip didn’t happen and I know I’ll pay for that during bedtime.

6:30 PM: The bedtime alarm goes off. The girls are upset because they wanted to walk on their tip-toes and make marks on papers ALLLLL night. They put on their best display of cries and whines before they finally resign themselves to the fact that mom means business and they go to pick out one book each for bedtime routine.

6:35 PM: After they take their time walking to three different locations in the house where we keep their books, they end up exactly where they started and select one book each. I lift them in to cribs and begin reading.

6:36 PM: A big bathroom trip is almost immediately necessary, just as I predicted. I hoist one girl out of her crib and take her to the potty. While I stay with the girl going potty, I hear the other giggling hysterically to herself and I know that she is covering herself up with a blanket in the hopes of scaring us when we go back in the room.

6:41 PM: After potty, we return to the girls’ room and we are *terrified* by the girl who was hiding under the blanket. So unexpected!! The girls devolve into giggles. I pick up the book to continue reading.

6:42 PM: The other girl claims a need for a big bathroom trip. The entire event described above (right down to the blanket scare by the other girl) is repeated.

6:50 PM: We finish our three bedtime books, then transition into three bedtime songs, then I tell them about three things (I alternate these topics to try to cover things that are on the horizon for them or that they are not yet comfortable with – right now the topics are 1) their new preschool, 2) their new dance class, and 3) what to expect at the airport because we are going on a trip in a couple of weeks).

7:05 PM: I turn off the light and get each girl settled down. One girl’s crib contains about 25 stuffed animals and it takes some time to find a spot for her to lay down among them; she also insists that her blanket be laid down in a certain direction, that her unicorn stuffy and plastic zebra are on her right side, her lovey is in her arms, and her big stuffed bunny is on her far right side. The other girl settles down more easily with her blanket on top of her and her lovey in her arms.

7:06 PM: Both girls start to miss their dad. I instruct them to give me a REALLY tight hug and imagine that I’m their dad while doing so. In a goofy loud “dad” voice, I say “I love you” to each girl and kiss the tops of their heads and this seems to help. I then turn back into mom and give them each three hugs, kisses, and snuggles.

7:07 PM: I leave the room and I’m careful to say “Good night” and “I love you” and “I’ll see you in the morning” to each girl separately. Past experience has shown me that if I say those things in a broad sense to both of them at the same time, the whole bedtime routine will be devolve into hysterical screaming.

7:08 PM: I close their door and very quietly creep downstairs.

7:10 PM: I hop in the shower.

7:30 PM: Out of the shower, I try out a meditative voice recording sent to me by my sister (a psychologist) about self-compassion and I also try out an app that encourages mindfulness. I’m feeling extremely frazzled these days and I realize that I need to do better at managing my emotions and stressors. I let out some big tears throughout this and try to be kind to myself about how cranky I got with the girls during bedtime routine; I’d estimate that I only got about 15% of the way there…

7:50 PM: I call Mr. Starfish and we catch up on our days. I chat with him while I eat some grocery store sushi that our nanny picked up for me earlier in the day.

8:15 PM: I watch trashy TV while texting with friends.

9:15 PM: I brush my teeth and put all my lotions and potions on my skin for the night. I re-check that all is quiet in the girls room, ensure that all the doors of the house are locked, and tuck in to bed. I read a book for 30-45 minutes.

10 PM: Lights out. Asleep.